- Elsa Knudsen: My father says there's only right and wrong. Good and evil. Nothing in between. It isn't that simple, is it?
- Steve Judd: No, it isn't. It should be, but it isn't.
- Steve Judd: You redneck peckerwoods! You're too chicken-gutted to finish this thing out in the open!
- Gil Westrum: Don't worry about anything. I'll take care of it, just like you would have.
- Steve Judd: Hell, I know that. I always did. You just forgot it for a while, that's all.
- Gil Westrum: Cut me loose, Steve!
- Steve Judd: Why?
- Gil Westrum: [Gil holds out his bound outstretched wrists] Because I don't sleep so good anymore.
- Steve Judd: [Sees Heck carelessly discarding a paper wrapper on the ground] Pick that up! These mountains don't need your trash.
- Billy Hammond: You know, Elder, I hate to get married with one of my brothers smellin' bad enough to gag a dog off a gut wagon.
- Gil Westrum: Don't worry, boy. The Lord's bounty may not be for sale but the Devil's is. If you can pay the price.
- Gil Westrum: Pardner, do you know what's on the back of a poor man when he dies? The clothes of pride. And they're not a bit warmer to him than when he was alive.
- Steve Judd: [to Gil as they bed down in the barn] If my sleeping bothers you, don't bother to let me know it.
- Gil Westrum: [with sarcasm] Dandy pair of boots you got there.
- Steve Judd: Juan Fernandez made those boots for me in San Antone. Special order. I had a hell of a time getting him to put that hole in there. Fine craftsman, Juan, but he never did understand the principle of ventilation.
- Gil Westrum: I remember Juan. Always felt the boot should cover the foot.
- Elsa Knudsen: What's gonna happen to him?
- Steve Judd: The boy? I'll testify for him. They shouldn't be too hard.
- Elsa Knudsen: Will you testify for Mr. Westrum?
- Steve Judd: No. I won't.
- Elsa Knudsen: Why?
- Steve Judd: Because he was my friend.
- Elsa Knudsen: Mr. Longtree was a perfect gentleman.
- Sylvus Hammond: How come? Something wrong with him?
- Steve Judd: [after knocking out Heck with one punch] When I questioned you about that boy, I should've gone a bit deeper into the subject of character. I hope that's a mistake I won't live to regret.
- Steve Judd: [wryly] Good fight! I enjoyed it!
- Steve Judd: [Quoting from the Bible, Proverbs 22:14] "The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit. Him that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein."
- Steve Judd: [Meeting Joshua Knudsen when they arrive at his farmstead] We're on our way to Coarsegold. Wondered if you could furnish accommodations for the night?
- Joshua Knudsen: Well, I've got no room in the house. But I've no objection if you want to spend the night in the barn.
- Steve Judd: Thank you, sir. If you could spare us a few eggs, we'd be glad to pay for them.
- Joshua Knudsen: Well, you can have one, because the Lord's bounty is not for sale. The rest are a dollar each.
- Heck Longtree: [Outraged at the price] A dollar each! Now how in the world do those short-legged chickens lay eggs so high?
- Joshua Knudsen: [Dourly] Levity in the young is likened to a dry gourd, with the seeds rattling around.
- Luther Sampson: The days of the Forty-Niners are past - and the days of the steady businessman have arrived.
- Gil Westrum: [while the three men - Steve, Gil and Heck - are seated at the dinner table at host Joshua and his daughter Elsa's for the first time and after Steve and Joshua have a somewhat argumentative discourse quoting Bible verses pertaining to the three men's "trafficking in gold", Gil addresses Elsa to lighten the mood] You cook a lovely ham hock, Ms. Knudsen, just lovely. "Appetite, Chapter One".
- Judge Tolliver: A good marriage has a kind of simple glory about it. A good marriage is like a rare animal, it's hard to find. It's almost impossible to keep. You see, people change. That's important for you to know at the beginning. People change. The glory of a good marriage don't come at the beginning. It comes later on - and it's hard work.
- Elder Hammond: You can't take a wife away from her husband.
- Judge Tolliver: A clear case of breakin' and enterin'.
- Elder Hammond: Elsa's legally married to Billy! Right, Judge?
- Judge Tolliver: I now pr'nounce you man 'n wife. And don't you forget it.
- Steve Judd: That boy you trained personally shows a substantial lack of judgment.
- Gil Westrum: Kinda' showin' *your* age, aren't ya? Interfering with a young man's love life.
- Steve Judd: Well, I'm not payin' him ten dollars a day to go moonin' after some girl whose old man is about to hind-end him with a load of buckshot!
- Heck Longtree: That old man? He don't look like much to me.
- Gil Westrum: Son, I wore a star with "that old man" for six years. I was his deputy most of the time. Once he was mine. Don't ever play him short!
- Steve Judd: What more could a man expect? I got to thinkin' about that one time. Well, sir, I keep records. When I became a lawman, the world lost a first-class bookkeeper. So, to pass the time one day, I sort of calculated what it's worth to get shot at. Figured it about a hundred dollars a shot.
- Gil Westrum: You would have earned quite a sum by now.
- Steve Judd: Getting hit? I figure that's worth anywhere from a thousand on up.
- Gil Westrum: That's three thousand I know you got coming.
- Steve Judd: Four brings it up to date. Then tally up all the fights, bush-whackings, cold camps and the like. That time in Lincoln County. Five weeks in the hospital, six months out of work. Add it all up, I'd say I was owed about all the gold we could carry out of these mountains. That's something to hope for.
- Luther Sampson: I must say, Mr. Judd, I expected a much younger man.
- Steve Judd: Well, I used to be. We all used to be.
- Gil Westrum: Must be something important to bring you here. Looks to me like you've been riding a long time but not gettin' very far.
- Gil Westrum: Shootin' against you is like sneaking licorice whips from a baby girl. Care to try again?
- Gil Westrum: It's easier than punching cows - and it pays off with *free* drinks every time I walk into a saloon. Would it surprise you to know the Oregon kid is the envy of every small-minded ribbon clerk and shirttailed towhead from here to Pocatello?
- Gil Westrum: Kid, you couldn't get close enough to Steve Judd to saddle his horse.
- Heck Longtree: Well, you could.
- Gil Westrum: Yes, I could, but I won't - unless I have to.
- Heck Longtree: Must be pretty lonely living up here.
- Elsa Knudsen: Sometimes, I get to thinkin' there's nobody left in the world but my father and me.
- Steve Judd: The question is, can I do it? I can't answer that by talking about it, only by doing it.
- Abner Sampson: Mr. Judd, we're more than familiar with your reputation.
- Steve Judd: Thank you.
- Abner Sampson: But that was made many years ago and we're dealin' in the present, not the past.
- Steve Judd: I'm not payin' him $10 a day to go moonin' after some girl whose old man's about to hind-end him with a load of buckshot.
- Joshua Knudsen: That mining town is a sinkhole of depravity, a place of shame and sin.
- Elsa Knudsen: According to my father, every place outside this farm is a place of sin.
- Gil Westrum: Lovely place. Beauty spot of nature. A Garden of Eden for the sore in heart and short of cash.
- Elsa Knudsen: I guess you're an authority on what most girls do.
- Heck Longtree: Well, I've studied the subject.