John D. MacDonald Quotes

A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)

From the Travis McGee Series

Next book: Darker Than Amber    Other John D. MacDonald Quotes.

• I know just enough about myself to know I cannot settle for one of those simplifications which indignant people seize upon to make understandable a world too complex for their comprehension. Astrology, health food, flag waving, bible thumping, Zen, nudism, nihilism -- all of these are grotesque simplifications which small dreary people adopt in the hope of thereby finding The Answer, because the very concept that maybe there is no answer, never has been, never will be, terrifies them.
• The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit.
• ... any man who thinks himself as therapy should not have a license to practice.
• I think there is some kind of divine order in the universe. Every leaf on every tree in the world is unique. As far as we can see, there are other galaxies, all slowly spinning, numerous as the leaves in the forest. In an infinite number of planets, there has to be an infinite number with life forms on them. Maybe this planet is one of the discarded mistakes. Maybe it's one of the victories. We'll never know.
• I think the closest we can get to awareness is when we see one man, under stress, react in ... in a noble way, a selfless way.
• to me organized religion, the formalities and routines, it's like being marched in formation to look at a sunset.

• A man should have once chance to bring something down. He should have his shot at something, a shining running something, and see it come a-tumbling down, all mucus and steaming blood stench and gouted excrement, the eyes going dull during the final muscle spasms. And if he is, an all parts and purposes, a man, he will file that away as a part of his process of growth and life and eventual death. And if he is perpetually, hopelessly a boy, he will lust to go do it again, with a bigger beast.

  They have all their earnest rationalizations about game control. It is good for animals to shoot them. It may serve some purpose to gut shoot them with a plastic arrow. We have so bitched up the various ecologies in all our areas, game control is a necessity. But it should be done by professionals paid to do it, the ones who cherish the healthy flocks, the ones who do not get their charge out of going bang at something with thrice the animal dignity they can ever attain.

• Waves can wash away the most stubborn stains, and the stars do not care one way or another.

Next book: Darker Than Amber    Other John D. MacDonald Quotes.

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