True Grit Movie Quotes
Mattie Ross
You must pay for everything in this world, one way or another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.
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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!
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[last lines]
40-Year-Old Mattie
[voiceover]
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.
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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.
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[first lines]
40-Year-Old Mattie
[voiceover]
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 or another. There is nothing free, except the grace of God.
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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!
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Rooster Cogburn
[to Matty about burying the outlaws]
The ground's too hard. If they wanted a decent funeral, they should have got themselves killed in summer.
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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!
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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.
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[first title card]
Title card
The wicked flee when none pursueth. Proverbs 28:1
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Col. Stonehill
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world as it is is vexing enough.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Rooster Cogburn
If he is not in a shallow grave somewhere between here and Fort Smith he is gone. Long gone! Thanks to Mr. LaBeouf, we have missed our shot. He barked and the birds have flown. Gone. Gone. Gone! Lucky Ned and his cohort gone. Your fifty dollars gone. Gone the whiskey - seized in evidence. The trail is cold, if there ever was one. I'm a foolish old man who's been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trouser and a nincompoop. Mr. LaBeouf, he can wonder the Choctaw Nation for as long as he likes. Perhaps the local In'jins will take him in and honor his jibberings by making him chief. You, sister, may go where you like. Our engagement is terminated. I bow out.
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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!
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Mattie Ross
Thank Mr. Stonehill for me.
Stableboy
No ma'am. I ain't supposed to utter your name!
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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?
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Mattie Ross
Do you need a good lawyer?
Lucky Ned Pepper
I need a good judge...
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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?
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.
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40-Year-Old Mattie
Keep your seat, trash.
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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?
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Rooster Cogburn
I do not know. Possibly in the belief it'd make him more dead.
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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.
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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]
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Rooster Cogburn
You go for a man hard enough and fast enough, he don't have time to think about how many's with him; he thinks about himself, and how he might get clear of that wrath that's about to set down on him
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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! 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. Will be for some time.
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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.
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LaBoeuf
I am not accustomed to so large a fire. In Texas, we'll make do with a fire of little more than twigs... buffalo chips. Heat the night's ration of beans. And it is Ranger policy never to make your camp in the same place as your cook fire. Very imprudent to make your presence known in unsettled country.
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Undertaker
If you would like to sleep in a coffin, it would be all right.
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Rooster Cogburn
I'm a foolish old man who's been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpie in trousers and a nincompoop.
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Emmett Quincy
[from inside the cabin]
A Methodist and a son of a bitch!
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Rooster Cogburn
I do not know this man.
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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?
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Rooster Cogburn
I'd give $3 now for a pickled buffalo tongue.
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Bear Man
You might want to head over to the Original Greaser Bob's. He notched a dugout into a hollow along the Coralon River. If you ride the river you won't fail to see it. Greaser Bob, the Original Greaser Bob, is hunting north of the picket wire and would not begrudge its use.
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Rooster Cogburn
You are not LaBoeuf.
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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!
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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]
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Mattie Ross
And "futile", Marshal Cogburn, "pursuit would be futile"? It's not spelled "f-u-d-e-l."
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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.
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Rooster Cogburn
[LaBoeuf has been talking about malum prohibitum and malum in se]
It astonishes me that Mr. LaBoeuf has been shot, trampled, and nearly bitten his tongue off, and yet not only does he continue to talk but he spills the banks of English.
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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.
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[from trailer]
Lucky Ned Pepper
I will kill this girl.
Rooster Cogburn
Biggest mistake you ever made.
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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.
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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.
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Rooster Cogburn
That didn't pan out.
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Emmett Quincy
[to Mattie]
Who worked you over with the ugly stick?
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Rooster Cogburn
Is that him?
Mattie Ross
I believe not.
Rooster Cogburn
Oh, cut him down.
Rooster Cogburn
I might know him.
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LaBoeuf
It is you who have nothing to offer, Cogburn! A sad picture indeed. This is no longer a manhunt, it is a debauch. The Texas Ranger presses on... alone.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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 rides away]
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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.
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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.
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Mattie Ross
[addressing yarnell]
Tell mama not to sign anything until I return home and see that Papa is buried in his mason's apron.
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