The Treasure of the Sierra Madre quotes

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 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 [about Curtin] Maybe I didn't kill him. Maybe he just staggered and fell down without being hit.

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 Here's a sight if there ever was one. Federales, look at 'em. I could kiss every one of 'em...Oh, go get 'em. Sic 'em Tiger! Chew 'em up and don't spit 'em out - swallow 'em. Oh am I happy. To tell you the truth, I was already eatin' dirt.

View Quote Of course I'll go. Any time, any day. I was only waiting for one or two guys to ask me. Out for gold? Always at your service.

View Quote We gotta go where there's no trails at all - where you can be positive that no surveyor or anybody who knows anything about prospectin' has ever been there before.

View Quote [translating for a shopkeeper] We're going into the country that's very wild and dangerous. Have to cut our way through jungles and climb mountains so high that rise above the clouds. With tigers so big and strong they can climb trees with burros in their mouths...Good! Glad to hear such tall tales 'cause that means mighty few outsiders have ever set foot there.

View Quote I sure had some ****eyed ideas about prospectin' for gold. It was all in the finding I thought. I thought all you had to do was find it, pick it up, put it in sacks, and carry 'em off to the nearest bank.

View Quote [to Curtin] I've a hunch there's loads of the real goods up in those mountains...I can look at a hillside miles away and tell you whether it carries an ounce or a shipload...If you haven't found anything up there yet, I'll come along with ya and put your nose in it. There's indications in this valley, lots of indications. By tracing the rocks, I find they come from that ridge up there, washed down by the tropical rain...

View Quote You can't catch me sleepin'...Don't you ever believe that. I'm not that dumb. The day you try to put anything over on me will be a costly one for both of you...Any more lip out of you and I'll haul off and let ya have it. If ya know what's good for ya, ya won't monkey around with Fred C. Dobbs.

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 Only foreigners and half-baked Americans fall for McCormick's tricks...I mean he hires dumb guys like you to work for him, and when it comes time to pay off, he takes a powder.

View Quote That bandit with the Gold Hat that rode alongside the train - I had my sights on him nice as you please, but the train gave a jolt and I missed him. Sure wish I'd got him.

View Quote Now here's where we're bound for - hereabouts. It don't show properly whether it's mountain, swamp, or desert. That shows the makers of the map themselves don't know for sure. Now once on the ground, all we got to do is open our eyes and look around. Yeah, and blow our noses too. Believe it or not, I knew a feller once who could smell gold just like a jackass can smell water.