Quotes and Words of the Old West

Words of the West

A covered wagon in the days of the Old West .

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"Language is the archives of history."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series, 1844

“Starting out ahead of the team and my men folks, when I thought I had gone beyond hearing distance, I would throw myself down on the unfriendly desert and give way like a child to sobs and tears, wishing myself back home with my friends.” - A young woman on the trail West in 1860.

“I see a good many enemies around, and mighty few friends.” – Bill Longley’s last words before he was hanged in 1878.

“Of all the eerie, dreary experiences, to be lost at night on the prairie ... then to hear the chorus of coyotes, like hyenas, laughing at one’ predicament.” – An emigrant recalling her fear when she and her fellow travelers temporarily lost their bearings while crossing the Great Plains.

"There are many men in the world who are big chiefs and command many people, but you, I think, are the greatest of them all. I want you to be a father to me and treat me as your son... I am now in your hands." -- Geronimo as he surrendered to General George Crook in 1883.

“Most of those he did kill deserved what they got.” -- A Lincoln County, New Mexico resident talking of Billy the Kid.

“Are you from California or Heaven?” -- A survivor of the Donner party when rescuers appeared.

"I want results when I fight." - Frank James

Geronimo was one of the fiercest Apache Chiefs that ever lived.

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"I thought John was the nicest kindest gentleman that I had ever met, why even my parents thought he was polite and well mannered." -- Beryl Ethel Hovious said of John Dillinger during a 1889 interview.

"You damn dirty cow thief, if you’re anxious to fight, I’ll meet you!" -- Wyatt Earp to Ike Clanton before the fight at the O.K. Corral.

“My mother always said that I would die with my shoes on.” – “Big Steve” Long’s last words after having asked to have his shoes removed before he was hanged.

"I didn't want to send him to hell on an empty stomach.” -- Clay Allison after shooting "Chunk Colbert" at dinner.

“All I hope for is to get home, alive, as soon as possible, so that I can forget it.” -- A disenchanted Forty-niner from the California Gold Rush

''I knew them both well and, in my opinion, Garrett was just as cold and hard a character as the Kid.'' - Paulita Maxwell, referring to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Wyatt Earp

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"Listen, you're job is to back me up, because you'd starve without me. And you, your job is to shut up." -- Butch Cassidy

"I found him a loyal friend and good company. He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption and at the same time the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew." – Wyatt Earp speaking of Doc Holliday.

Tom Horn makes his own rope to be hanged in 1903.

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"You're the sickest looking lot of sheriffs I ever seen." - Tom Horn's comments as he mounted the gallows.

"Have you any idea of what a man must endure who leads such a life? No, you cannot. No one can unless he lives it for himself." -- Frank James

"Every man for his principles. Hurrah for Jeff Davis!" - Boone Helm just before he was hanged in Virginia City, Montana in 1863. After yelling out this statement, he then kicked the box from under his feet.

"We never did hang the wrong one but once or twice, and them fellers needed to be hung anyhow jes' on general principles." - A nameless judge in the Old West .

"I never hanged a man that didn't deserve it." - George Maledon, Judge Parker's hangman.

"Give me 80 men and I'll ride through the whole Sioux Nation." - Captain William Fetterman before agreeing to escort a wood-transport train. However, before he and his men even reached the train they were attacked by Indians in northern Wyoming on December 21, 1866. Known as Fetterman's Massacre, Red Cloud's Oglala Sioux Warriors ambushed and killed Captain Fetterman and his 81 men.

"I would rather play poker with 5 or 6 experts than eat." -- Poker Alice

"I have always been willing to take the blame for the things I have done." -- Lillie Langtry

"I wish I could find words to express the trueness, the bravery, the hardihood, the sense of honor, the loyalty to their trust and to each other of the old trail hands." -- Charles Goodnight

"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything." -- Wyatt Earp

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood!" - The violent anti-slavery activist before he was hanged by local militia for his attack on Harper's Ferry two years before the Civil War began.

"There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summertime and the poor get it in the winter." -- Bat Masterson

"Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it!" -- Davy Crockett

"You come here to tell us lies. Go home where you came from." -- Crazy Horse to General Terry

The infamous abolitionist John Brown.

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Belle Starr was called the Bandit Queen.

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Continued Next Page

“I regard myself as a woman who has seen much of life.” – Belle Starr describing her life shortly before she was murdered in 1889.

"Let's kick their ass and get the Hell out of here." -- General George A. Custer.

"This is the finest fence in the world. It's light as air, stronger than whiskey, and cheaper than dirt!" -- John W. "Bet-a-Million" Gates, Texas barbed wire salesman.

When a Texas cowboy was arrested for stealing a horse, he pleaded not guilty at his trial. When his lawyer managed to get him off and he was set free by the judge, he started to leave the courtroom. Suddenly he turned around and looked at the judge with puzzlement before asking: "Judge, does this mean I can keep the hoss?"

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