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Working- And Middle-class Families Sat Down At The Dinner Table Every Night - The Shared Meal Was The Touchstone Of Good Manners. Indeed, That Dinner Table Was The One Time When We Were All Together, Every Day: Parents, Grandparents, Children, Siblings. Rudeness Between Siblings, Or A Failure To Observe The Etiquette Of Passing Dishes To One Another, Accompanied By "please" And "thank You," Was The Training Ground Of Behavior, The Place Where Manners Began.

-Larry McMurtry

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Working- And Middle-class Families

Larry McMurtry

...

Working- And Middle-class Families Sat Down At The Dinner Table Every Night - The Shared Meal Was The Touchstone Of Good Manners. Indeed, That Dinner Table Was The One Time When We Were All Together, Every Day: Parents, Grandparents, Children, Siblings. Rudeness Between Siblings, Or A Failure To Observe The Etiquette Of Passing Dishes To One Another, Accompanied By "please" And "thank You," Was The Training Ground Of Behavior, The Place Where Manners Began.

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For The Past Several Centuries The Bonding Power Of The Family Dinner Table Has Been One Of The Few Constants, And Now It's Binding No More. The Potency Of The Media Is Now Stronger Than That Of The Family. The Wonder Is That Families Still Exist At All, Since The Forces Of Modern Life Mainly All Pull People Away From A Family Centered Way Of Life.

The Earth Is Mostly Just A Boneyard. But Pretty In The Sunlight.

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He Had Known Several Men Who Blew Their Heads Off, And He Had Pondered It Much. It Seemed To Him It Was Probably Because They Could Not Take Enough Happiness Just From The Sky And The Moon To Carry Them Over The Low Feelings That Came To All Men.

The Tradition I Was Born Into Was Essentially Nomadic, A Herdsmen Tradition, Following Animals Across The Earth. The Bookshops Are A Form Of Ranching; Instead Of Herding Cattle, I Herd Books. Writing Is A Form Of Herding, Too; I Herd Words Into Little Paragraph-like Clusters.

-she Remembered Them Kindly, For There Was A Sweetness In Boys That Didn't Last Long, Once They Became Men.

I Once Owned A Collection Of 77 Novels That Won The Pulitzer. The Only Good Novel Of The Bunch Was The Grapes Of Wrath.

I Don't See How Being Married Could Be Any Worse Than Listening To You Talk For Twenty Years, But That Still Ain't Much Of A Recommendation For It.

I Think Its A Sickness To Grieve Too Much For Those Who Never Cared A Fig For You.

Live Through It," Call Said. "that's All We Can Do.

But The English Are Different, And They Don't Know How To Be Other Than Different.

I Never Met A Soul In This World As Normal As Me.

You Know Deets Is Like Me - He's Not One To Quit On A Garment Just Because It's Got A Little Age - Spoken By Augustus Mccrae

If A Warrior Lacked Wisdom, Courage Alone Would Not Keep Him Alive For Long.

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It's Really Quite Simple. Mr. Isinglass Robbed My Father, Destroyed My Mother, Exiled My Brothers, And Ruined Me. If I Catch Him Asleep I'll Kill Him. I Do Hope You Like This Pudding. I Had To Ride Quite A Way To Find The Plums.

Uva Uvum Vivendo Varia Fit

Working- And Middle-class Families Sat Down At The Dinner Table Every Night - The Shared Meal Was The Touchstone Of Good Manners. Indeed, That Dinner Table Was The One Time When We Were All Together, Every Day: Parents, Grandparents, Children, Siblings. Rudeness Between Siblings, Or A Failure To Observe The Etiquette Of Passing Dishes To One Another, Accompanied By "please" And "thank You," Was The Training Ground Of Behavior, The Place Where Manners Began.

I Hate Rude Behavior In A Man,' He Explained In His Quiet, Unassuming Drawl. 'i Won't Tolerate It.' He Politely Tipped His Hat, And Rode Away.

Americans' Lack Of Passion For History Is Well Known. History May Not Quite Be Bunk, As Henry Ford Suggested, But There's No Denying That, As A People, We Sustain A Passionate Concentration On The Present And The Future.

Nobody Run Off With Her,” Roscoe Said. "she Just Run Off With Herself, I Guess.

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Members Of The Academy Are Mostly Urban People. We Are An Urban Nation. We Are Not A Rural Nation. It's Not Easy Even To Get A Rural Story Made.

If You Want One Thing Too Much It’s Likely To Be A Disappointment. The Healthy Way Is To Learn To Like The Everyday Things, Like Soft Beds And Buttermilk—and Feisty Gentlemen.

Everyday Things

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Mystery Is Underrated, And Understanding Is Overrated.

Nothing Good Ever Comes Without A Price.

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The Older The Violin, The Sweeter The Music.

Self-parody Is The First Portent Of Age.

If You Wait, All That Happens Is That You Get Older.

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Self Improvement

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Razzy Was Insulting Me Silently Somehow.

You Can Scare Off A Lot Of Cowboys Just By Looking Mean, I Guess.

A Man Who Wouldn't Cheat For A Poke Don't Want One Bad Enough. --augustus "gus" Mccrae

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Occasionally The Very Youngness Of The Young Moved Him To Charity--they Had No Sense Of The Swiftness Of Life, Nor Of Its Limits. The Years Would Pass Like Weeks, And Loves Would Pass Too, Or Else Grow Sour.

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I Suppose You Set Up Reading The Good Book All Night-spoken By Woodrow Call

Death And Worse Happened On The Plains.

A Bookman’s Love Of Books Is A Love Of Books, Not Merely Of The Information In Them.

Americans Don't Want Cowboys To Be Gay.

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