300 Best Gunsmoke Quotes

Carl: You know, Dirks, half the trouble in this world comes from having a big mouth.

Marshal: It's 10:30, Springer. By midnight, I want you to ride down that street and out of town. And if you come back, you're going to jail.
Nate: [Rises slowly] It's been a long time since a man talked to me that way, Marshal.
Marshal: How long has it been since you were scared into shooting a dog? Or since you drew on a woman? You've lost your nerve, Springer. You're not about to kill anybody.

Sergeant: What's a matter, is it too late in the day to kill or is it too early in the evening to die?

Kitty: Will Mannon rode Ruth into town about five hours ago.
Festus: Will Mannon!
Kitty: He's down at the Long Branch right now.
Festus: You want to talk about a fast gun hand? If you was to take a snake's tongue's grease it and tie it to a bolt of lightning you couldn't get nothing as fast as his gun hand!

Professor: What do you know about men like me Marshal? Laws are for little men, like you. But for us, the great ones, we take what we want, do what we want, even kill if we want.

Charlie: My own pa was lynched, Marshal. A mob strung him up by mistake. I was just a boy, but I saw them do it. It laid on my mind ever since. It's a big thing with me, Marshal. I can't endure seeing lynchers getting off free.

Aggie: Uh, that nice-looking young man, is he your son?
Doc: [looking around confusedly] What nice-looking young man?
Aggie: The man yonder, who just went in there with Mr. Rudd.
Doc: Chester?
Aggie: Chester. That's a nice name.
Doc: It is? Well, he's not my son. I'm too young to have a boy that old! And I'm a little too particular.
Aggie: Uh, is he married? Chester, I mean.
Doc: No, no, he's not married.
Aggie: That's nice.
Doc: Nice? Well, I would say it's more of a blessing to all the young women he's not married to.
Aggie: Oh. I thought he was a friend of yours.
Doc: Oh, yes, one of my very best friends. If he wasn't, why, I don't think I could stand him!

Festus: Looking's at it a certain way, a mule ain't hardly more than a big dog.
Ma: I don't allow big dogs either.

Breck: [the citizens have the suspects cornered up in a house and shooting at them] Hold it, HOLD IT!
Townsman: If we were all to rush them they would not stand a chance.
Abihu: He's right.
Breck: Now wait a minute. If you try to rush in there, there is a good chance of someone getting killed.
Abihu: Yeah, THEM.

Matt: [late night seeing Doc] Well, you're up late, Doc. Where you been, out on a call?
Doc: Well, now, what you think I've been doing - out romancing the ladies?
Matt: Nah, you're too old for that.
Doc: Oh, too old, huh? Let me tell you something, I could show all these young bucks around here a thing or two if I was foolish enough to take the time.

Kitty: Matt, you can't account for everything that happens to people who touch you. You know, I learned a long time ago, there are some things in this life that you just accept the way they are.
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: That's pretty deep for a redhead.
Kitty: I'm a pretty deep redhead.

Ben: Now look here, marshal, you and your deputy get on your horses and get outta here. I'm tellin' ya.
Matt: You're wasting your time, Witter
[Ben Witter]
Matt: .
Ben: [takes a breath] You gonna get on those horses or no?
Matt: Not likely
[said so VERY matter of factly, with confidence, bolstered by knowing he's the fastest]
Matt: [draw] of the two] .
Ben: Alright.
[That being the last word to ever be spoken by the outlaw, before taking five, slow, determined steps back from Dillon, then DRAWS! - but of course not as fast as the responding marshal whose faster, well-placed aim ends this baddie's time on earth]

Jeb: [speaking to Sholo] You know that ridge just over the second valley? I got me a hunch about that.
Stretch: Jeb, wanna take on your old bodyguard as a new partner?
Jeb: Why not? If you don't already know how to swing a pick, you can learn.
Sholo: I don't trust him, Mr. Jeb.
Jeb: Now, Sholo, at my age, I don't even trust me. He's got a strong back and a weak mind and evil instincts. A man like that can't be all bad.

Marshal: Well, a man has to make a choice, Amos.
Marshal: By failing to act, you made yours all the same.

Matt: It never pays to help people who don't want it.

Matt: To Miss Kitty: Well I guess I'd better sit down and finish that beer with you.

Wesley: Did you get what you come for, Marshal?
Matt: More or less, Wesley.
Matt: Sometimes you got to settle for a little less.

[to her father]
Kitty: You're too late. I'm not quitting for you or anybody else. I've had it too rough to give up everything now that I've got a chance to live decently and to be somebody... You offer me help the first time in my life I don't need it.

[last lines]
Matt: Quint, I'll tell you somethin'. As long as I'm breakin' all these laws, I think I'm gonna break another one.
Quint: How's that?
Matt: I'm gonna buy an injun some firewater.
Quint: Well, you're just bound and determined to get us into trouble, aren't ya?
Matt: [laughing, slaps Quint on the back and they set out together for the Longbranch] C'mon.

[last lines]
[Doc Adams removes Dr. Sam's name shingle, which was attached to the bottom of his shingle, and brings it into his office. He places it in a small cabinet and reads it]
Doc: Sam McTavish, M.D. You bet... You bet.

Major: There's no money this month for curtains.
Mr. Jonas: I can put it down on credit for you, Major.
Major: What we buy we pay for; what we cannot pay for we do without.

[last lines]
Quint: What a waste. What a waste.

Kitty: [looks down sadly at traumatized Sochi] Well, hanging's too good for whoever did this!
Marshal: Yeah, but it'll do for a start.

Joe: I'm felling some better Marshal, I... Them pills Doc give me helped.
Matt: What makes you think I care how you feel?
Joe: Nothing, Unless I decide not to leave Dodge.
Matt: You'll leave. You got an hour to go.
Joe: Maybe?
Matt: It's your choice. You know what will happen if you don't.
Joe: I might not be so easy to get next time Marshal.
Matt: Maybe not. But we'll find out. We'll find out real quick.

Trudy: It's a palace of joy, this place, ain't it Marshal? You know how we spent last Christmas? He got drunk and set fire to me! Honest, if I hadn't run out in that snow, I would've burned up. And then he wouldn't let me back in and I near froze to death!
Asa: [Lecherously touches Trudy's neck] Taught you to be a good little girl!
Trudy: Oh yeah, Pa, it was the best Christmas I ever spent! I won't never forget it!

Festus: [Talking about a smelly mountain man] Matthew, that Pack Landers is the type of feller you gotta walk upwind of even if th' ain't no breeze a-blowin'.

Magnus: [Smitten with Miss Kitty] I've never seen an animal as beautiful as you, ma'am.

Marshal: It'd be like blaming the night for being dark.

Mora: A mistake, Lawman. Your water, it falls on the ground.
Matt: Nope. That's your water.

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] There must be easier ways to die than most of the men up here took. Passing away in one's sleep, or gently dissolving in old age, or even being carried off by a disease of some kind. But getting stabbed, shot, hung, kicked to death - all the violent ways we have of dying out here. They leave a man without any dignity at all, and it's worse when it happens suddenly, when a man hasn't time to prepare himself. It's something I myself have to face every day. Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Jennifer: There's nothing wrong with making money.
Doc: No. No, certainly not. But if that's all you had in mind, you certainly came to the wrong place. Now I like Dodge, most of the time. I like the people in it - but not because I'm getting rich off of 'em.
Jennifer: Before we came here you were the only doctor here. You must've been making plenty of money.
Doc: Hm. I better set you straight about that. Now I wouldn't expect you'd understand because you haven't been out o' Dodge. You haven't seen the shacks, the farmers breakin' their backs tryin' to make things grow out of this dust and rock. You have any idea what my usual fee is? A bunch of carrots, or a dozen eggs maybe, or If I'm lucky, a couple o' chickens. But most of the time it's a... a warm, friendly handshake and a "Sorry, Doc, but we'll pay you soon as we can."
[Jennifer stares at the floor]
Doc: I just thought o' somethin', I gotta make a couple of calls right near town. I'd like you to ride with me.
Jennifer: But my husband...
Doc: It won't take very long. And I think it's kind of important that you see what I mean.

Festus: I'll tell you Matthew, women that's lookers has to be looked at. That means there is someone around. Of course you ain't up on your women like I am.

Hank: I don't know if I like this talk.
Matt: Nobody's making you listen to it.

[last lines]
[Josh Stryker is lying in the bed in the back room of Doc Adam's office, recovering from a gunshot wound. Stryker's daughter tells Matt that her father wants to talk to him. Matt enters the room and sits beside the bed]
Matt: Josh.
Josh: I just wanted you to know, I didn't set them fellers on ya. But maybe I coulda stopped 'em.
Matt: But we did stop 'em, Josh. And that's what counts.
Josh: That's right. That what counts
[pauses]
Josh: Marshal.
[They shake hands]

Charlie: It's his job to punish criminals, but he ain't been doing very good at it.

Miss: [Sitting together in the Long Branch] What is it, anyhow?
Doc: Oh, well, it's nitrous oxide. It's a... it's an anesthetic is what it is. It's also an intoxicant, and pretty dangerous if you get too much of it.
Miss: Well in other words, you don't recommend that we start using it here instead of whiskey, huh?
Marshal: Listen, the whiskey you serve here is dangerous enough.
Miss: Oh? Except when it's on the house!

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] Men die for a lot of reasons. I've even heard of worthy ones. Like a man who's willing to face it for the good that might come after. But he's a different breed than most of this Boot Hill trash. These people died for fool's reasons. A spilled drink, a wrong card. Maybe, worst of all, the bull-headed stubbornness that keeps a man from listening to reason. To die like this is a waste, for nothing's gained by the dying. Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Matt: I warned ya. And the next time I'm gonna run you outta Dodge.

Judge: Parker, the only difference between a rut and a grave is measurement. NOW it's time to leave this town.

Chester: That's about the cold-bloodedest woman that I ever seen.
Matt: Well, I think she's hiding something Chester.
Chester: Too bad it ain't her face, if you ask me.
Matt: Let's go.

Chester: Man that don't work's bound to get into trouble somehow.
Matt: Maybe I oughta run you out of town, then.

Kitty: Can't you stuff that into a shotgun and give it to him that way?
Marshal: Good thing you're not a man, Kitty.
Kitty: I suppose if I were I'd be just as bad as the rest of you!

Festus: [looking at wanted poster] What does it say our old friends did?
Matt: Robbery and murder.
Festus: There you go Matthew. It's men like him that give jails a bad name.

Kitty: [Whenver trouble breaks out iin the Longbranch] Sam, Go get Matt.

Ray: I've got twenty years on him.
Jud: Mister, you're gonna need every one of 'em!

Matt: Go sit in the dark where you belong

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: [Festus offers to buy Doc a beer with a silver dollar that he earned from shoeing horses in episode "Whelan's Men".] Why don't you take that money and invest it in something? Why don't you do that?
Festus: Invest it in what?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: There's wonderful land values outside of Dodge. Now why don't you go out there someplace, look around, and buy yourself a lot?
Festus: A lot of what?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: A lot! A lot of land!
Festus: Well fiddle, I can't afford to buy a lot of land. You probably could the way you've been a bilking and gouging...
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Oh, hush up! I'm trying to help you, for heaven sakes. It don't cost a whole lot to buy a little lot.
Festus: What do you mean it don't cost a whole lot to buy a little, or a whole lot to buy a lot, what do you mean?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Well, I mean,... a little lot of land!
Festus: But there ain't no such a thing. A little's a little, and a lot's a lot, there ain't no little lot, or lot of little, don't you see? Now you want that beer or don't you?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: No I'm... I'm all worn out.
Festus: [and as Doc walks away Festus Hollers] If you change your mind me and Newly will be over at the Longbranch having a whole lot of little beers.
[Chuckles and flips his silver dollar]
Festus: Now I'm buying.

Matt: I got word just now there may be a band of Comancheros operating down that way.
Chester: Oh, for heaven's sakes,
Doc: You mean Comanche, don't ya?
Chester: Comanches is Indians, Doc. Comancheros is worse. They're whites and Mexicans. They're renegades! They go around lootin' and stealin' and blaming it on the Comanches.
Doc: Well, I don't need a lecture from you about it!

Matt: [waiting to be killed by the family] Kitty, I'm sorry you got mixed up in this. You should have gotten out of here, by yourself, when you had the chance.
Kitty: And leave you here! Not on your life! Or is that a bad joke?

John: Tell Doc that pride is a kind of a cheap commodity. Like guilt. Tell him that's a gift from a poor man to a rich man.

Festus: Shore would save a lotta fuss 'n bother if we shoot 'im now, Matthew.

[last lines]
Chester: Takes a big man to carry the blame three years for somethin' he didn't do.
Matt: Chester, that's been easy compared to what he's doin' now. Real easy.

Doc: [Leans over body of murdered Dave Thorp] He was shot in the back. I don't understand it - he was a fine boy. I didn't think he had an enemy in the world.
Marshal: He had one, Doc.

Lou: Big devil, isn't he?

Marshal: Speener, I'm afraid I've done about all I can for you. Now that it's out, you're sure to get killed. Joe Harpe was pretty well-liked around here, you know. From now on, around Dodge you're as good as dead, Mister! And I don't want the bother of it. Now, suppose you get out of here, huh? Go on, get out of here!

Doc: [getting a midnight visit from Dodie] You know it's in the middle of the dad-blame night?

Kitty: I just don't understand why Eby didn't tell you about this right off the minute you got back to town.
Marshal: I'll tell you, Kitty, I ran across Eby once some time back over in Tascosa. He was slapping a woman around and I gave him quite a beating for it. He probably has never forgotten it.
Kitty: Hmm.
Marshal: He wasn't too big after that and he left town a few days later.
Kitty: I guess he figures he doesn't owe you any favors now, huh?
Marshal: Not exactly.

[last lines]
Owney: Why didn't they leave us alone?

Gene: You don't know nothing about holding up stages, Do you?
Chris: Well, how many you held up?
Gene: None!
[pause]
Gene: But I was on one that got held up once.

Doc: It's all pride with you, isn't it? Just pride. Somebody came into town who's faster than you are and you just gotta try to prove he isn't.

Festus: Golly gum beat a polecat in a bear hollow.

U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: [Repeated line to anyonne causing trouble] Get outta Dodge!

Zack: [speaking to Angel] You're a female woman alright.

Mr. Jonas: Sometimes the law may be wrong, Marshal
Matt: That may be, but we can't always just pick and choose the part of it we like, you know.

Marshal: What's bothering you?
Doc: Oh, nothing, I was just thinking how natural you're beginning to look sitting here on Front Street every day, same chair, fiddling around, trying to make people think you're busy.
Marshal: Boy, you're sure starting early this morning.
Doc: What?
Marshal: The same old growl. What's the matter? Is business bad or something? What do you want me to do go out here and shoot someone's toe off so you can amputate their leg and make a big fee?
Doc: Heavens, no, I wouldn't want you to do anything like that. Matter of fact, I recommend you keep that gun in your holster at all times. With that thing in your hands and your eyes closed the way they are most the time anymore, you're the most dangerous man I ever saw.
Marshal: Dangerous? Let me tell you something. You kill more people by accident than I do on purpose.
Doc: Well, what do you mean by that?
Marshal: Yeah, you take their temperature, they're as good as gone.

Ben: You're a game little fella, Ash Farior. I always did say you got to fight a man to get to know him good. I'd be proud to buy you a drink, Ash. You're a fine fella, Ash. I'm pleased to run into ya. Farior and Galt Freight. That sign looks real good up there, don't it Ash? Ash... We're still partners ain't we?

Moss: Until pushed to it, you never know what's inside a men.

Doc: [Chester howls with pain after hitting his thumb with a hammer] Now that wouldn't have happened if you'd held the hammer with both hands.

Matt: Mister, you got two choices, one of them is to walk out that door.
Del: I come a long ways. I'm too tired to do any more traveling.

Festus: I just thought...
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Don't think! That's when you get dangerous.

Dr. Henry S. Rand: [after getting in a fist fight with Festus] Did he bite you?
Pinto: He did but I bit him back.

Chester: You just don't realize how little it takes to get yourself killed around here.

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] I've seen a lot of young men come west full of big hopes and dreams, and then break themselves trying to work the land that often does nothing for 'em but twist their hearts and fill 'em with defeat and hatred and anger. A lot of 'em turn pretty mean as a result. But the meanest I ever ran into was a woman. Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Charlie: Them lynchers has got to be punished!

Dodie: Ma'am, I was born this morning. Right here in Dodge City. Ain't nothin' behind me. I'm new. All new.

Betsy: I'd like to send him ahead just to announce me.
Doc: I wish someone would send him a head.

Marshal: You can gamble all you like around town, as long as you don't deal a crooked game.
Marcus: Well, that's precisely what I wanted to talk to you about. You see, it's not that I am dishonest, Marshal, but I've often been accused of being so and it sometimes makes for unpleasantness.
Marshal: Well, around here it sometimes makes for gunplay.

Sam: There isn't a jury in the world that will believe what he said.
Marshal: You wanna bet?

Festus: The more a fellers got on his mind, the less time he's got to think on any one thing.

Black: I remember when you was six years old and I bought you that pair of boots up from Jalisco. Genuine leather they was - first pair of boots you ever owned. Why, you was so proud of them you wouldn't even take 'em off to go to bed at night.
Festus: Ahh, boots is just boots and that was a long time ago.
Black: Gonna grow up to be just like old Uncle Jack, that's what you used to tell everybody.
Festus: I never was real smart when I was a kid!

[the spokes on Doc's buggy are loose]
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: How much is it going to cost me to have 'em fixed?
Festus: Shouldn't 'mount t'much; fifty cents'll do... Soakin' in the crik a few hours'll swell them spokes back tight as pin feathers on a prairie chicken's rump.
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Soakin' in the crik?
Festus: Sure.
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: And while you're sitting there, letting the wheels soak, I suppose you'll do a little fishing?
Festus: Now that you mention it...
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: So I end up paying you fifty cents to fish.
Festus: Well, Doc, I'm gonna have t'dig me some worms, catch me some grasshoppers. That's tirin'. If it wasn't for them wheels needin' soakin', I wouldn't have to....

Festus: Why'nt you go roll yourself a pill?

Gunter: [Looking at the four men with him] Don't you think the odds are a little against you?
Marshal: I'm satisfied with 'em.

Kitty: [Repeated line whenever trouble breaks out in the Long Branch] Sam, go and get Matt.

Matt: [after Ben Pringle gets shot in the leg] "Get him up to Doc's, Festus. I can't stand the sight of him."

Festus: When it comes to dying, I reckon everybody feels about the same way.
Dr. Henry S. Rand: What would that be?
Festus: They'd just rather do it tomorrow.

Doc: You're making a phenomenal recovery. You must have a good doctor.

[last lines]
Kitty: Y'know, there's still sump'm puzzlin' me about all this, um. Sam, how come you stuck your neck out so far for that boy?
Sam: Well, I guess because somebody once stuck their neck out for me, Miss Kitty. I just tryin' to pass it on.

Alice: Papa, what was that shot?
Jeremiah: That was the sound of justice, Alice. The sound of evil bursting.

Ben: What do you think you're doin'? This ain't no business of the law, mister!
Matt: You know, Siple, you made me break a promise. I told her no one would ever hit her again.
Ben: Plan to interfere with a man's natural rights?

Joe: I ain't done a thing.
Matt: No... and you're not going to. I'm gonna lock you up.
Joe: I ain't never been in jail in my life, Marshal.
Matt: Well, you're going now.
Joe: No, I ain't.

Matt: Abby, you want to go with him, or you want to stay here in Dodge?
Abby: I never want to see him again as long as I live!

Festus: That's just proof right there that us Haggens knows a heap more about some things than folks gives us credit for.
Festus: Well, I could cure him, if he'd listen to me.

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] When the wind comes out of the west a hundred miles high and a thousand miles wide, it dries the settlers out like buffalo bums and leaves them cracked and empty, wishing they'd never left Indiana. But some of them really can't take it. They start spinning around like poisoned wolves, baffled but dangerous in their hurt and anger. Those are the hardest I have to go up against. Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Hank: A man don't know what he can do until he has to.

John: We stand on ground of Kira Kirish - the first people... I, Eagle Wing, am Kira Kirish. Before me there was nothing; after me come all other men. Since there was time, this is so. One day my people, Kira Kirish, will cease to be. One day, they will be nothing but a memory and yet another day even that memory will die... All I ask is dignity for the passing of Kira Kirish.

[first lines]
[while Matt Dillon walks through Boot Hill cemetery outside Dodge City, Kansas, the audience hears his thoughts]
Matt: Out here I remind myself how violence ends. Buried in the rim of a nation, the edge of a wild frontier. Some of these Boot Hill men are the victims of aimless slaughter. The rest, I killed myself. I'm a lawman, United States Marshall. The law comes hard to the frontier. Men like these didn't want it. And more men, still alive, there in Dodge City, they don't want it. They're the drifters, the killers, and the spoilers. And they have to be met. It's a chancy job; makes a man watchful and a little lonely. But somebody has to do it.
[Dillon walks back to Dodge City]

Matt: You're looking pretty tonight, Kitty.
Kitty: How is it you never tell me that in the daytime?

Matt: [draws on Ed trying to free his brother] Drop it!
Ed: [using his brother as a shield] Watch it Marshal, you'll hit the kid.
Matt: That's a chance I'll have to take.

Bob: Now look it, mister, I've been shootin' Indians for years. Every one I see, warlike or peaceable.
Matt: Well, that's a good idea, shooting peaceable Indians?
Bob: They're just so much meat to me.
Cowboy: Shoot first and talk later, that's my motto.
Matt: [with contempt] Men like you make me understand the Comanches.

Chester: That don't beat all. I've just never seen fail, Mr. Dillon; thems that got always seems to get.

Leonard: [Stopping an old drunken sailor walking down the street.] Hold it there, sailor. Now, me and Mr. Tanner got to thinking that you might be missing your whaling days. So, first, Tanner's gonna whale ya, then I'm gonna whale ya.

Major: Don't talk to me about army justice. The army was my life. And I was discharged for a wound that didn't matter. The only law I believe in is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Ham was blood of my blood and bone of my bone. And that man took him from us.

[last lines]
[referring to a young boy's miraculous recovery]
Drago: He looks fine.
Dr. John Chapman: He is. He started gettin' well right after you talked to 'im. You know, Drago, as a doctor it might help me if I knew what you said to 'im.
Drago: I just told 'im there wasn't no catfish in heaven.

Jeremiah: You can't put evil behind bars, Marshal. But I'll tell you this: Sooner or later evil kills itself. May not be tomorrow or the day after, even next year. I don't have to be here to see it happen - but it will happen.

Matt: All right, Mr. Egan, you want that job of mine so bad, maybe I'll give you a chance at it.
Chester: Oh, Mr. Dillon, what're ya sayin'?
Matt: Not much pay and no thanks. Maybe I've been a live target for every drunken bum and glory hunter in Kansas long enough.
Emmett: You mean it?
Matt: I might. On one condition.
Emmett: What's that?
Matt: You follow me around for a week, see how you like it. You still want the job?
Emmett: I want it all right. This'll be the first real livin' I've done in years.
Matt: All right.

[last lines]
Kitty: I'm sure the right girl will come along someday. Maybe in California.
Elwood: California.
Matt: Well sure. You got a lotta livin' to do yet.
Doc: You bet you have. And I never saw anybody that could have more fun at it than you, either.
Elwood: I never did before. I guess I never really started to live until I... I thought I was gonna die. Maybe that Professor Ramsey did me a favor.
Matt: You're a lucky man, Mr. Hardacre.
Elwood: I guess I am, Marshall. I guess I am.

Jud: [after punching Sam and knocking him down Matt breaks the fight up] He's got it coming to him.
Matt: But we don't want to kill him. That's enough.
Sam: Marshal, Marshal That man, That man hit me.
Matt: That's only because he got to you first. Now get out of here while you can still walk.

Chester: All ready to go Mr. Dillon... and I'm so hungry I could eat a whole hog.
Marshal: This is all the hog you get this morning.
Chester: Is it done?
Marshal: That depends on how hungry you are.
Chester: It's done.

[last lines]
Matt: Where's Doc's horse, Chester?
Chester: Oh, well... he ain't here.
Matt: Where is he?
Chester: Oh, well, uh, he's dead.
Matt: He's dead?
Chester: Ya see, uh
[long pause]
Chester: Old Doc just had to have somethin' to eat. He was failin' so bad.
Matt: [incredulous] What?
Chester: Well, I didn't wanna do it, Mr. Dillon, but I, I just didn't have no choice.
Matt: I see. Well, we still got Doc. I think you made a pretty fair trade.
Chester: [almost under his breath] Well...

Doc: Well, I can't sit around neglecting my other patients waiting for you to get shot.
Marshal: Might make more money that way.
Doc: The only way I could make any more money around here is to have your job.
Marshal: Ha! And you wouldn't get rich that way, either.

Peyt: Marshal, I haven't thanked you for saving my life.
Matt: [after catching the shunned pistol Peyt has tossed him] Yes, you have.

Matt: Stay still. The stiller the better.

Marshal: You got what you came to see.

[the teaser of the very first episode, "Matt Gets It."]
John: Good evening. My name's Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before. I hope so. I've been kicking around Hollywood a long time. I've made a lot of pictures out here. All kinds. Some of them have been westerns and that's what I'm here to tell you about tonight. A western. A new television show called "Gunsmoke". When I first heard about the show "Gunsmoke", I knew there was only one man to play in it. James Arness. He's a young fellow, and may be new to some of you. But I've worked with him and I predict he'll be a big star. And now, I'm proud to present "Gunsmoke".

Kitty: [with most busy Doc has no one to talk with] Look, why don't you go on down to the Long Branch and talk with Sam. He's there.
Doc: I don't want to talk with Sam.
Kitty: Why not?
Doc: Well, he's not a pretty as you are.

Luke: Hello, Matt.
Matt: Hello, Luke.
Luke: Well, ye still tree-tall. Ye ain't bent any.
Matt: Yeah, you're still as thorny as I remember ya, too.
Luke: [after a small chuckle] That's 'cause my ma raised us on sour milk.

Breck: [suspects cornered and they are going to try to talk them out] Yeager, Moore... come on out!
Billy: And get lynched?
Breck: You won't be lynched. You'll get a fair trial.
Festus: Then we're gonna hang you.

Chester: Mr. Dillon! Mr. Dillon, it... it's them!
Matt: Them? What do you mean?
Chester: Uh, uh, Ben Siple and that Ticks. They seen Abby, and they grabbed her, and they're just treatin' her somethin' terrible!

Chester: It kind of feels like somebody stuck a butcher knife in there and just turned the handle on me.
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: I'll give you some free advice. Stop puttin' all that salt pork in your stomach and those dried beans, and get some fresh greens in there. That's what you need. And stay out of saloons.
Chester: It don't hurt that bad.

Louie: [sitting at the bar] Excepting some women, of course, just ain't nothing prettier than a full bottle.

Joe: You can't make a farmer mad about rain.
Matt: You can make 'em wet though.

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: What's the matter with you this morning?
Chester: I got a pain, Doc, right in there...
[Chester pokes himself in the ribs]
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Oh, well, why didn't you come upstairs?
Chester: Oh no. Oh no, I couldn't do that.
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: No, you'd rather stand out here in pain all day, wouldn't you. You'd rather hang around hoping to catch me on the fly than come up and make a regular visit.
Chester: Doc, it ain't that. I just couldn't climb them stairs, the shape I'm in.
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: And the pain... it's so bad you couldn't bear to put your hand in your pocket for the two dollars you'll owe me, could you?

Traych: It's a fine thing when the law waste it's time with Indians and dance hall girls, when an honest rancher is getting robbed.
Kitty: [as Traych walks out] It takes all kinds.

Belle: Then, perhaps, you don't see me because I'm not a Comanche woman.
Quint: I believe the fruit you must reach for is better than what falls at your feet.

Emilio: [Emilio is comparing an old dog he had to Marshal Matt Dillon] You know, I have a dog once. He wouldn't give up. He tracked a cougar for a whole week. Finally, he caught him. An you know something? That cougar ate HIM.

Luke: [talking to the cornered, slightly-injured wolf that has no way to escape Luke and Matt] A couple of years ago you'd a lost us. You just too old, plum run out. I'm sorry, old friend.
[shoots and kills the wolf]

Doc: [Inquires whether Chester will be coming to breakfast] Does Chester know about it?
Marshal: Yeah. Yeah, he just stopped off at Moss Grimmick's to pay him some money before he loses it.
Doc: Loses it? What is it - women or gambling this time?
Marshal: You know Chester, Doc. He can lose money just standing around in the shade.

Marshal: Major, Dodge City is an armed camp. It's full of men who fought Indians and fought the war and fought each other as far back as they can remember. Now, they're going to fight you next, and they're going to make you hate it.
Major: They can't fight the Cavalry!
Marshal: They can, and they will. And a lot of good men on both sides are going to die!

Festus: [thinking he has been bit by a rabid dog and has hydrophobia] How much time do I have left?
Dr. Henry S. Rand: Well, ten days, two weeks at the outside.
Festus: That hydrophobia, it's a pretty sorry way to die ain't it doc? You know, a fellow gets shot why he'll just fall flat on his face, o he might kick a couple of times, that what makes the crowds turn out. But what I mean is he won't go just snatching off his clothes and sashaying around trying to bite folks.

Moss: You work too much, Marshal.
Matt: I'm the laziest man in Dodge, and you know it.

Ed: I regret it, but you gotta die.
Matt: Not yet Bailey.

Matt: It sure was a temptation to let him go after her.
Doc: Yeah! He was just about her size too.

Chester: I been thinkin' lately a whole lot about all this and there's just somethin' that you been forgettin'!
Marshal: That so.
Chester: Yeah, that's so. It's men like Stanger and Brand, 'cause they got to be stopped! That's all. They gotta be! I'd do it if I could, but I can't. I just ain't good enough. Most men ain't, but you are. It's kinda too bad for ya that ya are, but that's the way it is and there ain't a thing in the world you can do about it.

Chester: Maybe you can get along better than I can out there on the prairie, but you're a lamb in Dodge and I'm gonna see you slaughtered.

Lt. Julio Chavez: [laughing] You don't know how to take a joke.
[laughing]
Matt: I stay around with you very long, I'm liable to die laughing.

Joe: Vanderman, let me see now, say I've... .Vander -- oh, he was cheating at a card game in the Long Branch last night.
Matt: That's right.
Joe: And you want me to give him a job here?
Matt: That's right.
Joe: Well, you're clean out of your mind, Marshall. Why you should have run him out of town, throwed him into jail.
Matt: Now, just wait a minute, Joe. This man's not really a crook, he's just had a few bad breaks along the line. Why don't you give him a chance?
Joe: How do I know he can cook?
Matt: Well, he says he can, why don't you give him a chance? What do you got to lose?
Joe: Hmph, only my restaurant, maybe. If he takes a notion to sell it while my back is turned.
Chester: Well, I don't think you got a thing to worry about, Joe. I don't think nobody'd buy it once they see your cockroaches.
Joe: I've got no more cockroaches here than anybody else in Dodge.
Chester: Well, they're bigger.
Joe: That's 'cause the food here's better.

Chance: You have curiosity, Chester?
Chester: I got an interest in things.

Jim: [Matt going to talk to the railroad men] Go ahead Marshal, bash his head in.

Argonaut: Are you kin to Alfie Hominy Haggen?
Festus: [trying to show how close they were] Kin? Why were second cousins on my Aunt Floter's side. Me and Alfie's always been as close...
Argonaut: If I ever set eyes on him again I'm going to put a bullet square through his sidewinding head.
Festus: Wait a minute, I ain't done yet. What I'd fixen to say is me and Alfie ain't never been close. Why they's something about him I'd just never could stand.
Argonaut: [asking Doc] Are you a Haggen?
Doc: Don't get insulting with me

Matt: Why is it people always lock their front doors and leave the back door open?

Doc: It sure wouldn't hardly be worthwhile stoppin' by if there weren't any coffee.
Chester: You oughtta know. You stop by more'n anybody else.
Doc: It's not because the coffee's good; it's because it's free.

Al: Look, let me have a gun. I can help you. You can trust me.
Matt: Clovis, I wouldn't trust you if you were in church praying.

Grant: There's lots of ways to shoot a man. I think you know most of them.

Louie: [sitting at the bar in episode "Slocum"] Excepting some women, of course, just ain't nothing prettier than a full bottle.

Festus: [gets his hands free from the ropes the mob tied them with] I've got my hands loose.
Bucko: Good you can wave good-bye to them.

Matt: Get out. Get outta Dodge.

Kitty: [talking about Viney] You didn't do him justice, Matt. It would take two of him to be simple minded.

Hunk: You ain't gonna leave me, are ya, Billy Joe?
Billy: Now what do you want to go and make me feel bad for, Huck? You gonna die anyway.
Hunk: Billy Joe! Billy Joe, don't leave me! Billy Joe!
[Billy Joe disappears over the horizon]

Jeb: Get my suit out of the clothes dress. Take it to Lin Fongs and have it brushed up and pressed- and have them boil my shirt and iron it. Tell him to chop, chop - I want it back in an hour.

Doc: Strange thing...
Doc: When death's all around you, sometimes, Pitt...
Doc: A single life can be the most important thing in the world.

Matt: I always thought I was kinda humble.
Doc: You're about as humble as a turpentine cat.

Judge: [Judge Brooker is deciding the fate of the Sadlers on robbery charges] Case closed. Except for you, Ridge! Five years... probation! If I ever see you in my court again...! And I will too!

Matt: [Matt in the office waiting for the Lukens family to arrive and hears a knock at the door] Kitty! I thought I told you to stay off the streets.
Kitty: Your always telling somebody something. I brought him some food.

Kitty: Take your hands off me, you big ape!

Paul: Only a fool takes pride in having his face on a wanted poster.
Doc: Only a fool gets his picture there in the first place.

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: I'll tell you why the Hagens live so long.
Festus: Why?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: 'Cause they're too dumb to know they're dead!

Charlie: You haven't done much doctoring, have you?
Matt: Only on horses.

Chester: The smell of money does things to people, even good people.

Louie: I'm not a prisoner. I'm a friend.

Earl: I never knew Siple could ever be beat.

Chester: Oh, life just don't make no sense a'tall.

Morgan: My brother was murdered, Marshal. Murdered! Are you afraid of Clegg? Is that why you won't do nothing?
Marshal: Morgan, I don't have the privilege of being afraid. But there's nothing I can do for you. Goodbye.

Chester: I'm gonna head up a wagon train, scout ahead, find the water and get the camp site and such as that.
Kitty: Are you serious?
Chester: I'm just not all chuckles and smiles, I've got a sober side.

Festus: [changing clothes and hears a knock at the door] What do you want?
Abelia: [opens door and enters room] I forgot my nightgown.
Festus: [jumps in bed and pulls cover up] Well, you could have at least gave me a chance to get decent!
Abelia: Oh hush. I've seen a man standing in his long johns before.
Festus: I don't give a hoot if you saw a naked jay-bird. A she-male ain't got no business a-busting into a room that's done occupied by the feller of the opposite sex.
Abelia: I knocked.

Chester: That don't beat all. I've just never seen it fail, Mr. Dillon; thems that gots always seems to get.

Chester: Well, at least Raffie's gonna have plenty to eat and someplace to sleep now. You know, he must've had a pretty terrible time in the war.
Doc: Yeah, I guess it addled him some, too.

Alice: [seeing Dillon and Chester approaching the Fraser family on horseback] Who are they?
Sam: How do I know? They got white skins, that's all that matters.

Father: How dare you attempt to coerce me.
Heraclio: How dare you attempt to bluff me.

Doc: By golly, I tell you - this calls for a bit of a celebration, I think. And, I'll buy the drinks, too.
Chester: Well glory-be!
Doc: First round, I mean... first round.
Chester: Oh yeah.

Molly: Oh, Kitty. He belongs to you?
Kitty: Matt's a man with no strings on him. Let's just say he's more mine than anyone else's.

Slick: Gamble, save your femalin' for after we catch up with Waco!

Doc: I'm afraid the kind of medicine she needs I haven't got in my bag there.

Dan: Ah'm bad. You want me, Marshal, you got to come git me.

Matt: Well, Doc, don't ever sell a mild man short.

Matt: [Kitty is worried about not seeing Doc in a few days] No, no. Doc's all right, Kitty.
Kitty: Where is he?
Matt: He's out in the country trying to keep an outlaw alive so we can hang him.
Kitty: Oh, that's nice.

Matt: I'm going... but you're going to be sorry you ever seen me.
Matt: I'm sorry already.

Zel: I ain't even got my boots on.
Matt: You should have thought about that before.

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: For twelve years you've had law and order in Dodge City because one man enforced the law. Now that he's not here, you're willing to give the town away to the first incompetent that comes along with a shot gun and is anxious to use it.

Matt: I'll tell you one thing. If we don't stop that girl pretty soon there won't be a building left standing in Dodge!

Clay: Marshal... I got bad news for you.
Matt: Well, nobody ever comes in here with good news, Clay.
Clay: But what I got, it might get you killed.
Matt: That so?

Matt: Now, mister, let me tell you something. The only thing standing between you and a lynching is me. And I don't much like where I'm standing.

Matt: [at the Wichita Stage office and Matt has just punched Ab] Get your ticket mister, then get out of here while you can still walk.
Ab: Alright. When we get to Dodge you'll gonna wish you had never seen me.
Matt: I'm wishing that already.

U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: [to any man seemingly planning to go gunning for somebody.] If you're gonna to use that gun, you better start on me.

Festus: Don't you think somebody oughta reckon with him, Matthew?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: What did you say his name was again, Festus?
Festus: I think its Sinclair... Jack Sinclair.
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: He's got no left hand?
Festus: That's right. Anyways, don't you think somebody ought to go reckon with him?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: No!
Festus: Why not, Matthew?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: Because it was my bullet that took his hand!

Heraclio: Well, if it ain't brother priest and brother jackass.
Father: [gesturing to a donkey] Yes, and this is brother burro.

Mitch: Now that you're here, we're forced into business with you.
Matt: That'll be the day.

Jack: Now, look, Marshal, I ain't never caused any trouble here.
Marshal: You never been here.

Marshal: [Addresses agitated crowd] You boys paid your money to see a fight - you didn't pay it to see a murder, did you?

Kitty: [at the social] How about some punch, Louie?
Louie: Thank you, Miss Kitty.
[drinks]
Louie: PUNCH?
Kitty: Yes, fruit punch.
Louie: I thought it was punch punch.
Kitty: Wait a minute.
[pours some whiskey in the cup]
Kitty: Here's some punch punch, Louie.

Kitty: [after hearing Molly sings 'Silver Threads among the Gold', a slow ballad] You have a real nice voice.
Molly: Thank you.
Kitty: But my customers don't lean to that kind of music.
Molly: What do you mean?
Kitty: Well, they're a real rough bunch and they come in here to drink and look at the pretty girls and laugh and...
Molly: Well, maybe I can try something else.
Townsman: [piano player] How about this one, ma'am.
Molly: [reading title with shock] 'I tore my cotton breeches on the Mason-Dixon line'... ohhh!
Kitty: We're staying with 'Silver Threads among the Gold'.

Bart: All I'm doing is breathing hard.
[Bart's hand edges toward his holstered pistol]
Marshal: Touch that and you won't be breathing at all.

Ky: Couldn't be anyone like you anywhere. Kind of like a child, sort of like a woman. Hard to tell where you're gonna light, Dodie.

Kitty: Triplets...
Festus: And there's three of 'em too

Emmett: [Frustrated by Matt's idling] Shouldn't you be making rounds? Or something?
Matt: Well, Egan, there's no use lookin' for trouble. It usually catches up with you anyway.

Gody: You young'uns today, you stand on too much ceremony. You don't know the first thing about living. You act like it's something that starts in the future somewheres.

Kitty: Well, sometimes a woman can handle women better than a man can.

Kitty: [talking to Matt about Luke Brazo] A little old for wolfin', isn't he?
Matt: Oh, he's not a wolfer, Kitty. That man's a breed apart.
Kitty: He looks like a far-rangin' wanderer to me. I'll say that.
Matt: He is, Kitty. He sure is.

Asper: Gold never interested me much, sir.
Davit: There ain't no man that gold don't interest.

Obie: She was so doggone pretty.

Doc: That's mine!
[slapping Festus' hand away from his mug of beer]
Festus: All right you stingy ol' scutter!

Doc: Were you born in a barn?
[to Festus]

Marshal: [Walks on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] You walk around up here long enough, you start thinking there must be more dead men than there are living. Same thing a man asked me about once. "Why aren't there more Marshals than there are bad men? That way there wouldn't be so much lawbreaking!" It's a fool idea, of course, but it got me to wondering why there are any Marshals at all, it being the kind of job it is. I never could find an answer to that one. Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.

Murph: For a beautiful woman, you're bloodthirsty.
Clara: Not really. I'm practical.

Jake: [in an argument with Doc] I'll blow your ears off.
Matt: All right now, just a minute here. You two keep this up; you're going to have a stroke and if you do I'll throw you both in jail.
Doc: That's a great remedy for a stroke.
Matt: Yes, I might add another charge, too... disturbing MY peace.

[first lines]
Marshal: [narrating] Men die for a lot of reasons. I've even heard of worthy ones, like a man who's willing to face it for the good that might come after. But he's a far different breed than most of this Boot Hill trash. These men die for fools' reasons - a spilt drink, a wrong card, an imagined insult. But the worst is a man who dies for nothing... for no reason at all.

[Doc Adams has been stabbed by a farmer]
Marshal: Pitcher, if Doc doesn't come out of this, I'll quit being a marshal. I'm going to come after you as a plain man... and I'll kill you!

Odell: Chester, me and whiskey has had a personal understanding more years than you've seen grass grow.

Doc: [Matt sits down next to Doc] What've you been doing?
Marshal: Workin'.
Doc: What at?
Marshal: Well, I rode thirty miles since sunup.
Doc: Anybody shoot at you?
Marshal: Nope.
Doc: Did you shoot at anybody?
Marshal: Nope.
Doc: You could've done that much work sitting here on Front Street.

Doc: Well, I wonder if they had time to enjoy it?
Matt: Enjoy what?
Doc: The hanging they wanted so all fired bad.

Jerry: [Matt knocked out Ben Pitcher with his gun and left him laying on the ground after Pitcher stabbed Doc] But what about, Pa?
Marshal: You let me know when he comes to and I'll knock him out again!

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: If I'd known you were coming, I'd have left something, Chester
Chester: I was only trying to figure out what you had to eat.
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: You could ask me.
Chester: Oh. Well, what was it?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: I don't know.
Chester: What!
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: I ordered beef stew, but what they brought me I couldn't say.

Marshal: Well, if you're not friends of the Peavys, where are you heading? Theirs is the only place this road leads to.
Jack: A man can ride where he pleases, can't he?
Marshal: Well, I guess he can. Unless he's carrying a rifle and his wife is too, and they're heading for somebody's place that they don't particularly like.

Ed: I been up in Dakota territory gettin' rich.
Chester: Gettin' rich?
Ed: I left there with twenty dollars - that's the richest I've ever been!

Kitty: You going to Hays for the trial?
Marshal: I'll have to.
Kitty: That'll take about a week, I suppose.
Marshal: About. Why?
Kitty: Nothing. Only you've just been away for ten days.
Marshal: I have to earn a living, Kitty.
Kitty: You could make more money gambling... right here in Dodge.

[reading Doc's farewell letter]
Kitty: Living in Dodge has been the most rewarding experience of my life, but I've been so out of touch with modern medicine that when I arrived in Baltimore I felt like a schoolboy. I suddenly realized how little I know about medicine and how much has passed me by in the last twenty years... and that's why I've decided to stay on here at the university.
[Kitty, overcome with emotion, hands the letter to Newly to read]
Newly: This letter is the only way I know of to tell you my decision. I'll be gone from Dodge for a while. I don't know for how long, but it will not be forever. I will be back... and I'll think of you very often. I pray all of you will remember with affection, your old friend, Doc.

Kitty: Guess who just tried to run us down outside?
Olive: Who?
Kitty: Old Lucifer Jones
Olive: Now, what's he doing in town?
Kitty: I don't know. Somebody must've told him that tomorrow's Christmas Eve. He probably came gunning for Santa Claus!

Chester: You know, I've known men that would hide behind a woman's skirt, but you're... you... you just beat all! It... you must've lost your pride somewheres along the trail.
Johnny: It's been a long trail, Chester, but I still got my pride.
Chester: Well, then, why don't you act like it?
Johnny: Things ain't always what they seem.
Chester: No, no, that's... that's... that's sure enough true. But, you know, sometimes a... a half-blind old woman can't always tell it!

Matt: You've got two ways to go. Tied or loose.

Doc: Wonderful thing about mothers, they have the capacity to understand everything.

Sam: Hey, where you fellas off to?
Festus: Were fixin' to go out and shoot us a mess of prairie chickens for supper.
Sam: Mmm, I haven't had a good prairie chicken dinner in I don't know when.
Festus: You ain't? Well Sam, I tell you what you do. You just set your mouth, get you bib on, stoke-up the fire, cause were fixin' to have us a prairie chicken supper.

Matt: I'm not going anywhere. I'm just quitting a job, not a town.

Tug: Yep, get unloaded and start the fire. I'm gonna go downstream a piece and see if I can wing myself some fresh meat for supper.
Billy: That's a good idea. This antelope from yesterday is getting a little gamey in the heat.

Matt: I've never seen you up this early before, Festus.
Festus: The trick is to not go to bed.

Marshal: [Several scenes after Chester finishes his dinner, as Matt and Chester spot Gunter and his men approaching on horseback] You don't have to do this, Chester.
Chester: You mind if I use a rifle?

Chester: Want me to go with you Mr. Dillon?
Marshal: No, finish your dinner.

'Doc': [Stands over body of gunshot victim] Crego, he's a brutal man, Matt. He... you know what he did here? He shot that man in the gun arm first, then he put a bullet through each one of his knees. Finally shot him in the belly. That's a terrible thing to do, that's a painful way to kill a man. It's evil! He was just a poor potato grubber. He didn't have a chance.

Rev. John Porter: [Festus and Thad doing some labor for the church] We'll have to think up some payment in return for all the labor. Maybe reserve the first pew in your names each Sunday. Make sure you have front row seats.
Festus: [after Rev. leaves] How'd he expect anybody to get any sleep sitting in the front pew?

Matt: What's your name?
Quint: In English it's Quint. Quint Asper.
Matt: You're a half-breed, aren't you?
Quint: I'm Comanche! My Pa was white. And the white man killed him. I've avenged him many times.
Matt: Well, maybe it's time you stopped?
Quint: Never.

[last lines]
John: Marshall, I wanna tell you about that woman.
Matt: 'Tsall right, Crowley. I know about that woman.

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] There are a lot of ways a man can die, and maybe violence is the easiest. Fever in the brain is worse, or disease that fades him to skin and bone. And sometimes you see another thing. A man who's never lived at all, except to eat and sleep. A man whose mind is like a child's. Needs protection, even from himself. That's another job for me - Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Kitty: Oh, if I were a man I'd break you in half.
Dingo: If you was a man it'd sure be a waste.

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] Dodge is no place for a gambling man who talks fast but moves slow. I never saw one yet who lived 'til breakfast. There, they figure a man's what he claims to be. If he can't measure up, it's generally too late for him to take it back and start over. And if this gambling man should die, I'd still have to go looking for his killer. Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Matt: What are you waiting on, applause?

Chester: Man can't do no work without coffee.

Hattie: [upset about being left behind] You dirty rotten coward.
Web: That's about enough Hattie.
Hattie: I hate you. Get out. Get out! Go on, both of you get out! I wouldn't have either one of you.
Web: Either one of us?
Hattie: Why, you didn't think I cared did you? I would have had one of you shot the other before I was through. Mister pie don't cut three ways.

[last lines]
Ben: [to Celia Madden] You sure are the cryin'est woman.

Marshal: Our business is more important than the burial of a criminal.
Matt: I'll see you after the funeral.

Viney: You're meddling mister.
Marshal: Meddling's my business.

Matt: [Kitty going to drink coffee instead of beer] Boy, you sure changed your ways.
Kitty: Oh... you ever known me to drink anything before dark?
Matt: Well, only on cloudy days when you got confused.
Kitty: Oh, you're funny!

[last lines]
Seth: My foot standeth in an even place; in the congregations will I praise the Lord.

Jed: We're takin' this... this Kitty!
Marshal: Don't do that, Gunter.
Jed: 'Course I'll do it. I'll tell you something - first sign we're being chased, whoever it is'll find her laying in the trail fresh killed!
Marshal: Don't take her!
Jed: Well, it's up to you what happens, Marshal. And if you don't think I'll do it, I'll tell you something else. The first person I ever killed was a woman!

Matt: [scouring Dodge for the outlaws who dragged Obie] Let's try the Long Branch.
Obie: What are you gonna do if you find them, Marshal? Put them in jail?
Matt: If there's enough left when I get through.

Solis: The men didn't find no tracks or nothin', huh?
Solis: Not a sign, Solis. Maybe we never find them, huh?
Solis: I'll find them. If I have to ride down Front Street in Dodge City, I'll find 'em.
Solis: Big lawman in Dodge City. They tell me pretty tough man.
Solis: I'm a tough man, too.

Chester: What do you do, Doc? Go down to Delmonico's so's you can mooch a toothpick so's you can come up here and mooch a cup of coffee?

Marshal: Let me tell you something, if I were you I would not talk about this around Dodge. A lot of men don't take the idea of blood money.
Harry: You got no right to talk like that Marshal. I ain't done nothing wrong.
Marshal: Shut up, Speener. I'll kill you myself.

Gregorio: [to Miss Kitty] You are a good woman and my friend. When you learn about your mouth, you shall be a great woman.

Marshal: Well, why don't you make your patients pay in advance?
Doc: Gosh, the condition most of my patients arrive in, they'd bleed to death while I was making change.
Marshal: Well, a lot of 'em do, anyway, don't they?

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] It's a long, mean ride up the trail. Breathing the dust of half-wild Texas cattle, eating poor on salt meat and beans, drinking branch water for months at a time. You don't wonder when they hit Dodge they load up on cheap whiskey and go on the shoot for each other. And for me, Matt Dillon - U. S. Marshal.

Praylie: You know those Haggens aren't very smart, but they can be funny sometimes.

Matt: Quint, the next time you're faced with killing or not killing a white man, you're going to have to make a decision. It's gonna take some courage. The kind I don't think you've had to use before.
Quint: Why should I change? I made my choice when they murdered my Pa.
Matt: [thoughtful pause] Maybe.

Captain: A few drops is good for humility - it prevents the arrogance of complete abstinence.

Festus: I swear, the only difference in women is in their size. Some are big, and some are little.
Letty: You don't like women, do you?
Festus: Sure, I like 'em fine. And I'll tell ya one thing, a drink or two helps out.
Letty: Then let's go to a saloon!

Jeb: Just Pa, and there was not much time for talking, then.
Ab: It can be that way with Pas.

[last lines]
Festus: [after getting bitten in the arm by Sancho] Golly Bill, I just hope that he don't chomp down on them like he done on me.
Matt: Still hurt-cha?
Festus: Oh, you just don't know, Matthew.
Matt: You think, uh, a beer might help it?
Festus: Well, a beer could help. Two just might cure it.

Ben: Marshal, we make money gambling. And, uh, once in awhile you know how it is, a player'll lose a little money. Make a fuss about it. Sometimes he might even go to the law about it.
Marshal: Mmm hmmm - and when he does, he's usually been cheated. And before he gets to the law, there's usually been another killing.
Ben: We make a lot of money gambling, Marshal. And we just want you to know in advance you're going to get your share of it. That's all.
Marshal: Well, let me tell you something. Both of you. I don't know where you worked your game before, but it's not going to work here. I don't like gamblers - I never did. To me, they're nothing but trouble. Now, if you're going to run a game here, you run it straight or you're out. Both of you.

Kitty: [Doc is buying drinks for a couple going to marry] Well, Doc, if this is what it takes to get you to spend some money I'm gonna start promoting some more marriages around this town.
Doc: Well, sure I'm in favor of that. Why... Why don't you start with Chester there? He's ready; he's over ripe.
Chester: That's better than being all pruned up like some people I know.
Kitty: [laughing]
Chester: Oh, don't laugh at him.

[last lines]
Jeremiah: [to his daughter, Alice] And all we wanted was to bring them laughter.

Major: I had a hunting dog once that went bad, killed my lambs, clawed your mother.
Major: God be pleased to rest her.
Major: But I let that dog feed before I shot it.
Major: I wouldn't do less for a man, even that one.

Chester: [Chester's last words, in his final episode, occur in the second to last scene inside the sheriff's office and are spoken to Clara Wright] "Well... Maybe, I'll... I'll take you down to the stage."

Chester: Well, if he done what Seth and the Major said he done, well, it'd sure make me sick to think of him getting away with it.
Matt: I'll tell ya one thing, if he did it, he won't get away with it.

Jim: [toasting a drink to Kitty] To a very kind lady.
Kitty: Kind? Well, I've been called a lot of things but that is a new one.

[last lines]
Sam: [speaking of Marshal Dillon] I'm sure glad he's back.
[pauses]
Sam: He's an awful good man to have around, Miss Kitty.
[six-second pause]
Kitty: He's the best.

Marshal: [Walks alone on Boot Hill, thinking aloud] I've seen a lot of men buried up here on Boot Hill, and most of them really earned what they got. The cheated at cards, robbed banks, stole horses, murdered innocent men, and picked fights with friend and enemy alike. They lived and died as though they'd never heard of the law, and they treated me like a trespasser. Someone who had no right to interfere with their bloody little games. But I shot it out with 'em anyway, and I guess I'll go right on doing it. As long as I last. Matt Dillon, U. S. Marshal.

Timmy: You see, Mr. Marshal?
Matt: I do, now, Tim. I'm sorry I ever doubted you.
Timmy: No, I mean about White Fawn. How much fun she is to be with, for a girl.

Matt: That's the worst part of this job, being a jailer.
Festus: That's what you get for taking prisoners alive.

Holtz: [with sarcasm] That was a real nice funeral you threw for you friend. I pert near cried.

Festus: Mr. Cumberledge, you don't know us Haggens, or ya wouldn't say such a thing. Like Great-Unke Herkle said, "Catch a Haggen in a lie, 'n' a thunderbolt'll hit him from th' clear, blue sky.
Luke: What happened to Great-Uncle Herkle?
Festus: Well, they's some say that this thunderbolt came up real suddenlike one time....

Chester: Well Mr Dillon, she has that shotgun right there by her side. Do you see that?
Marshal: Let's get our hands up make it look like were friendly.
Chester: That... That just makes me a bigger target, that's all.

Kitty: You've been shot.
John: So that's what it is.

Doc: By golly, I never saw a man so set on anything in all my life.
Tom: You never saw a man had a reason like I have, Doc.
Matt: What is the reason, Tom?
Tom: I'll tell you later... when you come to hang me.

Fred: A woman's like a dog, you have to teach her to heel.

Matt: But the fewer people come into Dodge, the less trouble they bring.
Chester: If people didn't come here, you wouldn't have a job.
Matt: Hmm. I wouldn't? You think only the people that come here bring trouble?
Chester: Ain't that what you just said?

Lena: Ain't a woman got a right to protect her virtue in this town?

Yermo: Well you sure ain't one to let a man die happy, are you Marshal?

Ann: At least I had the decency to send a picture of my own sister.
Chester: Well, I don't have a sister.
Ann: Well that's no excuse.

Marshal: Mister, you're going back pig or pork, now make up your mind!

Chester: Maybe he can... he can beat you, huh? I mean, you don't really think that he can though, do you?
Marshal: You know the old saying, Chester. There was never a horse that couldn't be rode, never a man that couldn't be throwed.

Kin: Marshal, how are you gonna keep eighteen juiced-up Texas cowboys out of Dodge? They'll run right over you!
Marshal: I'm not gonna keep 'em out of Dodge. But they won't find much to do when they get there.
Kin: What do you mean?
Marshal: I'll close Front Street. I'll close every saloon, gambling hall, and store in Dodge.
Kin: You'd do that?
Marshal: You bet I'll do it!

Matt: Chester find a rope. When he comes to we'll put a noose around his neck and take him back to town in style.

Aggie: Pa, menfolk settle down someplace. They work, and they make a home for their own.
Luke: I mean to do that, honey, just as soon as ever we get to Colorado.
Aggie: I heard you talking about Colorado, with all those mountains. You won't bear not being able to go across them.
Luke: Yeah. Never know what's waitin' for ya crossin' a river, roundin' a bend, on up over the mountains.
Aggie: Pa, I gotta settle someplace! I gotta belong and have a home. I like it here. I bought me some curtains today. And I'm gonna stay!

Matt: [seeing Quint wearing cowboy duds] Well, Quint, you look pretty good in those clothes.
Quint: I don't feel so good in them.
Matt: Could get used to them.
Quint: I was used to them once. Never again.
Matt: Quint, you know we're your people, too. Just as much as the Comanches are. Maybe more. A man usually takes after his father.

Kitty: Let me tell you something, Matt. I'm a pretty good judge of men, but I'm a mighty good judge of women. And I'll bet you a... a barrel of whiskey that this Dolly Winters is not what she's pretending to be.

Sabina: A woman can be jealous even if she hates a man, Dillon.

Marshal: A man makes his dying by the way he lives.

Henry: [being question by Matt Dillon] You don't object to fishing, too, do you Marshal?
Matt: Men like you, I object to your breathing.

Major: With my own hands I drew my son into life. This morning by my own hands he was put to earth in death. It's our grief. We don't need or ask help to settle it.

Kitty: Well, it looks like another good night for us.
Chester: Miss Kitty, you must be about the richest woman in the entire world.
Kitty: You think I'd be working if I was rich?
Chester: You'll always be working... You couldn't quit. Not even if you got married.
Kitty: I'd like to have the choice, Chester. I'd like that very much, at least.
Chester: Why, you could get married anytime you wanted. Any man'd be a fool not to have you.
Kitty: [looking up] Here comes one now.
[Matt enters the saloon]

Joe: Laster says you made things tough for him up in Wichita, marshal.
Matt: That so?
Joe: He says you hit him with your fist.
Matt: Well, now, I've been known to do that.
Joe: But, we don't like it.
Matt: We? How do you know? You haven't tried it yet.

Matt: It happened to me once, Andy. And it's happening to you. Anyone who can use a gun the way you can has to make a choice. You can go on using it, or you can quit before you get blood all over you.
Andy: You think I like killing?
Matt: No, I don't.
Andy: Well, I don't like getting killed either.

Luke: [talking to Matt about the wolf they are hunting] He's covered a right-smart o' ground since he scattered dem sheep back 'ere. He's headin' for 'em rocks up 'ere, he knows we're follerin' 'im. Ain't gonna be no marks on 'em rocks. I'll figure we've gone about as far as we can go.
Matt: Luke, you ole moss horn, you can't fool me. I've seen you track a snake across pine needles.
Luke: Yeah.
[pauses for a couple of seconds]
Luke: Well, he'll use them rocks to throw us off and then double back. Or he'll head for high country.
Matt: Which do you think he'll do?
Luke: [pauses for a couple of seconds and looks up toward the rocks] Head for high country.
Matt: We better get started.

Asper: Quint, did you kill those men?
Quint: I killed 'em. I killed 'em both.
Asper: They was white men.
Quint: [with contempt] White men.
Asper: But don't forget you're half white. Don't never forget that.
Quint: I ain't forgettin', Pa.

Quint: [Explaining to the Comanche chief why he wants to join the tribe] My mother's Comanche. White men murdered my Pa. The two I killed were just a start. I want to go on killing white men.

John: [Introduction] Good evening, my name is Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before I have been kicking around Hollywood for a long time made a lot of pictures all kinds; some of them have been Westerns. That is what I'm here to tell you about tonight a Western Gunsmoke.A new television show called Gunsmoke.

Julie: ...a real man makes his dying count for something.

Matt: Chen, you said you wanted to bring your wife here and to make your home in this country. If you do that. You have to do that as an American. Not a Chinese.

Mr. Phipps: [Shooting off guns and his mouth, Phipps draws his horse to a halt in front of the marshal's office] Can't say I'm not puttin' you on notice, Marshal! I'm back in town again!
Matt: And so I notice.
Chester: How's your wife there, Mr. Phipps?
Mr. Phipps: Half alligator and a touch of earthquake! And I'm gonna get mackereled clear to the gills! There's gonna be eye gougin' and nose bitin' tonight!
Matt: All right. Before you get started, you better take that horse to Moss Grimmick's. Last time I had to go out and find him for you!
Mr. Phipps: I'm warning you, Marshal! I'm gonna have my fun tonight, and no lank, drawn-out, milk-lovin' lawman's gonna keep me from it! Yee-hoo!

Kitty: Oh, you're just suspicious of everybody.
Marshal: Maybe that's why I'm still alive.

Chester: Isn't she purty?-Just as soft as a pocketful of mice!

Chester: [Tastes freshly-brewed coffee] Ooooh! That's just as smooth as a widow's kiss!