Quotes from
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Lone Watie: Get ready, little lady. Hell is coming to breakfast.
Josey Wales: Now remember, things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.
Lone Watie: All I have is a piece of hard candy. But it's not for eating. It's for lookin through.
Josey Wales: When I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.
Lone Watie: I notice when you get to DISlikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.
Josey Wales: Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?
Lone Watie: We thought about it for a long time, "Endeavor to persevere." And when we had thought about it long enough, we declared war on the Union.
Lone Watie: I didn't surrender, but they took my horse and made him surrender. They have him pulling a wagon up in Kansas I bet.
Jamie: Too bad we don't have time to bury those fellas proper like.
Josey Wales: To hell with those fellas. Buzzards have to eat, same as worms.
Ten Bears: These things you say we will have, we already have.
Josey Wales: That's true. I ain't promising you nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another.
Ten Bears: It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... and death. It shall be life.
Senator: There's a saying, Fletcher: To the victor belongs the spoils.
Fletcher: There's another saying, Senator: Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.
Josey Wales: You a bounty hunter?
Bounty Hunter: A man has to do something these days to earn a living.
Josey Wales: Dyin' ain't much of a living boy.
[Fletcher knows he's talking to Josey Wales]
Fletcher: I think I'll go down Mexico and find him.
Josey Wales: And then?
Fletcher: I'll give him the first move. I owe him that much. I think I'll tell him the war is over. What do you say... Mr. Wilson?
Josey Wales: Reckon so. We all died a little in that damn war.
Josey Wales: Anyone gets hit, sing out. Slap iron to it. It's the fastest way to stop the bleeding.
Fletcher: You told me those men would be treated decently.
Senator Lane: They were. They were decently fed and then they were decently shot.
Lone Watie: I'm glad you stopped me when you did. I might have killed her.
Jamie: You can't kill 'em all, Josie.
Josey Wales: That's a fact.
Jamie: Then why are you doing this?
Josey Wales: Because I ain't got nothin' better to do, kid.
[Missouri guerillas come upon Josey standing by his family's graves]
"Bloody Bill" Anderson: Name's Anderson. Bloody Bill's what they call me.
[Looks around]
"Bloody Bill" Anderson: Red Legs? They're with the Union down in Kansas. And we're goin' down there to set things right.
Josey Wales: I'll be goin' with you.
Lone Watie: I'm gettin' better at sneaking up on you. Only an Indian can do this.
Josey Wales: That's what I figured.
Lone Watie: You figured?
Josey Wales: Only an Indian can do that.
[Lone Watie hears a gun cock behind him; turns and sees Moonlight]
Lone Watie: It's not right; this damn woman doing this to me. I used to have power. Now old age is creeping up on me.
Josey Wales: More like old habits.
Laura Lee: Kansas was all golden and smelled like sunshine.
Josey Wales: Yeah, well, I always heard there were three kinds of suns in Kansas, sunshine, sunflowers, and sons-of-bitches.
[putting his dead friend on a horse and sending him into the enemy camp]
Josey Wales: This boy was brought up in a time of blood and dying and never questioned a bit of it. He never turned his back on his folks or his kind. I rode with him... and I got no complaints. The blue bellies will give ya a better burial than I can, boy.
Granny Hawkins: So, you'd be Josey Wales.
Josey Wales: Now, how might you know that, Granny?
Granny Hawkins: Union soldiers was through here looking for you 'bout two hours ago. (Josey looks at Carstairs)
Sim Carstairs: Uh, I was goin' to mention that to you; first chance I got.
Granny Hawkins: They say you killed your own men.
Jamie: Those lying, blue-bellied scum...
Granny Hawkins: They say you're a hard put and dangerous man, Josey Wales. They say they're goin' to heel and hide you to a barn door. You know what I say?
Josey Wales: What's that, Granny?
Granny Hawkins: I say that big talk's worth doodly-squat. Now, them poltices is laced with feathermoss and mustard root. Mind you drop water on 'em occasion to keep 'em damp. (Walks off) You can pay me when you see me again, Josey Wales.
Josey Wales: I reckon so.
Captain Terrell: Not a hard man to track. Leaves dead men wherever he goes.
Lone Watie: How'd you know which one was goin' to draw first?
Josie Wales: That fella on the far left; he had a flap holster and he was in no itchin' hurry. That second fella, he had scared eyes. But that fella in the middle; he had crazy eyes.
Lone Watie: What about that one on the far right?
Josie Wales: Never paid him no mind; you were there.
Lone Watie: I might have missed.