“The Cowboy WayBeing a Cowboy is doing the right thing; commonwisdom born of simple virtues and strong ideals.Above all, it is a strict adherence to honestyeven when it is not in our best interests.It is having an inherent sense of justice in aworld where the cards are often stacked against us.We try to hold enough common sense to recognizethe value of a lost cause and the cost of lost values.Generally speaking, we are quietly reserved in allthings except freedom, fresh air and Saturday night.We have a keen eye for agood horse, a good gun,and a good Cowgirl.Constant to friends, we are more so whenfriends need us, less so when they don't.Familiar with hard work we also knowhard knocks and hard roads.Often given to tearswhen lesser individuals would display indifference;we are as well given to joy in a fewplaces others would only find disdain.We enjoy plain living, not becausewe relish doing without, but because we havediscovered the treasures within.And, finally, we have that elusive emotion calledcourage which is, at worst, a badly directed sense ofconceit and, at best, it is the stuffof which dreams are made. . . .”

“We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by." - All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 2”

“when we are weary, we speak lovingly of dreams as if they embodied our true deisres-What we WOULD have when that which we DO have so sorely disappoints us”

“It is clear that there are situations where we should restrict a child: letting them ingest poison, for example, would be against common sense, but to hinder an adult from taking poison consciously is against common sense also.[...] Seeking to influence others for what we consider "good" is the most idiotic presumption we are capable of. Essentially, we are trying to impose our values on the next person, and to make them our puppets.”

“ It is difficult to see ourselves as we are. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have good friends, lovers or others who will do us the good service of telling us the truth about ourselves. When we don't, we can so easily delude ourselves, lose a sense of truth about ourselves, and our conscience loses power and purpose. Mostly, we tell ourselves what we would like to hear. We lose our way.”

“The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.”