True Grit Quotes

Rooster Cogburn: That Chinamen is running them cheap shells on me again.

LaBoeuf: I thought you gonna say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your Eye!

Rooster Cogburn: We'll sleep here and follow in the morning.

Mattie Ross: But we promised to bury the poor soul inside!

Rooster Cogburn: Ground's too hard. If them men wanted a decent burial, they should have gotten themselves kilt in summer.

Lucky Ned Pepper: What is your intention Rooster? You think one on four is a dogfall?

Rooster Cogburn: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which will you have?

Lucky Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!

LaBoeuf: You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements. While I sat there watchin' I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss... though you are very young, and sick... and unattractive to boot. But now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.

Mattie Ross: One would be just as unpleasant as the other.

Rooster Cogburn: [outside the cabin] Who is in there?

Emmett Quincy: [from inside the cabin] A Methodist and a son of a bitch!

LaBoeuf: I've just come from Yell County.

Mattie Ross: We have no rodeo clowns in Yell County.

LaBoeuf: A saucy line will not get you far with me.

Cross-examining Lawyer: So, you say that when Amos Wharton raised his axe, you backed away from him.

Rooster Cogburn: That's right.

Cross-examining Lawyer: In what direction were you going?

Rooster Cogburn: I always go backwards when I'm backing up.

Rooster Cogburn: Is that him?

Mattie Ross: I believe not.

Rooster Cogburn: Oh, cut him down.

Mattie Ross: [incredulous] Why?

Rooster Cogburn: I might know him.

Mattie Ross: Thank Mr. Stonehill for me.

Stableboy: No ma'am. I ain't supposed to utter your name!

Mattie Ross: Do you need a good lawyer?

Lucky Ned Pepper: I need a good judge...

Mattie Ross: If I had killed Chaney, I would not be in this fix; but my gun misfired.

Lucky Ned Pepper: [Chuckling] They will do it. It will embarrass you every time. Most girls like to play pretties, but you like guns do you?

Mattie Ross: I do not care a thing about guns, if I did, I would have one that worked.

Rooster Cogburn: [looks up at the hanging corpse] Is it Cheney?

Mattie Ross: I would not recognize the soles of his feet.

Rooster Cogburn: Well, you'll have to clamber up and look. I'm too old and too fat.

Mattie Ross: [cutting the rope on the tree] Why did they hang him so high?

Rooster Cogburn: I do not know. Possibly in the belief it'd make him more dead.

Mattie Ross: [LaBoeuf is whipping her] Are you going to let him do this, Marshal?

Rooster Cogburn: [watches for a moment] No, I don't believe I will. Put your switch away, LaBoeuf.

LaBoeuf: I aim to finish what I started!

Rooster Cogburn: It'll be the biggest mistake you ever made, you Texas brush-popper.

[aims gun at LaBoeuf]

Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied.

Mattie Ross: I know it is occupied Mr. Cogburn. As I said, I have business with you.

Rooster Cogburn: I have prior business.

Mattie Ross: You have been at it for quite some time, Mr. Cogburn.

Rooster Cogburn: There is no clock on my business! To hell with you! To hell with you! How did you stalk me here?

Mattie Ross: The sheriff told me to look in the saloon. In the saloon they referred me here. We must talk.

Rooster Cogburn: Women ain't allowed in the saloon!

Mattie Ross: I was not there as a customer. I am fourteen years old.

Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied. And will be for some time.

Cross-examining Lawyer: Mister Cogburn, in your four years as US Marshal, how many men have you shot?

Rooster Cogburn: Shot? Or killed?

Cross-examining Lawyer: Let us restrict it to killed so we may have a manageable figure!

LaBoeuf: You are getting ready to show your ignorance now, Cogburn. I don't mind a little personal chaffing but I won't hear anything against the Ranger troop from a man like you.L

Rooster Cogburn: How long have you boys been mounted on sheep down there?

LaBoeuf: My Appaloosa will be galloping when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed. Now make another joke about it. You are only trying to put on a show for this girl Mattie with what you must think is a keen tongue.

Rooster Cogburn: This is like women talking.

LaBoeuf: Yes, that is the way! Make me out foolish in this girl's eyes.

Rooster Cogburn: I think she has got you pretty well figured.

Rooster Cogburn: [after singing for a long time] That was "Johnny in the Low Ground." There are very few fiddle tunes I have not heard. Once heard they are locked in my mind forever. It is a sadness to me that I have sausage fingers that cannot crowd onto a fretboard... Little fat girls at a cotillion. "Soldier's Joy"!

[sings more]

LaBoeuf: [to Mattie] I don't believe he slept.

First Lawyer: Mr. Cogburn, did you find a bottle with a hundred and twenty-five dollars in it?

Cross-examining Lawyer: Objection your Honor, Leading

Judge Parker: Sustained. Rephrase the question.

First Lawyer: What happened then?

Rooster Cogburn: [slightly annoyed] I found a bottle with a hundred and twenty-five dollars in it.

Mattie Ross: [anxiously watching four men riding to kill Rooster Cogburn] Shoot them, Mr. Laboeuf!

LaBoeuf: [aiming his rifle] Too far. Movin' too fast.

Mattie Ross: [Discussing the price of cotton] We got most of our cotton in early. We got 12 and a half cents a pound in Little Rock.

Col. Stonehill: Then I suggest you take the rest of your crop to Little Rock to sell.

Mattie Ross: This being closer, I though I might check on the price in Ft. Smith while I was here.

Col. Stonehill: Did you come all this way to inform me of the price of cotton in Little Rock?

[first title card]

Title card: The wicked flee when none pursueth. Proverbs 28:1

[first lines]

40-Year-Old Mattie: People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood. But it did happen. I was just 14 years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down and robbed him of his life and his horse and two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. Chaney was a hired man and Papa had taken him up to Fort Smith to help lead back a string of Mustang ponies he'd bought. In town, Chaney had fallen to drink and cards and lost all his money. He got it into his head he was being cheated and went back to the boarding house for his Henry rifle. When Papa tried to intervene, Chaney shot him. Chaney fled. He could have walked his horse, for not a soul in that city could be bothered to give chase. No doubt Chaney fancied himself scot-free. But he was wrong. You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free, except the grace of God.

[last lines]

40-Year-Old Mattie: I had the body removed to our plot and I have visited it over the years. No doubt people talk about that. They say, "Well, she hardly knew the man. Isn't she a cranky old maid?" It is true, I have not married. I never had time to fool with it. I heard nothing more of the Texas officer LaBoeuf. If he is yet alive, I would be pleased to hear from him. I judge he would be in his 70s now, and nearer 80 than 70. I expect some of the starch has gone out of that cowlick. Time just gets away from us.

[from trailer]

Lucky Ned Pepper: I will kill this girl.

Rooster Cogburn: Biggest mistake you ever made.

LaBoeuf: As I understand it, Chaney... or Chelmsford, as he called himshelf in Texas... shot the senator's dog. When the senator remonstrated, Chelmsford shot him as well. You could argue that the shooting of the dog was merely an instance of malum prohibitum, but the shooting of a senator is indubitably an instance of malum in se.

Rooster Cogburn: Malla-men what?

Mattie Ross: Malum in se. The distinction is between an act that is wrong in itself, and an act that is wrong only according to our laws and mores. It is Latin.

Rooster Cogburn: I am struck that LaBoeuf is shot, trampled, and nearly severs his tongue, and not only does not cease to talk, but spills the banks of English!

Rooster Cogburn: [after missing a shot on a bottle he threw up in the air] The chinaman is running them cheap shells on me again.

LaBoeuf: I thought you were going to say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your EYE.

Cross-examining Lawyer: You sprang from cover with revolver in hand?

Rooster Cogburn: I did.

Cross-examining Lawyer: Loaded and cocked?

Rooster Cogburn: Well, if it ain't loaded and cocked, it don't shoot!

Mattie Ross: Who's the best marshal?

Sheriff: I'll have to weigh that. William Waters is the best tracker. He's half Comanche, and it is something to see him cut for sign. The meanest is Rooster Cogburn; he is a pitiless man, double tough, and fear don't enter into his thinking. Loves to pull a cork... The best is probably L.T. Quinn; he brings his prisoners in alive. Now, he might let one slip by now and again, but he believes that even the worst of men is entitled to a fair shake.

Mattie Ross: Where can I find this Rooster?

Mattie Ross: Well I need a pony, and I'll pay you ten dollars for one of them.

Col. Stonehill: No, that's a lot price, no no... wait a minute... are we trading again?

Emmett Quincy: Don't you go flappin' your gums, Moon! If you blow, I will kill you!

Moon: I'm played out, Quincy! We seen Ned and Hayes two days ago...

[Quincy draws a boot knife and cuts Moon's fingers off, then stabs him in the heart. Rooster immediately shoots Quincy in the face]

Rooster Cogburn: Goddamn it.

Rooster Cogburn: At The Green Frog, had a billiard table. Served ladies and men both, mostly men. Tried running it myself for a while, but couldn't keep good help. And I never did learn how to buy meat. Is it him?

Mattie Ross: [Examining hanging body] I believe not.

Rooster Cogburn: Well, cut him down.

Mattie Ross: Why?

Rooster Cogburn: I might know him.

[Mattie climbs higher to reach the rope]

Rooster Cogburn: That's when I went out to the staked plains of Texas. Shoot buffalo with Vernon Shaftoe and a Flathead Indian named Olly. Well, the Mormons, well they run Shaftoe out of Great Salt Lake City, don't ask me what for. Call it a misunderstanding and leave it go at that. Well, big shaggies, about all gone now. Damned shame. Give three dollars right now for a pickled buffalo tongue.

Mattie Ross: Why did they hang him so high?

Rooster Cogburn: I do not know. Possibly in the belief it'd make him more dead.

Moon: [Cogburn is offering the wounded Moon help in exchange for informations] My leg is giving me fits.

Rooster Cogburn: Yes, a young fellow like you don't want to lose his leg.

Emmett Quincy: [to Moon] He's trying to get at you!

Rooster Cogburn: ...with the truth.

Lucky Ned Pepper: Your friend Rooster does not collect many prisoners.

Mattie Ross: He is not my friend. He has abandoned me to a congress of louts.

Lucky Ned Pepper: You do not varnish your opinions.

Mattie Ross: [about Chaney] Why did you not catch him in Pine Bluff, Arkansas or Monroe, Louisiana?

LaBoeuf: He is a crafty one.

Mattie Ross: I thought him slow-witted myself.

LaBoeuf: ...that was his act.

Mattie Ross: It was a good one. Are you some kind of law?

LaBoeuf: That's right.

[smugly]

LaBoeuf: I'm a Texas Ranger.

Mattie Ross: That may make you a big noise in that state; in Arkansas you should mind that your Texas trappings and title do not make you an object of fun.

Mattie Ross: [haggling with Cogburn] You're trying to take advantage of me.

Rooster Cogburn: I'm giving you the children's rate! I'm not a sharper. I'm an old man sleeping in a rope bed in a room behind a Chinese grocery. I have nothing.

Mattie Ross: You want to be kept in whiskey.

Rooster Cogburn: I don't need to buy that, I confiscate it.

Mattie Ross: [Mattie tries to persuade LaBouef to continue the hunt with her] Have I held you back? I have a Colt's dragoon revolver which I know how to use, and I would be no more of a burden to you than I was to the marshal.

LaBoeuf: That is not my worry. You have earned your spurs, that is clear enough... . you have been a regular old hand on the trail. But Cogburn is right, even if I would not give him the satisfaction of conceding it. The trail is cold, and I am... considerably diminished.

Mattie Ross: How can you give up now, after the many months you've dedicated to finding Chaney? You have shown great determination. I misjudged you. I picked the wrong man.

LaBoeuf: I would go on in your company if there were clear way to go. But we would be striking out blindly. Chelmsford is gone. We have chased him right off the map. There is nothing for it. I am bound for Texas, and it is time for you to go home too... . The marshal, when he sobers, is your way back.

Mattie Ross: I will not go back! Not without Chaney, dead or alive.

LaBoeuf: I misjudged you as well. I extend my hand.

[He does, but Mattie does not take it]

Mattie Ross: Mr. LaBoeuf! Please!

LaBoeuf: [LaBoeuf keeps his hand extended; Mattie eventually squeezes it] Adios.

[LaBoeuf rides away]

Mattie Ross: That is my father.

Undertaker: If you would like to kiss him, it would be all right.

Yarnell: He's gone to heaven. Praise the Lord.

Mattie Ross: Why is it so much?

Undertaker: The quality of the casket. And of the embalming. The lifelike appearance requires time and art. And the chemicals come dear. The particulars are in your bill.

Undertaker: If you'd like to kiss him, it would be all right.

Mattie Ross: Thank you, the spirit has flown.

Rooster Cogburn: Well, Me and Marshal Potter went out to the smokehouse. And that rock had been moved, the jar with the money in it was gone.

Cross-examining Lawyer: Objection, speculative.

Judge Parker: Sustained.

First Lawyer: You found a flat grey rock, in the corner of the smoke house. With a hollowed out space there.

Cross-examining Lawyer: If the prosecutor is going to give evidence, I suggest he be sworn.

First Lawyer: What did you find, if anything, in the corner of that smokehouse?

Rooster Cogburn: We found a flat grey rock with a hollowed out space under it. Nothing there.

Mattie Ross: I'll call him 'Little Blackie'.

Stableboy: That's a good name.

Mattie Ross: What does he like for a treat?

Stableboy: Well ma'am, he's a horse. So he likes apples.

Mattie Ross: Thank Mr Stonehill for me.

Stableboy: No ma'am, I ain't supposed to utter your name.

Rooster Cogburn: I'm not a sharper. I am an old man sleeping on a rope bed in a room behind the Chinese grocery. I have nothing.

Mattie Ross: You want to be kept in whiskey.

Rooster Cogburn: I don't have to buy that, I confiscate it. I am an officer of the court. Ah, thank you. $100, that's the rate.

Mattie Ross: I shall not niggle. Can we depart this afternoon?

LaBoeuf: I was within three hundred yards of Chelmsford once. The closest I have been. With a Sharp's carbine that is within range, but I was mounted and had the choice of firing off-hand or dismounting to shoot from rest, which would allow Chelmsford to augment the distance. I fired mounted... and fired wide.

Rooster Cogburn: You cannot hit a man three hundred yards if your gun was resting on Gibraltar.

LaBoeuf: The Sharp's carbine is an instrument of uncanny balance and precision.

Rooster Cogburn: I've no doubt that the gun is sound.