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Norman Maclean

Norman Maclean Books

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“Life every now and then becomes literature [...] long enough to be what we best remember, and often enough so that what we eventually come to mean by life are those moments when life, instead of going sideways, backwards, forward, or nowhere at all, lines out straight, tense and inevitable, with a complication, climax, and, given some luck, a purgation, as if life had been made and not happened.”

InspirationalLife PhilosophyPositive Attitude
Book:A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
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“But first of all he is a woodsman, and you aren't a woodsman unless you have such a feeling for topography that you can look at the earth and see what it would look like without any woods or covering on it. It's something like the gift all men wish for when they or young-- or old-- of being able to look through a woman's clothes and see her body, possibly even a little of her character.”

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Book:Young Men and Fire
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“Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.”

ThinkingSoulBigsLightCoursesSoundWaterMemoriesExistenceHalfFourSeaSummerRiversWesternFishesBoatRhythmMy SoulEveningLakesFishingLengthFadesFishermanMontanaArcticCanyonsFly FishingSummer DaysRivers And Water
Book:A River Runs Through It
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“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”

WellsDoeArtMatterCertainUniverseFatherEasyGraceEternalSalvationGood ThingsFishingTroutFly FishingAnglingAnglersTrout Fishing
Book:A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
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“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”

WorldRunningTimeWaterCuttingRocksRainAll ThingsRiversEnvironmentalFishingFloodTimelessBasementsRainy DayTroutFly FishingWaterfallsRaindropsDrop Of WaterRivers And WaterGreat FishingRunning WaterTrout FishingWater Is LifeRaftingWater FountainWhite Water
Author:Norman Maclean
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“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”

FirstsFatherLeftChristLinesClassClearSeaTaughtBrotherRiversAssumingWesternMinistersOur FamilyMy BrotherDryFishingTiedDiscipleOur FatherFishermanFirst ClassMontanaTroutFly FishingPresbyteriansTrout FishingJunction
Book:A River Runs Through It
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“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”

IfsKnowsLoveInspirationalNeedsGivingShouldLooksStillsGodHelpingTodayWantedAsksUnderstandingLordOur LivesWillingNeededCaringHelping OthersLive LifeWhat IfOne TimeInspirational LoveLoved OnesClosestCaring For OthersCompletenessEludeElude Us
Author:Norman Maclean
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“It is very important to a lot of people to make unmistakably clear to themselves and to the universe that they love the universe but are not intimidated by it and will not be shaken by it, no matter what it has in store. Moreover, they demand something from themselves early in life that can be taken ever after as a demonstration of this abiding feeling.”

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Book:Young Men and Fire
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“As I get considerably beyond the biblical allotment of three score years and ten, I feel with increasing intensity that I can express my gratitude for still being around on the oxygen-side of the earth's crust only by not standing pat on what I have hitherto known and loved. While oxygen lasts, there are still new things to love, especially if compassion is a form of love.”

IfsFeelsYearsStillsI CanEarthLastsFormThreeSidesCompassionKnownGratitudeTenStandingScoreIntensityNew ThingsBiblicalOxygenForms Of LoveAllotments
Book:Young Men and Fire: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
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“I had as yet no notion that life every now and then becomes literature—not for long, of course, but long enough to be what we best remember, and often enough so that what we eventually come to mean by life are those moments when life, instead of going sideways, backwards, forward, or nowhere at all, lines out straight, tense and inevitable, with a complication, climax, and, given some luck, a purgation, as if life had been made and not happened.”

IfsMeanLongMadeEnoughMomentsRememberCoursesLiteratureGivenLinesHappenedLuckNotionInevitableNow And ThenBackwardsTenseComplicationSidewaysClimax
Book:A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
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“As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only by picking up God's rhythms were we able to regain power and beauty. Unlike many Presbyterians, he often used the word "beautiful.”

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Book:A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
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“I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched. On the river the heat mirages danced with each other and then they danced through each other and then they joined hands and danced around each other. Eventually the water joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.”

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Book:A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
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