Quotes and Words of the Old West

Words of the West - Page 6

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"Anyone who limits her vision to memories of yesterday is already dead." -- Lillie Langtry

"Shooting at a man who is returning the compliment means going into action with the greatest speed of which a man's muscles are capable, but mentally unflustered by an urge to hurry or the need for complicated nervous and muscular actions which trick shooting involves." -- Wyatt Earp

''Aw, you ain't worth killing.'' -- Billy the Kid to John Chisum after Billy threatened to kill Chisum if he didn't pay him for fighting in the Lincoln County War.

[Doc] Holliday had few real friends anywhere in the West. He was selfish and had perverse nature-traits not calculated to make a man popular in the early days on the frontier. -- Bat Masterson

Lillie Langtry

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Butch Cassidy in 1893.

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"Thank God for that. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble." -- Butch Cassidy

"I have acted fearless and independent and I never will regret my course. I would rather be politically buried that to be hypocritically immortalized." -- Davy Crockett

Killing men is my specialty. I look at it as a business proposition, and I think I have a corner on the market. -- Tom Horn

"A pioneer is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung bob-wire over the dust that was left, poisoned the water, cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land and called it progress." -- Charles M. Russell

"It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.” -- "Canada Bill” Jones, prolific cardsharp of the 1800’s

"The stranger's slow approach might have been a mere leisurely manner of gait or the cramped short steps of a rider unused to walking; yet, as well, it could have been the guarded advance of one who took no chances with men." -- Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, 1912

"There were only two things the old-time cowpunchers were afraid of: a decent woman and being set afoot." E.C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott

Above all things, the plainsmen had to have in instinct for direction. I never had a compass in my life, but I was never lost. -- Charles Goodnight

"Perhaps I may yet die with my boots on." -- Wild Bill Hickok, who did die with his boots on.

"You may hear of a killing if everything works right...but it may be some time yet.” --Texas Ranger Ira Aten to Capt. L. P. Sieker in 1888.

"Gentlemen, I find the law very explicit on murdering your fellow man, but there's nothing here about killing a Chinaman. Case dismissed." -- Judge Roy Bean

"You get so tight with your players that they can't let you down." -- Doc Holliday

Never expect a handout and never wait for anybody to hand you anything. -- Jesse James

"Money and whiskey flowed like water downhill, and youth and beauty and womanhood and manhood were wrecked and damned in that valley of perdition.” Said by an Abilene, Kansas citizen about the town and its red light district.

"Each little chapter has its place." -- Lillie Langtry

Judge Roy Bean

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After a horse thief had been arrested and tried, he was found innocent by a jury. When they filed back into the courtroom and the foreman stated the verdict, he liked the sound of his voice so much, it took him over an hour of fancy talking to tell the court that the defendant had been found innocent of all charges. When he was finally done pontificating, the judge shook his head and said: "You'll have to reconsider, the defendant was hung a couple of hours ago."

"Well, if there aint' going to be any rules, let's get the fight started." -- Butch Cassidy

"But you won't be here to see any of 'em; not by a damn sight, because it's the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck til you're dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat." -- Judge Roy Bean

"I think it was the distinguishing trait of Wyatt Earp, the leader of the Earp brothers, that more than any man I have ever known, he was devoid of physical fear. He feared the opinion of no one but himself and his self respect was his creed." -- W. B. "Bat" Masterson, Tombstone Prospector, August 16, 1910

"I'm not afraid. I never liked long last acts." -- Lillie Langtry

"Nothing to fear. Any coward shooting from night ambush will be too nervous to hit me." - Elijah S. Briant, Sutton County, Texas, when he was warned he might be shot.

Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated February, 2010.

Also See:

The Code of the West

Evolution of American English

Facts & Trivia of the Old West

Old West Wisdom

Western Slang & Phrases

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