Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)

by Larry McMurtry

All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed, we live, and what they lived, we dream. —T. K. Whipple, Study Out the Land

It was an odd thing, but true, that the death of an enemy could affect you as much almost as much as the death of a friend.

“Because the grave’s our destination,” Mr. Sedgwick said. “Those who hurry usually get to it quicker than those who take their time.

“I wish you’d stop talking about that boy’s death,” Call said. “If you would maybe they’d get over it.” “Wrong theory,” Augustus said. “Talk’s the way to kill it. Anything gets boring if you talk about it enough, even death.”

“It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living,” Augustus said. “I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.”

“Don’t be trying to give back pain for pain,” he said. “You can’t get even measures in business like this.

“If you can’t squirt your squirt in twenty minutes, you need a doctor, not a whore,” she said.

I'm dead lol

“If you only come face-to-face with your own mistakes once or twice in your life it’s bound to be extra painful. I face mine every day—that way they ain’t usually much worse than a dry shave.”

“She may know what I am, though,” Lorena said. “Yes, she’ll know you’re a human being,” Augustus said.

Some folks will preach that it’s a woman’s duty never to quit, once you make a bond with a man. I say that’s folly. A bond has to work two ways. If a man don’t hold up his end, there comes a time to quit.”

Jim Bridger.

’Course the Indians have had this land forever. To them it’s precious because it’s old. To us it’s exciting because it’s new.”

And I’ll tell you another thing: I’m sorry you and Gus McCrae ever met. All you two done was ruin one another, not to mention those close to you. Another reason I didn’t marry him was because I didn’t want to fight you for him every day of my life. You men and your promises: they’re just excuses to do what you plan to do anyway, which is leave. You think you’ve always done right—that’s your ugly pride, Mr. Call. But you never did right and it would be a sad woman that needed anything from you. You’re a vain coward, for all your fighting. I despised you then, for what you were, and I despise you now, for what you’re doing.”