Comanches were not great because they mastered the arts of war and peace but because they were a people for whom the war and peace had precisely the same value.S.C. Gwynne
Quanah Parker was the kind of man who lived by no beliefs that did not immediately serve his purposes, who locked on to enemies and victims with the focused, consuming hatred of a predator.S.C. Gwynne
In the end, the greatness of the Comanches rested not on war or peace, or anything that happened on a battlefield, but on the fact that they were able to survive the impossible twice over.S.C. Gwynne
Quanah was the face and brain of Comanche power, and the embodiment of its tragic end.S.C. Gwynne
The story of the Comanche Empire, like the story of the American West, is a tale of not just military and economic power, but the power of an idea, a dream, a myth.S.C. Gwynne
The Comanches had no written language, no farming, no great cities; their single creation was a military and societal system that allowed them to hold sway over vast tracts of continent.S.C. Gwynne
There was no Comanche greater than Quanah Parker. In his life and in his person he embodied all that was grand and tragic about his people.S.C. Gwynne
Comanche bravery was a point of pride, and it was said that in battle they 'sought death as if it were life.' Yet they knew when to fight and when to flee.S.C. Gwynne
The story of Quanah and the Comanches, then, is the story of a struggle for survival, for an identity, for a place in a rapidly changing world.S.C. Gwynne
The tale of the Comanches is always more than the sum of its parts, more than a simple narrative about winners and losers, conquerors and victims, more than a story about a time and place. It is the story of a people and their dream of freedom and dominion.S.C. Gwynne