WIST Quotations

L'Amour, Louis -- (Attribute)

Dave — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:38:30 +0000

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
(Attribute)

Widely and credibly attributed to L'Amour, but I was unable to find any citations to the source.

L'Amour, Louis -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The one law that does not change is that everything changes, and the hardship I was bearing today was only a breath away from the pleasures I would have tomorrow, and those pleasures would be all the richer because of the memories of this I was enduring.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
(Attributed)

L'Amour, Louis -- Bendigo Shafter

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one’s life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
Bendigo Shafter

L'Amour, Louis -- Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir, ch. 11 (1989)

Dave — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 18:41:58 +0000

What had men thought? What had men believed? How did they come by those thoughts and beliefs? How had men learned to govern themselves? Were the processes the same everywhere?

Did man build cities because of an inner drive, like that of a beaver to build dams? How much of what we do is free will, and how much is programmed in our genes? Why is each people so narrow that it believes that it, and it alone, has all the answers? In religion, is there but one road to salvation? Or are there many, all equally good, all going in the same general direction?

I have read my books by many lights, hoarding their beauty, their wit or wisdom against the dark days when I would have no book, nor a place to read.

I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and to learn.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir, ch. 11 (1989)
(Source)

L'Amour, Louis -- Jubal Sackett (1985)

Dave — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:22:57 +0000

It is said that there were some respected men among my ancestors, too, but my father paid little attention to that. He judged each man by himself and not by his ancestors.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
Jubal Sackett (1985)

L'Amour, Louis -- Last of the Breed

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There are good men everywhere. I only wish they had louder voices.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
Last of the Breed

L'Amour, Louis -- Lonely on the Mountain, ch. 1, opening paragraph (1980)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
Lonely on the Mountain, ch. 1, opening paragraph (1980)
(Source)

L'Amour, Louis -- The Sackett Companion (1988)

Dave — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 15:31:10 +0000

The book has been man’s greatest triumph. Seated in my library, I live in a Time Machine. In an instant I can be transmitted to any era, any part of the world, even to outer space. I have lived in every period of history. I have listened to Buddha speak, marched with Alexander, sailed with the Vikings, ridden in canoes with the Polynesians. I have been at the courts of Queen Elizabeth and Louis XIV; I have been a friend to Captain Nemo and have sailed with Captain Bligh on the Bounty. I have walked in the agora with Socrates and Plato, and listened to Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount.

Best of all, I can do it all again, at any moment. The books are there. I have only to reach up to the shelves and take them down to relive the moments I have loved.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
The Sackett Companion (1988)
(Source)

L'Amour, Louis -- The Walking Drum

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame their parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, ‘This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.’ The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
The Walking Drum