The Walking Drum: Part 1

These quotes are from the book "The Walking Drum" by Louis L'Amour. It was supposed to be followed by a sequel, the setting of which was to be India, but it was never written. I have read a lot of his westerns. This novel was a change from that.

I'm trying to sort out the quotes. Hopefully, you can see a pattern in these. They have a good message. Honestly, it's a beautiful book.


...the truth is only for those lacking imagination.

'What are u seeking..?'
'Must one seek something? I seek to be seeking, as I learn to be learning.'

Reality itself is a shadow, only an appearance accepted by those whose eyes shun what might lie beyond.

'How dare u say such a thing?' he demanded.
'I dare say nething,' I replied more cheerfully, 'because I hv a fast horse.'
Several of the students laughed, and one shoutd, 'Well spoken soldier!'
'Have u no reverance?' the teacher demanded.
'I have reverance for all who ask qs and seek honest answers.'
'A philosopher!' laughed a student.
'A wanderer in search of answers,' I sed, then to the teacher, 'You askd if I hv reverance? I hv reverance for truth, but I do not kno wht truth is. I suspect there are many truths, and therefore, I suspect all who claim to hv the truth.'
Walking my horse a few steps closer, I added, 'I hv reverance for the inquirer, for the seeker. I hv no reverance for those who accept ne idea, mine included, w/o qs.'

'It is a theory of mine that as a seeker of truth for truth I shud find my own answers.'

There is no curtain knowledge cannot penetrate, althou the process can be slowed.

It is a poor sort of man who is content to be spoon-fed knowledge tht has been filtered thru the cannon of religious or political belief, and it is a poor sort of man who will permit othrs to dictate wht he may or may not learn.

..for there were those who wnted no teaching tht might weaken their power.

'Blasphemy? Not unless it is blasphemy to seek the truth. No, I am a blasphemer, but something worse, I am an asker of qs.'

Yet the spirit of inquiry ws alive here, and where it has a free existence, ignorance cannot last.

How much cud I tel them? How much I dared tel them? Wht ws the point at which acceptance wud yield to doubt? For the mind must be prepared for knowledge as one prepares a field for planting, and a discovery made too soon is no better than a discovery not made at all.

There can be no order or progress w/o discipline, but authority can b quite different. Authority, in ths world in which I moved, implied belief and acceptance of a dogma, and dogma is invariably wrong, as knowledge is always in a state of transition. The radical ideas of today are often the conservative policies of tomorrow, and dogma is left protesting by the wayside.

'You are ur own best teacher. My advice is to qs all things. Seeks for answers, and wen u find wht seem to be an answer, qs tht, too.'

'One must conform and I conform badly.'
'Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point..evn a rebel grows old, and sometimes wiser. He finds the things he rebelled against are now the things he must defend against newer rebels..be discreet, but follow ur own mind. When u hv achieved position u wil hv influence. Otherwise u will tear at the bars until ur strength is gone, and u wil hv accomplishd nothing but to rant and rave.'
'Compromise is an evil word.'
'Think a little, Julot. All our lives we compromise and w/o it there wud be no progress, nor cud men live together. You may think a man a fool, but if he is an agreeable fool u say nothing. Is tht not compromise?
Victory is not won in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold ur ground, and later win a little more.
A man shud not compromise his principles, but he shud not flaunt them, as a banner, There is a time to talk and a time to be still. If a wrong is being done, then is the time to speak out.
'Study, Julot gain prestige, and ppl wil ask u solemnly for advice abt things of which u kno nothing.'
'I like not the sound of it,' Julot grumbled. ' I am a fighter. I fight for wht i believe.'
'There are many ways of fighting. Many a man or woman has waged a good war for truth, honor, and freedom, who did not shed blood in the process. Beware of those who wud use violence, too often it is the violence they wnt and neither truth nor freedom.
'The important thing is to know where u stand and wht u believe, then b true to urself in all things. Moreover, it is foolish to waste time in arguing qs wid those who hv no power to change..'

It is my weakness tht I can nevr resist a path or a bend in the road, althou usually the bend in the road wen rounded only reveals another bend, as topping a hill only shows anothr hill b4 u. Yet I cud not resist.

'Like many things, it only sounds profound, so waste no time upon it.'

'Are we not all slaves, occasionally? To custom? To a situation? To an idea? Who among us is truly free..?

He had gathered abt him wht ws considered by many to be the intellectual and artistic elite...actually a grp of bored men and libertines who were glib-tongued, talking much of art, literature, and music but w/o ne deep-seated convictions upon ne subject aside frm their own prejudices. Mainly concerned with their own posturing, they were creatures of fad and whim, seizing upon ths writer or tht composer and exalting him to the skies until he bored them, then shifting to some othr. Occasionally, the artists upon whom they lavished attention were of genuine ability, but more often they possessed some obscurity tht gave the dilettantes an illusion of depth and quality. In the majority of cases wht ws fancied to b profound ws simply bad writing, bad painting, or deliberately affected obscurity.

Life ws less casual, restricted by law and custom.

'Think ths of me. I am a man who must survive, and along the roads I hv learned a little, as a man wil.'
'You lost much in the attack of the Cumans. I do not think u lost all.'
'The goods of ths world, Phillip, are soon lost. Fire, storm, thieves, and war are evr wid us, but wht is stored in the mind is ours forever.
I have lost evn my sword. All tht remains is wht I hv learned and some discretion in how it is to be used.'

'I shall simply ask. Many things are not done simply because they are not attempted.'

It has seemed to me tht each yr one shud pause to take stock of himself, to ask: Where am I going? Wht am I becoming? Wht do I wish to do and become?
Most ppl whom I hv encountered were w/o purpose, ppl who had given themselves no goal. The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing ship sails first by one wind, then another. The point is tht it is always going somewhere, proceeding towards a final destination.

Yesterday I arrived hungry and in rags; todayI ws the confidant of kings; so can a man's fortune change.
Yet power, riches, and the friendship of kings are but transitory things. Riches are a claim to distinction for those who hv no othr right to it. Ancestory is most imp to those who hv done nothing themselves, and often the ancestor frm whom they claim descent is one they wud not allow in the house if they met him today.
Great families were often founded by pirates, free-booters, or energetic peasants who happened to be in the right place at the right time and took advantage of it. The founder wud, in most cases, look wid disdain on his descendants.
To me the goal ws to learn, to see, to know, to understand.Never cud i glimpse a sail on an outbound ship but my heart wud stumble and my throat grow tight.
Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world abt him; then there comes a time wen it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Evry1 has it within his power to say, this I am today, tht I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented wid deeds.

'Are u not curious (to see ur future)?'
'Who is not? But I wud rather try to mold my destiny, to shape it wid these'-I lifted my hand-'for we believe a man's destiny may be many things, althou a way is prescribed, a man may change. It is interesting tht so few do change.'

My ignorance ws enormous. Besides it my knowledge ws nothing. My hunger ws learning, not so much to improve my lot as to understand my world, had led me to study and to thought. Reading w/o thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for wht it says than for wht it makes u think.