John Wayne credited as playing...
Cole Thornton
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: What the hell are you doin' here?
- Cole: I'm lookin' at a tin star with a... drunk pinned on it.
- Cole: Did you get him?
- Mississippi: Who?
- Cole: The fella that ran outta the church!
- Mississippi: Well, yes and no.
- Cole: Yes and no? Did you or didn't you?
- Mississippi: I hit the sign, and the sign hit him.
- Cole: Well, that's great.
- Mississippi: He was limping when he left!
- Cole: He was limping when he got here!
- Bull Harris: [about Cole and Mississippi going on patrol] If you're gonna do that, here's a couple of badges.
- [gives them to Cole and Mississippi]
- Bull Harris: Now, raise your right hand.
- [they do as told]
- Bull Harris: I forgot the words, but you better say 'I do'!
- Cole, Mississippi: I do!
- Bull Harris: Now you're deputies!
- Mississippi: You suppose these will do any good if somebody takes a shot at us?
- Bull Harris: Give them a good mark to shoot at.
- Bull Harris: [while mixing the hangover cure] Here's your gunpowder.
- Cole: *Gunpowder?*
- Bull Harris: Yup. Mississippi remembered it on the way to the store.
- Mississippi: Put it in, Bull.
- Bull Harris: All of it?
- Mississippi: Uh-huh, all of it.
- Cole: I hope you don't... blow him up!
- Mississippi: [examining J.P.'s leg after he's been shot] I gotta cut this pant leg.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Well, go ahead and cut it! Have you got a kni...
- [Mississippi pulls out his huge Bowie knife from its hiding place on his back]
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: A knife? Uh, I suppose I've asked this before, but just who...?
- [looks at Cole instead]
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Who is he?
- Cole: Tell him your name, Mississippi.
- Mississippi: [sighs and looks up] Alan Bourdillion Trehearne.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Well, no wonder he carries a knife.
- Bart Jason: [Thornton is trying to distract McLeod outside of Jason's saloon] Didn't expect to see you here, Mr. Thornton.
- Cole: Hello, McLeod.
- Bart Jason: I said...
- Nelse McLeod: My show, Jason. Hi, Thornton.
- Cole: There's a little question... unanswered between us.
- Nelse McLeod: Which one of us is best?
- Cole: That's right.
- Nelse McLeod: I don't think we're gonna find out the answer to that question.
- Cole: No?
- Nelse McLeod: No. Your gun hand's no good.
- Cole: You just give me time to get down off of this wagon and we'll find out.
- Nelse McLeod: Why should I give you any time?
- Cole: Call it professional courtesy.
- Bart Jason: Don't listen to him. Why should you give him time?
- Nelse McLeod: Curiosity, Jason.
- Cole: [Bull blows his bugle, and when McLeod turns around, Thornton dives off the wagon and mortally wounds McLeod with a hidden gun] McLeod?
- Nelse McLeod: You didn't give me any chance at all, did you?
- Cole: No, I didn't. You're too good to give a chance to.
- Nelse McLeod: Yeah. I let a one-armed man take me.
- Cole: Either one of ya know a fast way to sober a man up?
- Bull Harris: A bunch of howlin' indians out for hair'll do it quicker'n anything I know.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Cole, they laughed at me. Right in front of McLeod, they just laughed at me.
- Cole: They've been laughing at you for a couple of months. You just haven't being sober enough to hear it.
- Cole: Now just a minute, son.
- Mississippi: I... AM NOT... YOUR SON. My name is Alan Bourdillion Traherne.
- Cole: Lord Almighty... .
- Mississippi: Yeah.
- Milt: You've got a lot of faith in me, don't ya, Nelse?
- Nelse McLeod: Faith can move mountains, Milt, but it can't beat a faster draw. There's only three men I know with his kind of speed. One's dead. The other's me. And the third is Cole Thornton.
- Cole: There's a fourth.
- Nelse McLeod: Which one are you?
- Cole: I'm Thornton.
- [Milt withdraws]
- Nelse McLeod: Aren't you glad you didn't try, Milt? Pick up your guns, both of you, real easy.
- Cole: Like he said, real easy.
- Cole: What was the idea of diving under those horses?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Diving under those horses?
- Mississippi: Yeah. A man can't shoot good when his horse is jumping, and a horse will not step on a man.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: He won't?
- Mississippi: He will?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Alan Bourdillion Ter-who?
- Cole: Terhane.
- Mississippi: Trahearne!
- Cole, Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Trahearne.
- Mississippi: Yeah.
- Cole: What kept you?
- Mississippi: I was talking to a girl. She said she saw...
- Cole: A girl?
- Mississippi: Don't you think I can know a girl?
- Mississippi: [while mixing some hangover cure] Let's see. We got ipecac and mustard and cayenne. That leaves us asafetida.
- Cole: Are you sure that Johnny Diamond wasn't an embalmer?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: It'll be a nice quiet town after you leave, Cole.
- Cole: How do you know I'm leaving?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: We just don't need your kind around here.
- Cole: Don't you know better than to follow a man that way?
- Mississippi: Sorry... I didn't know there was another way.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: You know something Cole, I think we'd better get ourselves a new girl.
- Cole: Yeah.
- Maudie: You'd better not.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Why not?
- Maudie: I'm girl enough for both of you.
- Mississippi: Always liked that poem too. Makes me wanna...
- Cole: Ride, boldly ride? Well, it don't work out that way.
- Mississippi: I'm learnin' that.
- Mississippi: Well, where are we headed?
- Cole: To see a girl.
- Mississippi: To see a *girl*?
- Cole: Yes, a girl! Don't you think I could know a girl?