The Treasure of the Sierra Madre quotes

View Quote Dobbs: [about Howard] He's too old to take along with us, of course. We'd have to pack him on our backs.
Curtin: You can't tell about some of those old guys. It's surprising sometimes how tough they are. I don't know what gold looks like in the ground. I've only seen it in jewelry store windows and people's mouths. Do you know anything about prospectin'?
Dobbs: Eh, not much, when you come right down to it.
Curtin: We might have real use for an experienced guy like that old-timer.
Dobbs: Let's go hunt him up right away.

View Quote Dobbs: Hey, if there was gold in them mountains, how long would it have been there? Millions and millions of years, wouldn't it? So what's our hurry? A couple of days more or less ain't gonna make any difference.
Curtin: Remember what you said back in Tampico about having to pack an old man on our backs?
Dobbs: That was when I took him for an ordinary human being - not part goat. Look at him climb, will ya?
Curtin: What gets me is how he can go all day long in the sun without any water.
Dobbs: Maybe he's part camel too.
Curtin: If I'd known what prospecting meant, I'd have stayed in Tampico and waited for another job to turn up.

View Quote Dobbs: You know what I'm thinkin'. I'm thinkin' we ought to give up. Leave the whole outfit - everything behind and go back to civilization.
Howard: What's that you say? Go back? Ha, ha. Well, tell my old grandmother! I've got two very elegant bedfellows who kick at the first drop of rain and hide in the closet when thunder rumbles. My, my, my, what great prospectors, two shoe clerks readin' a magazine about prospectin' for gold in the land of the midnight sun, south of the border, or west of the Rockies, ha, ha, ha...
Dobbs: [picking up a rock] Shut your trap! Shut up or I'll smash your head flat.
Howard: Go ahead, go ahead, throw it. If you did, you'd never leave this wilderness alive. Without me, you two would die here more miserable than rats.
Curtin: [to Dobbs] Aw, leave him alone. Can't you see the old man's nuts?
Howard: Let me tell you something, my two fine bedfellows, you're so dumb, there's nothin' to compare ya with, you're dumber than the dumbest jackass. Look at each other, will ya? Did you ever see anything like yourself for bein' dumb specimens. You're so dumb, you don't even see the riches you're treadin' on with your own feet. Yeah, don't expect to find nuggets of molten gold. It's rich but not that rich. And here ain't the place to dig. It comes from someplace further up. Up there, up there's where we've got to go. UP THERE!

View Quote Dobbs: It don't look much different from sand...plain sand. It don't glitter - I thought it would glitter.
Howard: It'll glitter when it's refined. That's some other guy's job. All we gotta do is mine it and get it back there. You know, gold ain't like stones in a riverbed. It don't cry out to be picked up. You got to know how to recognize it. And the findin' ain't all. Not by a long shot. You got to know how to tickle her, so she'll come out laughin'. Yeah, it's mighty rich. It will pay good.
Curtin: How much?
Howard: Oh, about twenty ounces to the ton.

View Quote Dobbs: When are we gonna start dividing it up?
Curtin: What the use of dividing it at all? I don't see any point. We're all going back together when the time comes. Why don't we wait until we get paid for the stuff and then just divide up the money?
Dobbs: I'm for dividing it up as we go along. Make each guy responsible for his own goods.
...
Howard: Suppose you were charged with takin' care of the goods. One day I'm deep in the bush and Curtin's on his way to the village to get provisions. That'd be your big chance to pack up and leave us in the cold.
Dobbs: Only a guy that's a thief at heart would think me likely to do a thing like that!

View Quote Howard: After we save and got a couple of hundred ounces, it'll be a nuisance carryin' little bags hangin' from our necks, and each of us will have to hide his share of the treasure from the other two - and having done so will be forever on the watch that his hiding place is not discovered.
Dobbs: What a dirty filthy mind you've got.
Howard: Oh no, not dirty, not dirty baby. Only I know what kind of ideas even supposedly decent people get when gold's at stake.

View Quote Dobbs: I owe my life to you, partner.
Curtin: Forget it.

View Quote Howard: I reckon I'll settle down in some quiet place. Get me a little business...a hardware or grocery store, and spend the better part of my time readin' comic strips and adventure stories. Ha. One thing's for sure. I'm not gonna go prospectin' again and waste my time and money trying to find another gold mine.
Curtin: I figure on buying some land and growing fruit - peaches maybe...One summer when I was a kid, I worked as a picker in a peach harvest in the San Joaquin Valley. Boy, it sure was something. Hundreds of people, old and young, whole families workin' together. At night, after a day's work, we used to build big bonfires and sit around and sing to guitar music, till morning sometimes. You'd go to sleep and wake up and sing, and go to sleep again. Everybody had a wonderful time. Ever since then, I've had a hankering to be a fruit grower. Must be grand watching your own trees put on leaves, come into blossom and bear...watching the fruit get big and ripe on the boughs, ready for pickin'...
Dobbs: Well, first off, I'm goin' to a Turkish bath and I'm gonna sweat and soak till I get all the grime and dirt out of my system. Then I'm goin' to a haberdasher's and I'm gonna get myself a brand new set of duds...a dozen of everything. Then, I'm goin' to a swell cafe - order everything on the bill of fare, and if it ain't just right, or maybe even if it is, I'm gonna bawl the waiter out and make him take the whole thing back...
Curtin: The next thing on the program would be dames.
Dobbs: Yeah.
Howard: If I were you boys, I wouldn't talk or even think about women. It ain't good for your health.

View Quote Curtin: There's no use makin' hogs of ourselves.
Dobbs: Hog, am I? Maybe you don't know it, but I'd be within my rights if I demanded half again as much as you get.
Curtin: How come?
Dobbs: There's no denying I put up the lion's share of the cash, is there?
Howard: I think it would be wise not to put things strictly on a money basis.
[Curtin uses the scales to weigh out a portion of his gold dust (with interest) to repay Dobbs for his bigger share]
Dobbs: [flinging the dust away into the fire] I just don't like being called a hog, that's all.

View Quote Dobbs: Don't get the idea you two are putting anything over on me.
Howard: Take it easy, Dobbs.
Dobbs: I know what your game is.
Howard: Well, you know more than I do.
Dobbs: Why am I elected to go to the village? Why me instead of you and Curtin? Oh, don't think I don't see through that! You two have thrown together against me. The two days I'd be gone would give you plenty of time to discover where my goods are, wouldn't it?
Howard: Why don't you take your goods along with you?
Dobbs: And run the risk of having them taken from me by bandits?
Howard: If you was to run into bandits, you'd be out of luck anyway. They'd kill you for the shoes on your feet.
Dobbs: Oh, so that's it! Everything's clear now. You're hopin' bandits'll get me. That would save you a lot of trouble, wouldn't it? And your consciences wouldn't bother you none neither.
Howard: All right, Dobbs. Forget about it.

View Quote Cody: I simply couldn't resist the desire to sit around and jaw with an American.
Dobbs: We're full up. No vacancies. Understand? And in case I don't make myself clear, I think you'd be doin' yourself a favor by packin' up and gettin' out of here tomorrow morning. Go back where you came from. Take our blessings with ya. [Howard hands Cody a plate for grub]...Help yourself. We don't mind 'cause we don't let guys starve to death. Tonight you're our guest. But tomorrow morning, look out - no trespassin' around here. Ya know - beware the dogs. Get it?

View Quote Cody: I thought perhaps I was among civilized men who wouldn't begrudge me a little fresh water.
Dobbs: WHO'S NOT CIVILIZED?! [punches Cody]

View Quote Gold Hat: Hola, senor. We are Federales. You know, the mounted police.
Dobbs: If you're the police, where are your badges?
Gold Hat: Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!
Dobbs: You'd better not come any closer.
Gold Hat: We aren't trying to do you any harm. Why don't you try to be a little more polite? Give us your gun and we'll leave you in peace.
Dobbs: I need my gun myself.
Gold Hat: Oh, throw that ol' iron over here. We'll pick it up and go on our way.
Dobbs: You go on your way without my gun and go quick!
[Dobbs fires a warning shot with his rifle at Gold Hat, piercing a big hole in the top of the bandit's hat]
Gold Hat: Look here, amigo. You got the wrong idea. We don't wanna get your gun fer nothin'. We wanna buy it. Look. I have a gold watch with a gold chain, made in your own country. The watch and the chain - they worth at least two hundred pesos - I 'change it fer yer gun. Y'better take it, thatsa good bizness for you!!
Dobbs: You keep your watch. I'll keep my gun!
Gold Hat: O, you keep it? You will keep it?? We won't get it?? I'LL SHOW YOU!!!
[Howard aims and blasts the gold watch] Note: the bolded line is ranked #36 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

View Quote Howard: It'll take another week to break down the mine and put the mountain back in shape...Make 'er appear like she was before we came...We've wounded this mountain and it's our duty to close her wounds. It's the least we can do to show our gratitude for all the wealth she's given us. If you guys don't want to help me, I'll do it alone.
Curtin: You talk about that mountain like it was a real woman!
Dobbs: She's been a lot better to me than any woman I ever knew!

View Quote Dobbs: We'll be lonesome without you, but you know my Sunday school teacher used to say, 'You've got to learn to swallow disappointments in this sad life.'
Howard: Pick me out a good-looking squaw and marry her. They're easy to dress and feed and entertain. They don't nag at you either. Well, so long partners.