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John D. MacDonald Quotes

Hascomb snatched an ancient weapon out of his glove compartment. Officers have smuggled them home from the last five wars. The Colt.45 automatic.

John D. MacDonald

Hascomb snatched an ancient weapon out of his glove compartment. Officers have smuggled them home from the last five wars. The Colt.45 automatic.

Tags: firearms

I do not function too well on emotional motivations. I am wary of them. And I am wary of a lot of other things, such as plastic credit cards, payroll deductions, insurance programs, retirement benefit...

John D. MacDonald

I do not function too well on emotional motivations. I am wary of them. And I am wary of a lot of other things, such as plastic credit cards, payroll deductions, insurance programs, retirement benefit...

Tags: mortgages, newspapers, sermons, wary

About Author
John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916 – December 28, 1986) was an American writer of novels and short stories. He is known for his thrillers.
MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many set in his adopted home of Florida. One of the most successful American novelists of his time, MacDonald sold an estimated 70 million books. His best-known works include the popular and critically acclaimed Travis McGee series and his 1957 novel The Executioners, which was filmed twice as Cape Fear, once in 1962 and again in 1991.

Vulnerability is the curse of the thinking classes.

John D. MacDonald

Vulnerability is the curse of the thinking classes.

Tags: curses, thinking, vulnerability

Florida is full of long-range, unending road jobs that break the backs, pocketbooks, and hearts of the roadside business. The primitive, inefficient, childlike Mexicans somehow manage to survey, engin...

John D. MacDonald

Florida is full of long-range, unending road jobs that break the backs, pocketbooks, and hearts of the roadside business. The primitive, inefficient, childlike Mexicans somehow manage to survey, engin...

Tags: highways, politics, roads, taxes

From A Deadly Shade of Gold, a Travis McGee title: The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit. From the stand-alone th...

John D. MacDonald

From A Deadly Shade of Gold, a Travis McGee title: The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit. From the stand-alone th...

In all emotional conflicts, the thing you find the most difficult to do, is the thing that you should do."--Meyer's Law

John D. MacDonald

In all emotional conflicts, the thing you find the most difficult to do, is the thing that you should do."--Meyer's Law

Tags: meyer, mystery, the busted flush, travis mcgee

For the expendable marriage, you give the expendable gift.

John D. MacDonald

For the expendable marriage, you give the expendable gift.

The rain had washed the sunset time to a lambent beauty.

John D. MacDonald

The rain had washed the sunset time to a lambent beauty.

By noon, in a gray February world, we had come down through snow flurries to land at Albany, and had taken off again. When the snow ended the sky was a luminous gray. I looked down at the winter calli...

John D. MacDonald

By noon, in a gray February world, we had come down through snow flurries to land at Albany, and had taken off again. When the snow ended the sky was a luminous gray. I looked down at the winter calli...

Tags: observational

[Los Angeles] the world's biggest third-class city...

John D. MacDonald

[Los Angeles] the world's biggest third-class city...

There are people who try to look as if they are doing a good and thorough job, and then there are the people who actually damn well do it, for its own sake.

John D. MacDonald

There are people who try to look as if they are doing a good and thorough job, and then there are the people who actually damn well do it, for its own sake.

Tags: thoroughness, work ethic

O thank you, Uncle Omar. Thank you for instilling a helpless youth with such grave suspicions of women and all their works, that here and now, in my maturity, in my thirty-second year, I cannot confro...

John D. MacDonald

O thank you, Uncle Omar. Thank you for instilling a helpless youth with such grave suspicions of women and all their works, that here and now, in my maturity, in my thirty-second year, I cannot confro...

Haven’t

John D. MacDonald

Haven’t

Can she be sure of that? Her laugh was ugly. Eyewitnesses are usually pretty positive. It happened back in June. Kids are so idealistic. How can I explain to her that it really didn’t mean very much,...

John D. MacDonald

Can she be sure of that? Her laugh was ugly. Eyewitnesses are usually pretty positive. It happened back in June. Kids are so idealistic. How can I explain to her that it really didn’t mean very much,...

The ones that swear off, most of them they go back onto it sooner or later, get pig drunk and locked up. Something special you’ve got against drunks, Sheriff? Married to one for a long time. Too long....

John D. MacDonald

The ones that swear off, most of them they go back onto it sooner or later, get pig drunk and locked up. Something special you’ve got against drunks, Sheriff? Married to one for a long time. Too long....

It is that flavor exuded by women who have fashioned an earthy and simplified sexual adjustment to their environment, borne their young, achieved an unthinking physical confidence. They are often plac...

John D. MacDonald

It is that flavor exuded by women who have fashioned an earthy and simplified sexual adjustment to their environment, borne their young, achieved an unthinking physical confidence. They are often plac...

Saturday night. Buddy Dow, hired skipper of a big lunker owned by an insurance company in Atlanta, had enlisted two recruits and was despairingly in need of more.

John D. MacDonald

Saturday night. Buddy Dow, hired skipper of a big lunker owned by an insurance company in Atlanta, had enlisted two recruits and was despairingly in need of more.

Died.

John D. MacDonald

Died.

It was to have been a quiet evening at home.

John D. MacDonald

It was to have been a quiet evening at home.

Throats in a dreadful silence. The infection will spread outward from that point. Old ladies will crack skulls with their deadly handbags. Cars will plunge down the crowded sidewalks. Drivers will be...

John D. MacDonald

Throats in a dreadful silence. The infection will spread outward from that point. Old ladies will crack skulls with their deadly handbags. Cars will plunge down the crowded sidewalks. Drivers will be...