Those second sons

 What generally happened was this. And Earl, let us say, begat an heir. So far, so good. One can always do with an heir. But then - these Earls never know when to stop - he absent-mindedly, as it were, begat a second son and this time was not any too pleased about the state of affairs. It was difficult to see how to fit him in. But there he was, requiring his calories just the same as if he had been first in succession. It made the Earl feel that he was up against something hard to handle.

(from the Preface to Joy in the Morning, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Edwardian!

     The world of which I have been writing ever since I was so high, the world of the Drones Club and the lads who congregate there, was always a small world - one of the smallest I ever met, as Bertie Wooster would say. It was bounded on the east by St. James's Street, on the west by Hyde Park Corner, by Oxford Street on the north and by Piccadilly on the south. And now it is not even small, it is non-existent. It has gone with the wind and is one with Nineveh and Tyre. In a word, it has had it.

    This is pointed out to me every time a new book of mine dealing with the Drones Club of Jeeves and Bertie is published in England. "Edwardian!" the critics hiss at me. (It is not easy to hiss the word Edwardian, containing as it does no sibilant, but they manage it.)

(from the Preface to Joy in the Morning, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

The qualities of a gunfighter

 There were enough who remained, but any one of them might die, and that went for him as well. He was good - he knew that deep inside himself. He was resolute, he was fast, he was sure. Above all, at the moment of truth, that moment when it came time to draw and live, or draw and die, he was cool - or he always had been.

(from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour)

Character

 One of the main tests of a man's character is how he responds when he is in the minority opinion.

A danger to himself

    These men who were hunting him were outlaws, they were killers, and if they found him they would kill him, and they might kill Fan as well. Certainly they would terrorize her, bully her, keep her a prisoner. They were his enemies, enemies of society, beasts of prey. And yet he did not want to kill them.

     Now his very lack of intent was a danger. In the situation he faced there could be no time for hesitation, no time for philosophical considerations. He must kill or be killed - and he did not want to die.

(from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour)

It's tough having amnesia

     "You, and only you, know where the money is hidden. I do not know why Tom Davidge trusted you, but he did. We need each other, you and I."

    He was impelled to laugh at the irony of it, but he held his face still. Only he knew where the half-million dollars was hidden, and he had lost his memory! He could just imagine trying to convince the Judge of that.

(from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour)

Am I evil?

     He remembered that the old man, Hennecker, had said he was a bad one. Was he? Searching himself, he could find no such motivations. He felt no animosity toward anyone, nor any desire to do evil.

    Yet, did evil men ever think of themselves as evil? Did they not find excuses for the wrong that they did?

(from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour)