- Big Eli Wakefield: It ain't we don't like people - we like room more. Room to stretch in, room to see and hunt... and where you set your foot no foot's been set before. That's what ails Kentucky now; a man can't hardly move without he nudges up agin' a neighbor.
- [first lines]
- Little Eli Wakefield: How long now, Pa? How many more days?
- Big Eli Wakefield: We ain't much more than started!
- Little Eli Wakefield: But won't you tell me something more about Texas?
- Big Eli Wakefield: Well, it's a place for the likes of us. No people there much, no neighbors to crowd ya, only wild game to see and to shoot at. And when you take a breathe, it's got a clean taste to it, like nobody ain't never used it before.
- Drunk frontiersman with whip: Who dares? Who dares to crack a whip with me? My mammy was a gator and my pappy was a bull! I can whup my weight in wildcats and drink my belly full. Who dares?
- [Stan whips the jug out of drunk whipcracker's hand]
- Drunk frontiersman with whip: Not you, Stan. You cut too fine a seam for me.
- Big Eli Wakefield: I'm trying to be a right father to you. I'm trying to think what kind of man you'll grow up to be.
- Little Eli Wakefield: What kind of man are you coming to be? That's the worst of all!
- Zack Wakefield: I know what's best for him. I'll make a businessman out of him. You leave it to me. I'll work the buckskin out of him and off of him both. He's my little brother.
- Big Eli Wakefield: Bodine, for once you've gone too far!
- Stan Bodine: I go where I please, Wakefield!
- Big Eli Wakefield: Look, we're much obliged - more than I can say.
- Hannah Bolen: Eli, you're playin' the fool.
- Big Eli Wakefield: Maybe my own kind of fool then.
- Big Eli Wakefield: [to Little Eli] Let's go, boy.
- Pleasant Tuesday Babson: You don't measure land in Texas by rod and chain - you measure by the eye. And when the eye can see no further, that's where you drive your stake. The rifle ball has not been made that can carry to a neighbor's line.
- [last lines]
- Big Eli Wakefield: No, Hannah, don't leave us. We're goin' to Texas. We're goin' to live it bold.