20 Best The Big Country Quotes

Julie: Any ranch that you can see on foot just isn't worth looking at.

James: I'm not going to go on living in the middle of a civil war.

Patricia: [discussing McKay's "cowardice"] Don't you care what people think of you?
James: I'm not responsible for what people think, Pat, only for what I am.

Rufus: [forced to shoot his own son] I told you! I told you I'd do it. I told you, but you wouldn't believe me! Damn your soul, I told you!

Rufus: If you ain't the mother and father of all liars!

[Buck Hannassey is about to shoot the weaponless James McKay until Buck's father intercedes]
Rufus: You don't shoot an unarmed man... not while I'm around.

Rufus: [examining McKay's dueling pistols] These guns loaded?
James: All but the caps. They haven't been fired for a long time - the vents will have to be cleared out. I'll do it for you, if you like.
Rufus: Teach your grandmother to suck eggs! I've been handling guns like this, flintlock and caplock, since before you were born.

Rufus: Crawl, you act like a dog, crawl like one! Crawl I said, crawl!

Steve: You know, McKay, you're a bigger fool than I thought you were. And to tell you the truth, that just didn't seem possible.

James: I was just about finished if it's okay with you.

Major: If there's anything I admire more than a dedicated friend, it is a dedicated enemy.

Patricia: But if he loved me, why would he let me think he was a coward?
Julie: If you love him, why would you think it? How many times does a man have to win you?

Rufus: Treat her right. Take a bath sometime.

Rufus: The Hannasseys will have no peace until the bones of Henry Terrill is bleaching in Blanco Canyon. Now he started this blood-spilling, and I aim to finish it.

Major: This is the west, Jim, a man is still expected to defend himself. If he allows people to think he won't, he's in trouble. Bad trouble.

Rufus: I'm a law-abiding man. That is, if there's any law to abide by.

Major: What do you want, Hannassey?
Rufus: I'm just payin' back the call you and your men made on my home this mornin'. Sorry I wasn't there to give you the proper welcome.
Major: Let him speak his piece.
Rufus: Take it easy, boy. I've got me somethin' to say: it's about thirty years overdue. This is a mighty fine house, Major Terrill: a gentleman's house. Those are mighty fine clothes your wearin'. Well, maybe you've got some of these folks fooled, but you ain't got me fooled, not by a damn sight! The Hannassey's know and admire a real gentleman when they see one, and they recognize a high tone skunk when they smell one. Now, I'm not here complainin' about twenty of your brave men who beat three of my boys 'til they couldn't stand. Maybe they had it comin'. Anyways, they're full growed and can take their lickin's. And I'm not here complainin' because I know that you're tryin' to buy the Big Muddy to keep my cows from water. Though it galls me sore to see the granddaughter of a genuine gentleman like Glenn Maragon under this roof. I'll tell you why I'm here, Major Terrill! When you come a-ridin' roughshod over my land scarin' the kids and the women folks, when you invade my home, like you was the law or God Almighty, then I say to you, I've seen every kind of critter God ever made, and I ain't never seen a meaner, lower, more stinkin', yellow, hyprocrite than you! Now you can swallow up a lot of folks and make 'em like it, but you ain't swallowin' me. I'm stuck in your craw, Henry Terrill, and you can't spit me out! You hear me now! You rode into my place and beat my men for the last time and I give you warnin'. You set foot in Blanco Canyon once more and this country's gonna run red with blood 'til there ain't one of us left! Now I don't hold mine so precious, so if you want to start, here, start now! What's the matter? Can't you shoot a man a-facin' ya? I'll make it easy fer ya. Here's my back.

James: Tell me Leech, what did we prove?

Rufus: He's going to be the most surprised dead man you ever saw!

Buck: Remember, the Terrills ain't no friend of ours.
Julie: I'll choose my own friends.
Buck: Oh, that won't do. You got to be on one side or the other. You can't have it both ways.