“My great forte in killing buffaloes was to get them circling by riding my horse at the head of the herd and shooting their leaders. Thus the brutes behind were crowded to the left, so that they were soon going round and round.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“It was because of my great interest in the West, and my belief that its development would be assisted by the interest I could awaken in others, that I decided to bring the West to the East through the medium of the Wild West Show.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“My brother was a great favorite with everybody, and his death cast a gloom upon the whole neighborhood.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“Having secured my Indian actors, I started for Baltimore, where I organized my combination, and which was the largest troupe I had yet had on the road.”
“Nothing of course was ever done to Bill for the killing of Tutt.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“The Indians were well mounted and felt proud and elated because they had been made United States soldiers.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“The Indians said the bones were those of a race of people ... three times the size of a man.”
“We had avoided discovery by the Sioux scouts, and we were confident of giving them a complete surprise.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“Springfield has always had a place in my heart.”
“Stations were built at intervals averaging fifteen miles apart. A rider's route covered three stations, with an exchange of horses at each, so that he was expected at the beginning to cover close to forty-five miles - a good ride when one must average fifteen miles an hour.”
Source: An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill
“Wild Bill was a strange character. In person he was about six feet and one inch in height. He was a Plains-man in every sense of the word.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“Wild Bill was anything but a quarrelsome man yet I have personal knowledge of at least half a dozen men whom he had at various times killed.”
Source: Buffalo Bill (Hon. Wm. F. Cody) and His Wild West Companions: Including Wild Bill, Texas Jack, California Joe, Capt. Jack Crawford and Other Famous Scouts of the Western Plains
“You who live your lives in cities or among peaceful ways cannot always tell whether your friends are the kind who would go through fire for you. But on the Plains one's friends have an opportunity to prove their mettle.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“On reaching the place where the Indians had surprised us, we found the bodies of the three men whom they had killed and scalped, and literally cut into pieces.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“Quick as lightning Wild Bill pulled his revolver. The stranger fell dead, shot through the brain.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“We got more provisions for our whiskey than the same money, which we paid for the liquor, would have bought; so after all it proved a very profitable investment.”
Source: The Great Salt Lake Trail
“Don't ever say you are sorry for "being caught in the moment". Because, at that moment, that is EXACTLY where you wanted to be.”
“Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government.”
Source: Buffalo Bill Museum
“But the love of adventure was in father's blood.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“Some days I would go without any fire at all, and eat raw frozen meat and melt snow in my mouth for water.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“I could never resist the call of the trail.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“As a good horse is not very apt to jump over a bank, if left to guide himself, I let mine pick his own way.”
Source: Life and Adventures of
“My restless, roaming spirit would not allow me to remain at home very long.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“My debut upon the world's stage occurred on February 26th, 1845.”
“My first plan of escape having failed, I now determined upon another.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“Washington newspaper men know everything.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“But the West of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“Frontiersmen good and bad, gunmen as well as inspired prophets of the future, have been my camp companions. Thus, I know the country of which I am about to write as few men now living have known it.”
Source: An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill
“The greatest of all the Sioux in my time, or in any time for that matter, was that wonderful old fighting man, Sitting Bull, whose life will some day be written by a historian who can really give him his due.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“After crossing the Smoky Hill River, I felt comparatively safe as this was the last stream I had to cross.”
Source: The life of Buffalo Bill
“Excitement was plentiful during my two years' service as a Pony Express rider.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“General Custer was a close observer and student of personal character.”
“I began to think that my time had come, as the saying is.”
“I felt only as a man can feel who is roaming over the prairies of the far West, well armed, and mounted on a fleet and gallant steed.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“I found Spotted Tail's lodge. He invited me to enter.”
“I had many enemies among the Sioux; I would be running considerable risk in meeting them.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide: An Autobiography
“I had the best buffalo horse that ever made a track.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“I was persuaded now that I was destined to lead a life on the Plains.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“Indians were frequently off their reservations.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“It was my effort, in depicting the West, to depict it as it was.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography
“Major North and myself went out in advance of the command several miles and killed a number of buffaloes.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“Major North has had for years complete power over these Indians and can do more with them than any man living.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“My wife was delighted with the home I had given her amid the prairies of the far west.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“The cholera had broken out at the post, and five or six men were dying daily.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“If Wild Bill could have made his successful dash into our lines earlier in the day, the attuck would have been made sooner, and greater results might have been expected. The Confederates had suspected him of being a spy for two or three days, and had watched him too closely to allow an opportunity to get away from them sooner.”
“The Free State men, myself among them, took it for granted that Missouri was a slave state.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“The Indians kept increasing in numbers until it was estimated that we were fighting from 800 to 1,000 of them.”
“The McCarthy boys, at the proper moment, gave orders to fire upon the advancing enemy.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“I thought I was benefiting the Indians as well as the government, by taking them all over the United States, and giving them a correct idea of the customs, life, etc., of the pale faces, so that when they returned to their people they could make known all they had seen.”
Source: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, the Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide: An Autobiography
“The first presentation of my show was given in May, 1883, at Omaha, which I had then chosen as my home. From there we made our first summer tour, visiting practically every important city in the country.”
Source: Buffalo Bill's Life Story: An Autobiography