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Amazing pieces of wisdom from Cormac McCarthy novels

We celebrate some of the best prose from the late, great author...

Amazing pieces of wisdom from Cormac McCarthy novels
13 June 2023

If you're after some sunny, light-hearted one-liners about the transformative power of love, you've come to the wrong place. But then if you've ever read a Cormac McCarthy novel, you'll already be aware of this.

The iconic author, who has sadly died at the age of 89, filled his many books with so many memorable characters, plot twists, suspenseful sequences and, most importantly, pieces of wisdom that linger once the final page has been read.

In celebration of the author, here are some of our favourites...


Amazing pieces of wisdom from Cormac McCarthy novels

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“If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it.”

The Road

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“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

No Country For Old Men

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“Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”

Blood Meridian

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“You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”

The Road

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“I got what I needed instead of what I wanted and that's just about the best kind of luck you can have.”

The Sunset Limited

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“The point is there ain't no point.”

No Country For Old Men

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“The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down.”

Blood Meridian

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“The world is quite ruthless in selecting between the dream and the reality, even where we will not.”

All The Pretty Horses

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“People complain about the bad things that happen to em that they don't deserve but they seldom mention the good. About what they done to deserve them things”

No Country for Old Men

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“It is personal. That's what an education does. It makes the world personal.”

The Sunset Limited

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“In the end we all come to be cured of our sentiments.”

All the Pretty Horses

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“Love makes men foolish."

Cities of the Plain

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“Life is a memory, and then it is nothing.”

The Crossing

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“If a man's at odds to know his own mind it's because he hasn't got aught but his mind to know it with.”

Blood Meridian

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“It was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily.”

All The Pretty Horses

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“Those who cannot see must rely upon what has gone before. If I do not wish to appear so foolish as to drink from an empty glass I must remember whether I have drained it or not.”

Cities of the Plain

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“You always pay too much. Particularly for promises. There ain't no such thing as a bargain promise.”

No Country for Old Men

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