Cormac McCarthy: Trending quotes (page 7)

“Only that man who has offered up himself entire to the blood of war, who has been to the floor of the pit and seen the horror in the round and learned at last that it speaks to his inmost heart, only that man can dance. - The judge”

Cormac McCarthy

Source: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

War , Learning , Heart , Dance

“What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as is this flesh. This mawky worm-bent tabernacle.”

Cormac McCarthy book Suttree

page 130
Source: Suttree (1979)
Context: Put away these frozenjawed primates and their annals of ways beset and ultimate dark. What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as in this flesh. This mawky wormbent tabernacle.

God , Soul

“The nights were blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a terrible silence to it.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Silence , Night

“If you dont respect me what must you think of yourself?”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men

Thinking

“Here beyond men's judgments all covenants were brittle.”

Cormac McCarthy

Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

Men

“I was afraid I was going to die and then I was afraid I wasnt.”

Cormac McCarthy

Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

“My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is just a waste of time.”

Cormac McCarthy

Time , Perfection

“My daddy used to tell me not to chew on something that was eatin you.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses

“The man watched him. Real life is pretty bad?

What do you think?

Well, I think we're still here. A lot of bad things have happened but we're still here.

Yeah.

You don't think that's so great.

It's okay.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Life , Thinking

“Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Boy , Time

“It starts when you begin to overlook good manners. Any time you quit hearing Sir and Mam the end is pretty much in sight…”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men

Time

“What could a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or how flesh is so frail it is hardly more than a dream”

Cormac McCarthy book Suttree

page 154
Source: Suttree (1979)
Context: Pale manchild were there last agonies? Were you in terror, did you know? Could you feel the claw that claimed you? And who is this fool kneeling over your bones, choked with bitterness? And what could a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or how flesh is so frail it is hardly more than a dream.

God , Dreams

“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

Cormac McCarthy

Source: Blood Meridian (1985), Chapter II
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: A man’ s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.

God , Evil

“No one can tell you what your life is goin to be, can they?

No.

It's never like what you expected.

Quijada nodded. If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them?”

Cormac McCarthy book The Crossing

Source: The Crossing

Life , People

“Life is brief and to have to spend every day of it doing what somebody else wants you to do is not the way to live it.”

Cormac McCarthy

Life , Way

“And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Like certain ancient frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Death , Dreams , Color