“If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”
Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)
Cormac McCarthy:
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Cormac McCarthy Quotes
Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)
Context: The stories gets passed on and the truth gets passed over. As the sayin goes. Which I reckon some would take as meanin that the truth cant compete. But I dont believe that. I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt. You cant corrupt it because that's what it is. It's the thing you're talkin about. I've heard it compared to the rock — maybe in the bible—and I wouldnt disagree with that. But it'll be here even when the rock is gone. I'm sure they's people would disagree with that. Quite a few, in fact. But I never could find out what any of them did believe.
“Best way to live in California is to be from somewheres else.”
Source: No Country for Old Men
“If there's one thing on this planet you don't look like it's a bunch of good luck walkin around.”
Source: No Country for Old Men
“The closest bonds we will ever know are bonds of grief. The deepest community one of sorrow.”
Source: All the Pretty Horses
“He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.”
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
“I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it.”
Source: No Country for Old Men
“Every day is a lie. But you are dying. That is not a lie.”
Cormac McCarthy
book
The Road
Source: The Road
“Scared money can’t win and a worried man can’t love.”
Source: All the Pretty Horses
“Suppose you were the last one left? Suppose you did that to yourself?”
Cormac McCarthy
book
The Road
Source: The Road
Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: The judge tilted his great head. The man who believes that the secrets of this world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.
“Things happen to you they happen. They dont ask first. They dont require your permission.”
Source: No Country for Old Men
“When the shooting starts would you rather be armed or legal?”
Cormac McCarthy
book
The Road
Source: The Road
“I've seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away.”
Source: Outer Dark (1968)
“Life is a memory, and then it is nothing.”
Source: The Crossing
Source: Cities of the Plain (1998)
“This country will kill you in a heartbeat and still people love it.”
Source: No Country for Old Men
Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: And the answer, said the judge. If God meant to interfere in the degeneracy of mankind would he not have done so by now? Wolves cull themselves, man. What other creature could? And is the race of man not more predacious yet? The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day. He loves games? Let him play for stakes. This you see here, these ruins wondered at by tribes of savages, do you not think that this will be again? Aye. And again. With other people, with other sons.
“What business is it of yours where I'm from, friendo?”
Source: No Country for Old Men
“When you've nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.”
Cormac McCarthy
book
The Road
Variant: When one has nothing left make ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.
Source: The Road
“A man’s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with.”
Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
“He'd half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat.”
Source: All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
book
Suttree
page 153
Source: Suttree (1979)
