- Will Stoneman: Do you think I can do this?
- Ned Dodd: Matters most what you think.
- Will Stoneman: I think you should come, is what I think.
- Ned Dodd: Be strong boy. Be brave. Your father will be with you always. He lives in your dreams. Trust the dogs. Trust yourself.
- Will Stoneman: I will.
- Ned Dodd: When you come to face the thing you fear let the Creator guide you.
- Harry Kingsley: You're gonna run 40 miles on fruit cake?
- Will Stoneman: It's a special fruitcake Mr. Kingsley.
- Harry Kingsley: Once in a generation an athlete pits himself against such overwhelming odds that even the most jaded spectator finds himself cheering breathlessly.
- Ned Dodd: The first few days you sleep five hours. Then four, then three, then two. The last day you don't sleep. You just run. Run till the end.
- Indians: You have to be strong. You have to learn focus, stamina, and balance. Only the smart ones will finish. You have to run longer and sleep less. It's your only chance. You'll make friends who arn't your friends, enemies who want to hurt you. Be careful who you trust.
- Will Stoneman: How do I know who to trust?
- Ned Dodd: Trust the dogs.
- Indians: You have one chance. You must run at night when the others have stopped. Run with the moon. Embrace the darkenss. Grow hard with the cold. Put pain from your mind. And on the last day, when all will at night... you alone will be friendly with the dark.
- Will Stoneman: [whistling Jack Stoneman's tune]
- Becky: What you whistling?
- Will Stoneman: I wasn't whistling anything.
- Becky: It was your father's tune.
- Will Stoneman: 'Cept I can't do it like he did.
- Becky: Maybe you'll find your own way.
- J.W. Harper: Have we come, so far that we've forgotton what it's like to start out with nothing but a dim chance and a bright hope? I will not be the one to snuff that hope gentlemen. Not I.
- Will Stoneman: I am one day short of the finsih line. Not you or anyone else is gonna stop me. So help me or leave me alone.
- Ward: Will, that was incredible!
- Becky: Incredibly foolish! You could have been killed Will Stoneman.
- Will Stoneman: Well how many times is there an army truck in the middle of the street? I've been coming around this corner my whole life and has there ever been an army truck in the middle of the street?
- Soldier: Nice piece of runnin' there. So, how old are you pal?
- Will Stoneman: Seventeen
- Soldier: Think you'll be ready to fight a war in a year?
- Will Stoneman: I'm ready now, uh, war with who?
- [Soldier laughs]
- Soldier: Stay alive buddy, your country might need you.
- Jack Stoneman: Look son, if you want something real bad, I mean you really want it, you've got to go out where you can find it and grab it.
- Will Stoneman: We're barely making enough to survive, with no hope for anything better. I couldn't dream anymore about school. But when I saw this flier, I felt life getting back into me.
- Will Stoneman: Mom, I want to feel alive. I want to feel like Dad's alive, right here. And I don't. I don't. Mom, he was going to do this for me. Now, let me do it for him.
- Ned Dodd: Training begins now.
- Will Stoneman: Ned? Ned, it's cold! Ned! Ned! Mom! Mom! Mom, please, it's cold! Mom, it's cold! Mom!
- Will Stoneman: That's for using me and my family to sell your damn newspapers, and printing pictures that are gonna make my mother worry.
- Maggie Stoneman: Ten thousand dollars, Will. You don't have to die for it. If we lose the farm - ...
- Will Stoneman: We'll lose it fighting. But we're not gonna lose it.
- Maggie Stoneman: Just come home alive.
- Ward: Will, I'm your best friend. Don't matter what crazy thing you do. I just wish you could win.
- Will Stoneman: I'll win. You can bet all your money on that.
- J.W. Harper: [Watching Kingsley getting up after a punch by Will] What's tomorrow's headline, Mr. Kingsley?