Dan Groat Quotes & Sayings

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. — Dan Groat

The only way the meek will ever inherit the earth is when they get ground into it by the heel of someone else's boot. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

Being tough today might cause you to be weak in the future. — Dan Groat

Don't ever use a shovel to swat a fly. — Dan Groat

Fear was the hand of the devil holding a scalding hot branding iron and touching your brain and your stomach and yelling at you to run with leaden feet. — Dan Groat

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

I had always been a boy in this place, and many of the trees and rocks and streams had been old men when I knew them. Some had died. All had changed. I knew that. I had changed the most. — Dan Groat

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

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. — Dan Groat

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

The true soldier knows nothing but war, and the true soldier, for lack of an enemy, attacks himself. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

Responsibility is definitely not something you feel; it is something you wear. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

The weak thrive on indulgence. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

Winning and losing was suddenly elevated to be about things that had no score and no teams and no uniforms; just one player at a time dealing with his life, his own struggle, his own triumph and torment. — Dan Groat

Human thought and human caring go on in one brain and one heart at a time. Groups are necessary. Regulations are necessary. Government, I would hope limited government, is necessary. But it all starts with the individual. Everything that is accomplished starts with one person, even if the group steps in and helps; it's still one brain and one heart at a time. — Dan Groat

Music is the sound of unspoken thoughts. — Dan Groat

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

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

Memories with laughter are the best ones to keep. — Dan Groat

Surviving is about need. Living is about want. — Dan Groat

The answers are in you, not around you. — Dan Groat

Hope was always hard to find in the darkness. — Dan Groat

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

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

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

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. — Dan Groat

Despite his best efforts, maintaining dignity in a head attached to an unclean body wrapped in unclean garments was a battle that encouraged surrender. — Dan Groat

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

We lose keys and we find keys and we get new keys. We just have to find the ones that unlock the right doors. Sometimes, we have keys, but we don't know what door they fit. That can be the hardest part, putting the right key in the right door. — Dan Groat

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

You can be spiritual all by yourself. Everybody has a soul. But to be religious, it seems like you need other people, and then sometimes it becomes more about the people than the soul. — Dan Groat

If all you do is think about what you need, you're no better than an animal in the woods, and no smarter either. To be human, you've got to want. It makes you smarter and stronger. — Dan Groat

As I have aged, I've been lucky never to reach old. Old is always at least five or ten years beyond my current calendar stage. — Dan Groat

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

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

Back home. What wonderful words. What a wonderful place. — Dan Groat

In this country our principles should not be silent. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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

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. — Dan Groat

How do we keep convincing young people to die in fights they didn't start for reasons we're too devious to tell the truth about? It's way too easy for governments to spend other people's blood. Maybe only the sons and daughters of those who declare the wars should be allowed to fight and die. — Dan Groat

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

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

As you get older, you have to be willing and able to choose your own path for your life. And once you choose it, you walk it with strength. If you meet evil along the way, know that it is supposed to make you afraid, but it's not supposed to stop you. You walk through the fear and you walk through the evil, and you don't let either one become your master. — Dan Groat

I don't have to save them all, just a few, or one, and then that one has to go out and save another one until this half-dead world begins to climb out of the grave it's standing in waiting for someone to throw dirt on it. — Dan Groat

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

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

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. — Dan Groat

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

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

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

There is a silent deference for one another, a distance that is kept, and lines that aren't crossed, but in their sharing, they each try to pay tribute to the bond in their own way. As often as possible, they open up a little and give what they can. — Dan Groat

The world has a way of dragging down our mood. — Dan Groat

They understood that brave men could be injured more by pity than by disease. — Dan Groat

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

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. — Dan Groat

The power of our country relies on the character that comes out of each of our homes. — Dan Groat

On this morning his first waking moments were filled with the audible lamenting breath of having survived another winter night on the streets of St. Louis, those onerous recurring sighs that had become his respiration. — Dan Groat

There ain't nothin' you can say about war that ain't personal. It's all personal. — Dan Groat

He knew that prejudice was a necessary part of the weak spirit of some men. — Dan Groat

Sometimes when the three of us were together on our own, we would have a good time. I was pretty young, but sometimes we would go off in the woods and build forts and fight Indians and I think things were about as close to fine as they ever got right then during those times. In the woods. No parents. No yelling. — Dan Groat

A government that thinks it can remedy personal failure is an intrusion in everybody's life. No law is going to cure a human's lack of physical or mental effectiveness. I'd rather see democracy promote strength than reward weakness. — Dan Groat

He had no ability to give up. It wasn't that he didn't want to quit, he couldn't. It wasn't in him. It never had been. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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

People don't die so the universe can gauge your reaction. They die because life is finite. — Dan Groat

Hope is a carrot tied to the stick of tomorrow. — Dan Groat

We, the beggar class, have little to lose and our expectations are, at best, modest, and when we suffer, it seems we suffer to the depths, for there is nothing in our lives nor in our souls to buoy our hope. Nothing in the way of the blackness. It sinks to the bottom as the lead weight that is despair. We look forward such a short distance that our spirit is myopic, not to be corrected by any lens within our world. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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

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

We shook hands the way men do when they're trying to say something more than goodbye. — Dan Groat

Giants bleed like everybody else. — Dan Groat

This country should treat good people better than they do. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

We are born among relatives. Family is defined by loyalty. — Dan Groat

It seems to me that smart people seem to know things and wise people know how to use what they know. Smart is a big help to a man; wise is a big help to lots of men. — Dan Groat

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

Now, it's time for me to lock up and go. Listen to me. Lock up an empty building that's gonna be torn down. Makes no sense. Like an old man tellin' a lie to his son from his death bed. What's the point? Who besides yourself are you fooling? — Dan Groat

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no end to the hatred in men, but there is an end to the hatred in a man. If your hatred is just, and deeds will get you to the end of it, then go and do what must be done. — Dan Groat

Reading had always been, through bad, boring, or better times, his best connection to humans. — Dan Groat

Does the plain, simple beauty of life get buried under society's so-called required daily activities or is that just true of me? No, I know I'm not alone in that feeling. We all get caught up in the making and spending of money. I know it's not just me. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat

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. — Dan Groat