Quotessence
Home / Topics / Old West Quotes

Old West Quotes

Browse 33 quotes about Old West.

Related topics

CowboyCowboy Wisdom

Old West Quotes

“Spanish is the lovin’ tongue, Soft as music, light as spray. ’Twas a girl I learnt it from, Livin’ down Sonora way. I don’t look much like a lover, Yet I say her love words over, Often when I’m all alone— “Mi amor, mi corazon.” Nights when she knew where I’d ride, She would listen for my spurs, Throw the big door open wide, Raise them laughin’ eyes of hers. And my heart would nigh stop beatin' When I heard her tender greeting, Whispered soft for me alone— “Mi amor! mi corazon!” Moonlight in the patio, Old señora noddin’ near, Me and Juana talkin’ low So the Madre couldn’t hear— How those hours would go a-flyin’! And too soon I’d hear her sighin’ In her little sorry tone— “Adios, mi corazon!” But one time I had to fly For a foolish gamblin’ fight, And we said a swift goodbye In that black, unlucky night. When I’d loosed her arms from clingin’ With her words the hoofs kep’ ringin’ As I galloped north alone— “Adios, mi corazon!” Never seen her since that night. I kaint cross the Line, you know. She was Mex and I was white; Like as not, it’s better so. Yet I’ve always sort of missed her Since that last, wild night I kissed her, Left her heart and lost my own— “Adios, mi corazon!”

HeartbreakLongingMexicoLost LoveCowboyPartingMissing SomeoneSpanishOld WestDoomed Romance
Book:Sun and Saddle Leather
Create image

“The silence just allowed the echoes of the question to play out in Nox’s mind, reminding him of his own unwinnable war against the never-ending tide of conmen and criminals. He was trying to clean up these parts, but every time he rubbed away a stain, he found another layer of dirt beneath. So, you could give up—or you could keep on scrubbing.”

JusticeSilenceScience FictionWesternCriminalsOld WestCoilhunterBounty HunterWeird Western
Book:Coilhunter
Create image

“He had seen the end of an era, the sunset of the pioneer. He had come upon it when already its glory was nearly spent. So in the buffalo times a traveller used to come upon the embers of a hunter's fire on the prairie, after the hunter was up and gone; the coals would be trampled out, but the ground was warm, and the flattened grass where he had slept and where his pony had grazed, told the story. This was the very end of the road-making West; the men who had put plains and mountains under the iron harness were old; some were poor, and even the successful ones were hunting for a rest and a brief reprieve from death. It was already gone, that age; nothing could ever bring it back. The taste and smell and song of it, the visions those men had seen in the air and followed, - these he had caught in a kind of afterglow in their own faces, - and this would always be his.”

DeathNostalgiaTravellerRoadVisionsBuffaloHunterWild WestOld WestPioneer
Book:A Lost Lady
Create image

“What I inherited from my father is the need to drink. But not regular alcohol of course. I developed a taste for a very special wine called hatred." Jarley takes his glass of wine as he explains. "It's a bitter wine. So bitter in fact, that the uninitiated will spit it out or feel physically ill from drinking it. But some who partake in it will find little nuances to the flavor. The tangy aftertaste of indulging in violent fantasies against the object of your hatred." He shakes the glass as he speaks. "The warm buzzed feeling from acts of spite and violence towards what you hate." He savors the smell of the wine. "It keeps getting more noticeable the more you drink. You keep going and going, drinking and drinking, you pick apart all the layers of taste until you finally find it." He takes a sip. "There's a hint of sweetness in the wine. You've found a sort of warm joy and comfort in the compulsion to detest the object of your hatred. Once that happens, there's no going back. You'll be hooked on the drink for life.”

PhilosophyDramaticVillainOld WestBackstoryMonologue
Book:Reaper's Dice
Create image

“She looked at her right hand, where the index finger was cut to a stump. Some said she lost it in an accident, when she was playing soldier with a live grenade. Others said she was taught a lesson by the law, and they took her trigger finger to make her keep on learning. Those were the lessons the Coilhunter liked. Why, he was quite the teacher himself.”

QuotesScience FictionWesternVengeanceBadassOutlawGunslingerOld WestCoilhunterWeird Western
Book:Coilhunter
Create image

“We put him to the test that afternoon after the Kid woke up. I piled every weapon we had into the wagon and trucked the arsenal halfway across the San Simon Valley. One by one I fired off a round from each of the borrowed weapons and wrote down the order in which I had sent the reports. When I returned at midafternoon, we compared my notes to the Kid’s. Jack had not once failed to identify gun make and model, caliber, and brand of ammunition. He was even able to tell whether I had fired off a report with my right or left hand. Lord knows how he did that. I, of course, had to see it for myself. We sent Pate off to the South Pass of the Dragoons and he commenced to fire off rounds at dusk. BAM! came the first report, aborning to us from the distant mountains and then quickly disintegrating into the maw of the desert sky. “Remington forty-four,” Jack said. “Eighteen sixty-nine model.” He sat on a rock with his hands splayed over his stumpy knees and his head cocked for the next selection. POW! Jack pursed his lips. “Colt’s Lightning . . . forty-one caliber . . . iv’ry grips.” BOOM! At this report Jack chuckled. “Well, first off . . . forty-five caliber Peacemaker, seven-and-a-half-inch barrel,” he announced proudly. Then he smiled. “That ol’ dodger Pate . . . he’s a slick one, tryin’ to pull one on me.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “Along with the Colt he let go with a derringer, thirty-two caliber. Sounded like it ain’t been cleaned in a while.” I sat down next to Jack and draped my arm over his rounded shoulders. “Jack, I believe you’ve given credence to the saying that every man on this earth serves a role.” Jack gave me a look. “ ‘Serves a roll?’ Are we in the restaurant business again?”

CowboysComedy HumorJust For FunOld WestTravestiesMark Warren
Book:The Westering Trail Travesties, Five Little Known Tales of the Old West That Probably Ought to A' Stayed That Way
Create image

“The playing field of life is not level, and for you to compete in the game of life, you need an equalizer of some kind. In the old West, the equalizer was the six-shooter. It enabled a little guy to chop a bigger man down to size. Desire is also an equalizer--and nowadays is highly encouraged over a six-shooter!”

MenNeedsKindLittlesLife IsDesireGuyGamesLevelsFieldsSixBiggerWestSizePlaying FieldsShooterEqualizerOld West
Book:Born to Win: Find Your Success Code
Create image

“If education really educates, there will, in time, be more and more citizens who understand that relics of the old West add meaning and value to the new. Youth yet unborn will pole up the Missouri with Lewis and Clark, or climb the Sierras with James Capen Adams, and each generation in turn will ask: Where is the big white bear? It will be a sorry answer to say he went under while conservationists weren't looking.”

IfsBigsValuesTurnsAsksWhiteAnswersGenerationsYouthBearsCitizensAddWestSorryClimbsEducateUnbornRelicsSierraMissouriOld WestLewis And Clark
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
Create image

“The costume the actors wear and if they're in stylized makeup and wigs in a live-action movie let's say, in a big costume drama, even though it does give them a sense of great ambience and environment and they kind of feel like they're in a great court, or if they feel like they're in the old west, or if they feel like they're being chased by hobbits or dinosaurs, it all comes down to the actors looking each other in the eye.”

IfsGivingFeelsKindDoeBigsEyeActionActorsEnvironmentDramaCourtWestMakeupCostumesDinosaursAction MovieWigsOld WestAmbience
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“Don't ever for a minute make the mistake of looking down your nose at westerns. They're art - the good ones, I mean. They deal in life and sudden death and primitive struggle, and with the basic emotions - love, hate, and anger - thrown in. We'll have westerns films as long as the cameras keep turning. The fascination that the Old West has will never die. And as long as people want to pay money to see me act, I'll keep on making westerns until the day I die.”

PeopleWantMeanLongArtFilmHateDiesDealsPayEmotionMistakeStruggleMinutesCamerasWestNosesThrownPrimitiveFascinationLove HateLooking DownSudden DeathOld West
Author:John Wayne
Create image

“I actually thought that the idea of doing a World War II movie in the guise of a spaghetti western would just be an interesting way to tackle it. Just even the way that the spaghetti westerns tackled the history of the Old West, I thought it could be a neat thing to do that with World War II, but just as opposed to using cowboy iconography, using World War II iconography as kind of the jumping-off point.”

WorldWayKindIdeasWarInterestingWestWesternThings To DoWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiWorld War ICowboyJumpingNeatGuiseSpaghettiInteresting WaysJumping OffIconographyOld WestSpaghetti Western
Author:Quentin Tarantino
Create image

“I grew up in those years when the Old West was passing and the New West was emerging. It was a time when we still heard echoes and already saw shadows, on moonlit nights when the coyotes yapped on the hilltops, and on hot summer afternoons when mirages shimmered, dust devils spun across the flats, and towering cumulus clouds sailed like galleons across the vast blueness of the sky. Echoes of remembrance of what men once did there, and visions of what they would do together.”

MenYearsStillsTogetherNightVisionSawsHeardSkyGrewSummerGrew UpDevilShadowHotWestCloudsPassingPassingsDustFlatsAfternoonEchoesRemembranceEmergingSpunMiragesCoyotesOld WestHot Summer
Author:Hal Borland
Create image

“California belongs to Joan Didion. Not the California where everyone wears aviator sunglasses, owns a Jacuzzi and buys his clothes on Rodeo Drive. But California in the sense of the West. The old West where Manifest Destiny was an almost palpable notion that was somehow tied to the land and the climate and one's own family-an unspoken belief that was passed down to children in stories and sayings.”

ChildrenStoriesBeliefDestinyLandClothesWestClimateNotionCaliforniaManifestTiedUnspokenSunglassesAviatorRodeoManifest DestinyOld WestJacuzziRodeo Drive
Author:Michiko Kakutani
Create image