The Treasure of the Sierra Madre quotes

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 [about Curtin] Maybe I'd better leave him like he is. Ain't very likely anybody will find him. In a week's time, the buzzards and the ants will have done away with him anyway. [A tiger's cry startles him.] I don't know what's getting into me. Was that really a tiger? No. What if his eyes are open, looking at me? Best thing to do is to get to the railroad in a hurry. It's better not to have buried him. I did right, yeah! What I should have done, maybe, bury his clothes and leave him to the ants and the buzzards...Buzzards! If somebody saw them circling, they'd know something was dead. Buzzards ain't spotted him yet. Lucky for me. [He runs back, but cannot find Curtin's body.] Curtin! Curtin! Curtin! Where are you? Curtin! I gotta get ahold of myself! Mustn't lose my head. There's one thing certain, he ain't here. I got it. The tiger. Yeah, yeah that's it. The tiger must have dragged him off to his lair, that's what. Yeah, pretty soon, not even the bones will be left to tell the story. Done as if by order.

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 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 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 You know, the Federales don't operate in our American way. They aren't fingerprint experts, that is, but they can follow any trail, and against them, no hideout's any use. They know all the tricks of the bandits. Yep, you can bet your sweet soul they'll trace down every last one of that group that attacked the train. It'll take time - months maybe - but they'll do it.

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] 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 [to Howard] I'll let you remember this the next time you try to do a good deed!

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 [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 [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?

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 It seems between 'em they had a diamond ring, pearl earrings, and quite a lot of money, and a railway ticket with the date of the Agua Caliente train robbery on it. They've been here several days, drinking and shooting off their cannons so that the villagers are afraid to stick their noses out of their huts.

View Quote [to Curtin] I meant what I said about going along with you. Those are my two burros. I'm all packed up and ready to start if you'll let me go with you back to your camp.