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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre quotes

64 total quotes

Bob Curtin
Fred C. Dobbs
Howard
James Cody
Multiple Characters




View Quote Oh, I know very well you guys could bump me off any minute you wish, but that's a risk worth running, considering the stakes. Let's lay all our cards on the table. As I see it, you guys have got to do one of three things: kill me, run me off, or take me in with you as a partner. Let's consider the first. Another guy may come along tomorrow or maybe a dozen other guys. You start bumping people off, just how far are you prepared to go with it? Ask yourselves that. Also, don't forget, the one actually to do the bumping off would forever be in the power of the other two. The only safe way would be for all three of you to drag out your cannons and bang away at the same instant like a firing squad...As for choice number two, if you run me off, I might very well inform on you...Twenty-five percent of the value of your find is the reward I'd get paid and that would be tempting, mighty tempting...Let's see what number three has to offer. If you take me in with you as a partner, you don't stand to lose anything. I will not ask to share in what you've made so far, only in the profits to come. Well, what do you say?
View Quote [as Dobbs and Curtin come to shoot him] Better take a look down that hill first...They're not soldiers, they're bandits and they're not after gold, but after guns and ammunition. Someone in the village must have told them about the American hunter up here.
View Quote Hey you fellas, how about some beans? Ya want some beans? Goin' through some mighty rough country tomorrow - you better have some beans!
View Quote Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you've got a conscience, it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you've got one, what can it do to ya? Makes me sick all this talking and fussing about nonsense.
View Quote [to Howard] I'll let you remember this the next time you try to do a good deed!
View Quote [to Curtin] This is an all-or-nothing proposition, ain't it? If we make a find, we'll be lightin' our cigars with hundred dollar bills. If we don't, the difference between what you put up and what I put up ain't enough to keep me from being right back where I was this afternoon, polishing a bench with the seat of my pants. Put 'er there, pard.
View Quote OK, I'm a liar. There isn't a Gila monster under there. Let's see you stick your hand in and get your goods out...Reach in and get your goods. If you don't we'll think you're yella, won't we, Howard? They never let go, do they Howard, once they grab onto you? You cut 'em in two and the head'll still hang on until sundown, I hear. By that time, the victim doesn't usually care 'cause he's dead anyway. Isn't that right, Howard?...What's the matter, Dobbsie? Why don't you stick your hand right in and get your treasure? It couldn't be because you're scared to, could it, after the way you've been shooting your mouth off. Show us you ain't yella, Dobbsie. I'd hate to think that my partner had a yellow streak up his back.
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 I mean to stay right here. The brush and the mountains are free, aren't they?...Whatever you say or don't say, tomorrow I start to dig for gold here.
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 [to Curtin] Why not try gold diggin' for a change? Well, it ain't any riskier than waitin' around here for a break. And this is the country where the nuggets of gold are just cryin' for ya to take 'em out of the ground and make 'em shine in coins and on the fingers and necks of swell dames. Our money would last longer while we lived out in the open. The longer it lasts, the greater our chance of diggin' something up would be!
View Quote Meat's one thing and bandit's another. Bandit country is where we'll be going. We ought to have six hundred bucks between us.
View Quote [about the Indian chief, whose son he saved] He's insisting we return with him to his village and be his guests...He says if he doesn't pay off his debt, all the saints in heaven will be angry. [Dobbs laughs] This is no laughing matter. I'm afraid he's determined to take us with him, even if it means force.
View Quote [to Curtin] Not many Americans get around this way. You're the first one I've bumped into for a long time.
View Quote [to Curtin, about Howard] Ain't it always his burros that won't march in line...What was in your head when you offered to carry his goods for him that he couldn't manage by himself. He knew what he was doin' when he turned 'em over to us. Mighty cute of him, wasn't it?