Mattie Ross: You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.
Rooster Cogburn: That didn't pan out.
Rooster Cogburn: That Chinamen is running them cheap shells on me again.
LaBoeuf: I thought you gonna say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your Eye!
Rooster Cogburn: We'll sleep here and follow in the morning.
Mattie Ross: But we promised to bury the poor soul inside!
Rooster Cogburn: Ground's too hard. Them men wanted a decent burial, they should have got themselves killed in summer.
Lucky Ned Pepper: What is your intention Rooster? You think one on four is a dogfall?
Rooster Cogburn: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which will you have?
Lucky Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!
Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hand you son-of-a-bitch!
LaBoeuf: You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements. While I sat there watchin' I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss... though you are very young, and sick... and unattractive to boot. But now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.
Mattie Ross: One would be just as unpleasant as the other
Rooster Cogburn: [outside the cabin] Who is in there?
Emmett Quincy: [from inside the cabin] A Methodist and a son of a bitch!
LaBoeuf: I've just come from Yell County.
Mattie Ross: We have no rodeo clowns in Yell County.
LaBoeuf: A saucy line will not get you far with me.
Cross-examining Lawyer: So, you say that when Amos Wharton raised his axe, you backed away from him.
Rooster Cogburn: That's right.
Cross-examining Lawyer: In what direction were you going?
Rooster Cogburn: Backwards. I always go backwards when I back up.
Rooster Cogburn: Is that him?
Mattie Ross: I believe not.
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, cut him down.
Mattie Ross: [incredulous] Why?
Rooster Cogburn: I might know him.
Mattie Ross: I guess I have a $10 horse. Tell Col. Stonehill I said 'Thank you'.
Stableboy: No ma'am. He said he don't never want to hear your name again!
Rooster Cogburn: You go for a man hard enough and fast enough, he don't have time to think about how many's with him; he thinks about himself, and how he might get clear of that wrath that's about to set down on him
Mattie Ross: Do you need a good lawyer?
Lucky Ned Pepper: I need a good judge...
Undertaker: If you would like to sleep in a coffin, it would be all right.
Mattie Ross: If I had killed Chaney, I would not be in this fix; but my gun misfired.
Lucky Ned Pepper: [Chuckling] They will do it. It will embarrass you every time. Most girls like to play pretties, but you like guns do you?
Mattie Ross: I do not care a thing about guns, if I did, I would have one that worked.
Rooster Cogburn: [looks up at the hanging corpse] Is it Cheney?
Mattie Ross: I would not recognize the soles of his feet.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, you'll have to clamber up and look. I'm too old and too fat.
Mattie Ross: [cutting the rope on the tree] Why did they hang him so high?
Rooster Cogburn: I do not know. Possibly in the belief it'd make him more dead.
Mattie Ross: [LaBoeuf is whipping her] Are you going to let him do this, Marshal?
Rooster Cogburn: [watches for a moment] No, I don't believe I will. Put your switch away, LaBoeuf.
LaBoeuf: I aim to finish what I started!
Rooster Cogburn: It'll be the biggest mistake you ever made, you Texas brush-popper.
[aims gun at LaBoeuf]
Mattie Ross: And "futile", Marshal Cogburn, "pursuit would be futile"? It's not spelled "f-u-d-e-l."
Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied.
Mattie Ross: I know it is occupied Mr. Cogburn. As I said, I have business with you.
Rooster Cogburn: I have prior business.
Mattie Ross: You have been at it for quite some time, Mr. Cogburn.
Rooster Cogburn: There is no clock on my business! To hell with you! To hell with you! How did you stalk me here?
Mattie Ross: The sheriff told me to look in the saloon. In the saloon they referred me here. We must talk.
Rooster Cogburn: Women ain't allowed in the saloon!
Mattie Ross: I was not there as a customer. I am fourteen years old.
Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied. And will be for some time.
Cross-examining Lawyer: Mister Cogburn, in your four years as US Marshal, how many men have you shot?
Rooster Cogburn: Shot? Or killed?
Cross-examining Lawyer: Let us restrict it to killed so we may have a manageable figure!
Col. Stonehill: I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough.
LaBoeuf: You are getting ready to show your ignorance now, Cogburn. I don't mind a little personal chaffing but I won't hear anything against the Ranger troop from a man like you.L
Rooster Cogburn: How long have you boys been mounted on sheep down there?
LaBoeuf: My shaggy horse will be galloping when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed. Now make another joke about it. You are only trying to put on a show for this girl Mattie with what you must think is a keen tongue.
Rooster Cogburn: This is like women talking.
LaBoeuf: Yes, that is the way! Make me out foolish in this girl's eyes.
Rooster Cogburn: I think she has got you pretty well figured.
Rooster Cogburn: [after singing for a long time] That was "Johnny in the Low Ground." There are very few fiddle tunes I have not heard. Once heard they are locked in my mind forever. It is a sadness to me that I have sausage fingers that cannot crowd onto a fretboard... Little fat girls at a cotillion. "Soldier's Joy"!
[sings more]
LaBoeuf: [to Mattie] I don't believe he slept.
First Lawyer: Mr. Cogburn, did you find a bottle with a hundred and twenty-five dollars in it?
Cross-examining Lawyer: Objection your Honor, Leading
Judge Parker: Sustained. Rephrase the question.
First Lawyer: What happened then?
Rooster Cogburn: [slightly annoyed] I found a bottle with a hundred and twenty-five dollars in it.
Rooster Cogburn: [LaBoeuf has been talking about malum prohibitum and malum in se] It astonishes me that Mr. LaBoeuf has been shot, trampled, and nearly bitten his tongue off, and yet not only does he continue to talk but he spills the banks of English.
Rooster Cogburn: I do not know this man.
