Sam Colt Quotes

“God created men, but Sam Colt made them equal.”

“For more than two decades, Sam Colt would strive to perfect and market his revolving gun and wait for the world to catch up to his idea. In the meantime, he lived in perpetual motion. Centrifugal chaos one biographer has called it.”

“This little pistol which is just put into my hand will pick into more than two hundred parts, every one of which parts is made by a machine. A little skill is required in polishing the wood, in making cases, and in guiding the machines; but mere strength of muscle, which is so valuable in new societies, would find no market here — for the steam engine performs nine-tenths of all the work that is done here.”

“The good people of this world are very far from being satisfied with each other and my arms are the best peacemakers.”

“He was rich by the time he was 21, poor at 31, then rich again at 41. He may have had a secret marriage and almost certainly had a son he pretended was his nephew. His brother, John, committed an infamous murder that could have been lifted straight out of an Edgar Allan Poe story, though, in fact, it went the other way. Poe lifted a story from it.”

“Compared to other great innovations of his era, such as Cyrus McCormick's reaper, [Charles Goodyear](/people/charles-goodyear)'s vulcanized rubber and Samuel Morse's telegraph, Colt's gun, a few pounds in the hand was just a featherweight. But it did as much, if not more, than those others to make the world that was coming.”

“God created men. Sam Colt made them equal.”