Calvera The days of good hunting are over. Once there was cattle, horses, fruit from the trees... no more. Now I must hunt with a price on my head, Rurales at my heels.
Tied for 4th most-quoted character in The Magnificent Seven (1960): in 14 of its 99 quotes
Most scenes with: Chris Adams (2), Vin (2)
If God did not want them sheared, He would not have made them sheep.
More lines from Calvera
10 quotes Calvera Calvera Enough! We get the rest when we come back.
Calvera Generosity. That was my first mistake. I leave these people a little bit extra and they hire these men to make trouble.
Calvera Shows you -- sooner or later you must answer for every good deed.
Calvera You hear that? We're trapped! All forty of us!
Calvera Your friends, they don't like you very much anymore. You force them to make too many decisions. With me, only one decision: do what I say.
Calvera What happens to these people will happen whether I kill you first or not.
Calvera (whispering)
Just a little gesture, huh? To show these people who the real boss is. You go, then I give you the guns back. I know you won't use those guns against me. Only a crazy-man makes the same mistake twice.
Calvera Once I rob a bank in Texas. Your government get after me with a whole army. Whole army! One little bank. In Texas, only Texans can rob banks.
Calvera You came back... to a place like this. Why? A man like you...why?
Scenes with Calvera
3 scenes Calvera [Calvera chats with his "good friend" Sotero while his men loot the village.]
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to see a village like this. So much restlessness and change in the outside world. People no longer content with their station in life. Women's fashions -- shameless! Religion! You'd weep if you saw how true religion is now a thing of the past. Last month we were in San Juan, a rich town. Sit down. Rich town, much blessed by God. Big church -- not like here, little church, priest comes twice a year. Big one. You'd think we'd find gold candlesticks, poor-box filled to overflowing. You know what we found? Brass candlesticks. Almost nothing in the poor box.
Bandito
But we took it anyway.
Calvera I know we took it anyway! I'm trying to show him how little religion some people now have.
Sotero That I can see for myself.
Calvera (slaps him forehand, then backhand)
No! You don't see! What if you had to carry my load, huh? The need to provide food like a good father to fill the mouths of his hungry men. Guns, ammunition -- you know how much money that costs? Huh? Uh? (slaps him twice more)
Calvera [Calvera meets Chris Adams and Vin as he rides into the village.]
I should have guessed. When my men didn't come back, I should have guessed. How many of you did they hire?
Enough.
Calvera New wall.
There's lots of new walls, all around.
Calvera They won't keep me out.
They were built to keep you in.
...
There won't be any trouble... if you ride on.
Calvera Ride on? Where am I going to get the food for my men?
Buy it or grow it!
Or maybe even work for it.
Calvera Hm, seven. Somehow I don't think you've solved my problem.
Solving your problems isn't our line.
We deal in lead, friend.
Calvera So do I. We're in the same business.
Only as competitors.
Calvera Why not as partners? Suppose I offer you equal shares.
Of what?
Calvera Everything. Down to the last grain.
And the people of the village? What about them?
Calvera I leave it to you. Do men of our profession worry about things like that? It may even be sacreligious! If God didn't want them sheared, He would not have made them sheep. What do you say?
Ride on.
...
Calvera If I leave here with empty hands, everyone in this village will answer to me when I come back.
You won't come back.
Calvera Why not?
Won't have any guns. Take them off right now and drop them.
Calvera [The Seven return from a raid to find Calvera's men holding the village.]
You should not be surprised. My good friend Sotero, he, ah, arranged for them to come in. Comprende? Well, anyway, to business. I could kill you all. You agree? (a long pause) Well, you don't disagree. Anyway, I don't want to kill you.
Why so generous?
Calvera Practical. They hear about it up north, maybe some friends of yours make more trouble for me -- a man who never wants no trouble. We, ah, have a saying here: "A thief who steals from a thief is pardoned for one hundred years." All right, what does that leave? Only one thing. I pardon you. Ride on.
Just like that? (snaps fingers)
Calvera Si, just like that! (snaps fingers) I'll make it easy for you. You want food? (to henchmen) Give them food. Water? All right, water. Horses? Saddled and waiting. Guns? Your guns, your gunbelts you take off and you put here, now.
...
Calvera What I can't understand is why a man like you took this job in the first place. Why, huh?
I wonder myself.
Calvera Oh, come on, come on. Tell me why.
Fella I once knew in El Paso, one day he took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. So I asked him the same question. "Why?"
Calvera And?
He said it seemed to be a good idea at the time.
Calvera Go get your clothes, your saddlebags. Anything you want, take. Your friends in there owe you at least that much.
