John Wayne
In westerns, you meet a hardy bunch of characters. There is no jealousy on such pictures.Collection: Jealousy
Nobody should come to the movies unless he believes in heroes.Collection: Movies
Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.Collection: Death
Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much.Collection: Communication
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.Collection: Inspirational
I'd read up on the history of our country and I'd become fascinated with the story of the Alamo. To me it represented the fight for freedom, not just in America, but in all countries.Collection: Freedom
My folks always let me go to the movies every Saturday. We were really motion-picture goers.Collection: Movies
Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.Collection: Hope
I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.Collection: Great
I was sure I'd set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth - that I hadn't set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if 'The Big Trail' had been a success and launched me as a star.Collection: Success
Get off your horse and drink your milk.
If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'
I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that's the way I am.
I'm not the sort to back away from a fight. I don't believe in shrinking from anything. It's not my speed; I'm a guy who meets adversities head on.
All the screen cowboys behaved like real gentlemen. They didn't drink, they didn't smoke. When they knocked the bad guy down, they always stood with their fists up, waiting for the heavy to get back on his feet. I decided I was going to drag the bad guy to his feet and keep hitting him.
All I'm for is the liberty of the individual.
Get off your butt and join the Marines!
When I was a sophomore at USC, I was a socialist, pretty much to the left. But not when I left the university. I quickly got wise. I'd read about what had happened to Russia in 1917 when the Communists took over.
Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity - and I don't mean simple - it'll be good, and the public will know it.
When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I'm not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won't be disappointed in me.
I was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That's why I started in with the props.
Everybody that I was in school with had an uncle or father in the law, and I started to realize that I was going to end up writing briefs for about ten years for these fellows who I thought I was smarter than. And I was kind of losing my feeling for that.
I've loved reading all my life.
Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.
I never have really become accustomed to the 'John.' Nobody ever really calls me John... I've always been Duke or Marion or John Wayne. It's a name that goes well together, and it's like one word - John Wayne.
Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid.Collection: Funny
Very few of the so-called liberals are open-minded.... They shout you down and won't let you speak if you disagree with them.Collection: Down And
TRUE Courage is when you are scared to death and STILL saddle up and ride in!Collection: Scared
The reason there are so many stupid people is because it's illegal to kill them.Collection: Stupid
Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you -- either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation.Collection: Government
A friend of mine told me to shoot first and ask questions later. I was going to ask him why, but I had to shoot him.Collection: Firsts
I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please.Collection: Hell
Slap some bacon on a biscuit and let's go! We're burnin' daylight!Collection: Daylight
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.Collection: Hands
Life is getting up one more time than you've been knocked down.Collection: Life Is
I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.Collection: Thinking
Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.Collection: Country
All battles are fought by scared men who'd rather be some place else.Collection: Men
True grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done.Collection: Basketball
I have found a certain type calls himself a Liberal...Now I always thought I was a Liberal. I came up terribly surprised one time when I found out that I was a Right-Wing Conservative Extremist, when I listened to everybody's point of view that I ever met, and then decided how I should feel. But this so-called new Liberal group, Jesus, they never listen to your point of view.Collection: Jesus
Life is tough pilgrim, it is even tougher if you're stupidCollection: Stupid
My favorite four-letter words are 'hard work'.Collection: Teaching
If you can't be thankful for what you have, be thankful for what you have escaped.Collection: Being Thankful
I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people ... I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Native Americans] ... Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.Collection: Country
Give the American people a good cause, and there's nothing they can't lick.Collection: Funny
There's right and there's wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you're living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.Collection: Decision
Men forget everything; women remember everything.Collection: Funny
Well, there are some things a man just can't run away from.Collection: Running
Don't ever for a minute make the mistake of looking down your nose at westerns. They're art - the good ones, I mean. They deal in life and sudden death and primitive struggle, and with the basic emotions - love, hate, and anger - thrown in. We'll have westerns films as long as the cameras keep turning. The fascination that the Old West has will never die. And as long as people want to pay money to see me act, I'll keep on making westerns until the day I die.Collection: Art