A Rare and Dangerous Beast Quotes

“It is better to do what you can, than to try to do what you can’t.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Only justice, evenly applied and administered by disinterested officials (if any can be found) can protect the individual from the vultures winging through the corridors of power.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“It is not man who is bad, greedy, or evil — or at least his capacity for such things is extremely limited — it is men, or rather mobs and those who incite and direct them who are the problem.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“There may be nothing in the world so dangerous as a wealthy woman with good intentions.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Democracy must be based on equality, and that the rule of law must be applied equally to all.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Nothing lasts forever, but nothing ever ends either. Everything just becomes something else. Our bodies are born to die, but our spirit cannot be destroyed by any act of man.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“No one who wants power should be allowed to have it, but time and again, I’ve seen sensible people drawn to evil, corrupt, or at best, well-meaning incompetents too in love with themselves to truly serve the people. Good leaders are hard to find and harder to keep. There’s always someone worse willing to tell the people what they want to hear.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“The painting that took up all of my thoughts is called American Progress, by John Gast, and represents the idea of Manifest Destiny. I spend a lot of time thinking about that idea, and can only say that if this country’s Destiny is Manifest, then it is a festering sort of Destiny, and no God worthy of the name would ever ordain such a manifestly corrupt and evil scheme.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Worry cannot change the future. It just makes the present miserable.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“The farther away a man is, the less clearly he sees.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“A war is a terrible thing — even more terrible is having a hand, however inadvertently, in starting one.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Of all man’s follies, war is the most stupid, and the most evil. Of the legion of stupid misconceptions about war, perhaps the worst is that it is glorious. It isn’t. It is only pain and terror and hunger and disease and tears. And money of course. There is always profit in the suffering of others.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“True happiness is in direct proportion to gratitude. To be truly happy, we must be grateful for what we have, rather than endlessly scrabbling for what we do not.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“A boy needs to learn that doing what is good, what is right, is not always easy.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Is there any endeavor more self-destructive, foolish, or futile than the pursuit of vengeance? I think not. The Lord has claimed vengeance as his prerogative, and we mortals would be well-advised to leave it to him. But it’s hard — so hard.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“I reckon mercy don’t ever go unrewarded – just maybe not in the way you expect.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“No one gets through life without scars. It is how you carry them that matters.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Faith can be a hard thing to hold onto in the face of adversity, no matter what it is you have faith in — a God, an organization, a friend, your fellow man, or just the existence of good.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“In my experience, all too often, the peacemakers pay the price for all of us. Look at Jesus. Or Black Kettle. The world would be a whole lot better off if we’d listen to men like them rather than kill them because they’re inconvenient.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“Nothing is a greater blessing than a true friend, but even the best of friends can find themselves at odds, divided — often against their wills — by forces they cannot resist.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“It strikes me now that most names given us by others, including our parents, are generally a matter of affection, or at worst, convenience, and if harmful, that harm is personal and usually superficial. It is the name a man gives himself that causes genuine harm to others. A self-named man wears a mask to hide his past and his true self from others and, while his assumed name may protect him, it all too often places those around him in unexpected danger. Always beware a man who changes his own name, no matter what position he may hold. He is not to be trusted.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“It occurs to me that names are a strange thing. They are a necessity that most strongly identifies us, and yet we have virtually no say in their choosing. Our parents name us according to whim or obligation. Others give us nicknames based on what they see in us, or what they want others to see us as. They are meant, by those who choose them for us, to represent us in our entirety but fall far short.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast

“I hope you find it in that new land, but I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you that true freedom is beyond value, but like all such things, a rare and dangerous beast — hard to catch and harder to keep.”
― Lloyd Mullins, A Rare and Dangerous Beast