“Sometimes, everything in the world seems to be lined up against you. All the evidence says you ought to run the other way. Make the bravest choice, not the safest. It's not the best advice, but it's all I have to offer”

“Courage, like so many other things, was not something one did or didn't have; it was a decision, a choice.”

“I tell you that there are eighty-plus-year-old nudists cavorting on your property, Ashley O'Ballivan, and all you can do is laugh?”

“But he was bent on making that ride, Brody, and if he hadn't gotten himself thrown that day, he'd have done it some other day. What I'm trying to get at here is that folks seem to come into this life with a list of things they need to get done while they're here inscribed on their souls. Old or young, when their work is done, they leave.”

“Wait until you see him up on a horse”

“Being a McKettrick meant claiming a piece of ground to stand on and putting your roots down deep into it. Holding on, no matter what came at you. It meant loving with passion and taking the rough spots with the smooth. It meant fighting for what you wanted, letting go when that was the best thing to do.”

“It’s not smart to hold yourself away from the shocks of life, the good ones or the bad. They’re all part of the mix, and paradoxically, shying away from them only makes things harder.”