Josey Wales quotes from The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Josey Wales

There ain't no forgettin'.

Josey Wales

Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.

Josey Wales

Well, Mr. Carpetbagger we've got something in this territory called the Missouri boat ride.

Josey Wales

Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle 'Dixie'?

Josey Wales

Sometimes, trouble just follows a man.

Whupped 'em again, didn't we Josey?

Josey Wales

I reckon so.

You're wanted, Wales.

Josey Wales

Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?

A man's got to do something for a living these days.

Josey Wales

Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.

Josey Wales

You be Ten Bears?

I am Ten Bears.

Josey Wales

I'm Josey Wales.

I have heard. You are the Grey Rider. You would not make peace with the Bluecoats. You may go in peace.

Josey Wales

I reckon not. Got no place else to go

Then you will die.

Josey Wales

I came here to die with you. Or live with you. Dying ain't so hard for men like you and me. It's living that's hard when all you've ever cared about has been butchered or raped. Governments don't live together--people live together. With governments, you don't always get a fair word or a fair fight. Well, I've come here to give you either one or get either one from you. I came here like this so you'll know my word of death is true, and my word of life is then true. The bear lives here, the wolf, the antelope, the Comanche. And so will we. Now we'll only hunt what we need to live on, same as the Comanche does. And every spring, when the grass turns green, and the Comanche moves north, you can rest here in peace, butcher some of our cattle, and jerk beef for the journey. The sign of the Comanche, that will be on our lodge. That's my word of life.

And your word of death?

Josey Wales

It's here in my pistols and there in your rifles. I'm here for either one.

These things you say we will have, we already have.

Josey Wales

That's true. I ain't promising you nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another.

It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life. [Draws his knife and cuts his and Josey's palms, then grasps hands with him, becoming blood brothers] So will it be.

Josey Wales

I reckon so.

Lone Watie

Guess we ain't going to see that little Navajo girl again.

Josey Wales

Nah, I guess not. I kinda liked her, but then it's always like that.

Lone Watie

Like what?

Josey Wales

Whenever I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.

Lone Watie

I notice when you get to Dislikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.