Dan Groat Quotes

Peace, a commodity purchased with friendship and safety and anything comfortable and all things familiar; peace that was a pleasant melody playing through the moments of their day; a chord striking only the notes of security and agreement and understanding and order.

It remains for you to save one before saving others, to lead one before leading others.

I wish but to share your gifts as a young boy on his birthday would excitedly rip open his packages to the view of others.

Those who show no loyalty give up the right to expect any.

Evil stinks and it doesn't disappear just because you want it to. You can still smell it with your eyes closed.

A person gets built and stands for a few years and then nature's demolition team comes in.

One of the worst things I've learned about getting older is that there seems to be more change that you don't like than there was when you were younger and you can't do nothin' about it.

We are born among relatives. Family is defined by loyalty.

I am not wise enough to know if there is ever purpose in tragedy, if there is ever virtue in resisting it. If it cannot be overcome, then grief has beaten you, and you are right to say so.

[bookcover:A Punctual Paymaster|25707312]
"Responsibility is definitely not something you feel; it is something you wear."
Dan Groat

Sometimes, you need to spit stuff out in words to get it better arranged in your head. I figure if you never talk about it, it just picks its own spot and lays there and festers.

It made him wonder if all things taken from their home too soon lost some of their bloom.

I need to work. It's the one time my thoughts will cooperate with me.

Time does not heal, but it can liberate. A race run well can never be lost.

If the forest has a day of fire and the heat of the flames does not consume a special tree, it will still be changed; charred, but still standing.

We learn to love when we're young. If we learn hating better, it has to go somewhere. We can hate ourselves or we can hate somebody else. Most people would rather hate somebody else.

Not interested in scarin' anybody, but people with good sense are afraid of a man with nothin' to lose.

A silence overtook the odd family in their odd surroundings as loss became the mockery of the moment, and they were caught up in the emotional release that is common in a theater audience after the sudden ending of a tragic movie; the curtain closes and the people are still in their seats, numb and sighing their way back into reality.

The gear teeth of his mind, the cogs of the brain's machinery that propelled his thoughts, were grinding to a halt, too long forced to fight against the friction of agony without the aid of hope, the lubricant for the soul.

Porches could be cleaned with a broom in a few minutes, but the soul could not be swept. It had to be shaken. And shaking the loess from a soul took a lifetime and more strength than most people had.

I assumed that looking back reminded older guys of what they had shot at and missed, the what-ifs, the good memories, the bad, the people left behind, the people who moved on.

Gifford Ulrich didn't know the distance from despair to hope, but he knew hope didn't sleep in alleys.

The bones of the oak tree that had stood by the spring branch during my youth were scattered about the ground, pieces of the skeleton of a majestic life that had passed while I was off growing up and old.

Some people get what they want because they grab the power and swing it, and some people don't.

This country should treat good people better than they do.

What kind of country has this become? Decent people can't do anything without being watched.

It must be great to spend time in a spot and if you walk away, it's so much better than before because of something you did.

I wonder how long it takes for these people we elect to forget who they work for?

There are struggles you cannot win, but a man can meet his own heart if value is found in loss. Give yourself permission to cry.

I wonder if God hears prayers if the only time you make them is when you're in trouble.

Fear was like a tick to them. They knew there were times when it was going to crawl on them, but they sure didn't want it embedded in their skin and sucking their blood.

Men who have been in war have a different attitude about being wronged.

Don't ever use a shovel to swat a fly.

When you're anonymous, other opinions shrink next to the sounds in your own head.

Devotion to self is necessary. First, place the mask on yourself and breathe deeply. Then help the others. If you don't save yourself, they will die.

Evil won't leave you alone until you take a stand or until you're dead.

They may not have enough of their own to take a stand, but they can do it if someone shows them how.

Our bird of hope was being denied the altitude it sought, just free enough to fly dangerously close to the reality of the treetops.

Back home. What wonderful words. What a wonderful place.

The world bein' so small ain't always a good thing for those of us who ain't searchin' for new and different stuff.

Death was an old acquaintance. They had met before. They were not friends. Not enemies, either.

Saying it ain't fair, over and over again while you stand in front of a wrecking ball is kinda senseless, I think.

I don't know how a reporter would ever understand a politician. Your job is supposed to be about finding the truth and enlightening people. Right? A politician's job is about hiding the truth and fooling people. Right? You want us to be better informed so we get smarter. They think we're dumb and it's to their advantage to keep us that way.

We who are dreamers and doers want only the chance to dream and do, to have an idea and to try to carry it out without interference.

Books required no interchanges of thoughts and feelings, no trading of expectations, no traffic of words, no menace of real loss. Reading books required far less energy than reading people; the pages seldom disappointed him and they never died.

In this country our principles should not be silent.

Hope is a carrot tied to the stick of tomorrow.

The world has a way of dragging down our mood.

I'm not lookin' to be anybody's keeper. What I say and do is meant to protect me. If it works for somebody else, that's okay, but I don't want people depending on me to save them.

Everybody dies. It's no risk to lose your life. You knew it was lost from the beginning.

Everything will be fine. I've heard that my whole life. Everything will be fine. That's baloney.

He knew most men only heard what they wanted to hear, and he had no desire to be like most men.

Just make sure the day doesn't pass without sayin' what's in your heart. Sometimes you pass up those chances and they're gone forever.

Surviving is about need. Living is about want.

If you decide to take somebody on, don't look behind you, because there won't be anybody there. You'll be all alone.

I can't tell you what's in all of God's plans, but I do know part of them. He empowers you with reason and will. Those are your strengths. That's what gives you the chance to be great in his sight. He gave you a mind and codes to live by so you could be in charge of your own actions.

Governments have absolutely no interest in self-reliance. It defeats one of the purposes for their existence. They encourage and thrive on dependency. The more of it they sell, the more necessary they are, and the more power and money they need.

Politics is all about dividing up the power. Washington D.C. likes to talk about spreading the wealth, but never spreading the power.

Seek until there is no hope and then seek further. Seek without end. Trudge on without tiring and without fear and without disheartenment. Trudge on, for it is within you to fight any enemy. It is who you are. It is your past and your present and your future. You will not quit. You cannot quit. Your breath is your courage, and as you breathe, so must you hope or you are already dead.

Time is not tinder for any flame. It will not gather a spark; it will not smolder. It will not change.

As an adult I had mastered the art of looking without seeing and listening without hearing and eating without tasting and maybe even existing without living.

We get so beat down by what we need, sometimes we forget how to want.

My world was very limited in size and experience. Small things took on extra importance, at least to a child.

What a wonderful sadness to miss the one you have loved forever, it seems, and know that she is waiting at home.

Doing without will wear on you until temptation is stronger than character, sometimes.

True genius is a complete stranger to most, a momentary acquaintance to others, a lasting friend to few.