Quotes by Bret Harte

“Tommy, you're a good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again.' He then handed him his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a devoted slave of Tom Simson.””

“Nellie was a good girl, and I think had a sort of quiet respect for old Fagg's unobtrusiveness. But her fancy was already taken captive by Rattler's superficial qualities, which were obvious and pleasing. I don't think Nellie was any worse than you or I. We are more apt to take acquaintances at their apparent value than their intrinsic worth. It's less trouble, and, except when we want to trust them, quite as convenient.””

“I've had some mighty mean moments afore I kem to this spot,--Lost on the plains in '50, drowned almost, and shot;But out on this alkali desert, a hunting a crazy wife,Was ra'ly as on-satis-factory as anything in my life.””

“There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.””

“My dad was a shooter, or submission wrestler, and he loved to stretch anyone who dared to show up at his door. I remember him stretching the daylights out of Father Roberts, the Catholic priest who baptized all the Hart kids. Father Roberts got closer to God in my father’s basement dungeon than he felt comfortable with. But Stu was non-denominational; he stretched a rabbi once too.””

“It [the town] was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it.””

“these past months have been hard on me and I’m quite confused”

“Luck is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for certain is that it's bound to change. And it's finding out when it's going to change that makes you.””

“The best chance you have if you wanna rise to top is the give yourself loanliness, fear nothing and work hard. One thing you will discover life is the best lesson you think, what you have learned much more than you think and what you have inside right from the beginning.””

“A bird in hand is a certainty. But a bird in the bush may sing.””

“He was known to be a gambler; he was suspected to be a thief.””

“Each time I glanced into the rearview mirror, the black around my eyes was bigger and darker. Every once in a while Tom and I would look at each other with a silent acknowledgement that we had just worked our greatest match. When I think of it now, a quote from Georges Braque comes to mind: "Art is a wound turned to light." To my mind, that is also the beauty of pro wrestling.””

“On October 29, I drove to Fort Wayne, Indiana, with Kerry Von Erich, another of Fritz Von Erich’s sons. Kerry was a big, handsome, well-built kid with a kind streak a mile wide who wouldn’t think twice about giving you the shirt off his back. I loved how genuine and considerate he was, especially to the fans.””