Top 150 Quotes & Sayings by John Wayne - Page 2

When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it.

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.

The guy you see on the screen isn’t really me. I’m Duke Morrison, and I never was and never will be a film personality like JOHN WAYNE . I know him well. I’m one of his closest students. I have to be. I made a living out of him.

Life's hard. It's even harder when you're stupid.

I am an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness, flag waving patriot.

Never apologize, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.

Well, there are some things a man just can't run away from.

I read someplace that I used to make B-pictures. Hell, they were a lot farther down the alphabet than that . . . but not as far down as R and X. I think any man who makes an X-rated picture ought to be made to take his own daughter to see it.

A long time ago, I made me a rule. I let people do what they want to do.

America is the land of freedom and that’s the way I enjoy living.

I've had three wives, six children and six grandchildren and I still don't understand women

Courage is being afraid and going on the journey anyhow.

Ahh, women! I never met one yet that was half as reliable as a horse!

A man ought to do what he thinks is right

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.

I would like to be remembered, well... the Mexicans have a phrase, 'Feo fuerte y formal'. Which means; he was ugly, strong and had dignity.

Out here, due process is a bullet.

One look that works is better than twenty lines of dialogue.

Give the American people a good cause, and there's nothing they can't lick.

Getting rid of a man without hurting his masculinity is a problem. "Get out" and "I never want to see you again" might sound like a challenge. If you want to get rid of a man, I suggest saying, "I love you. . . . I want to marry you. . . . I want to have your children." Sometimes they leave skid marks.

Men forget everything; women remember everything.

I never trust a man that doesn't drink.

I want to play a real man in all my films, and I define manhood simply: men should be tough, fair, and courageous, never petty, never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either.

True Grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done. No moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.

The hyphenated American is ridiculous. But that's what we have to put up with. I think that any person that's in the United States is better off here than they would be where they came from.

We're burnin' daylight!

courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway" "A goal, A love and A dream give you total control over your body and your life

I eat as much as I ever did, I drink more than I should, and my sex life is none of your goddamned business.

But you know, I'm very conscious that people criticize Hollywood. Yet we've created a form, the Western, that can be understood in every country. The good guys against the bad guys. No nuances. And the horse is the best vehicle of action in our medium. You take action, a scene, and scenery, and cut them together, and you never miss.

I believe humor nullifies violence.

Watergate is a sad and tragic incident in our history. They were wrong, dead wrong, those men at Watergate. Men abused power, but the system still works. Men abused money, but the system still works. Men lied and perjured themselves, but the system still .

Thanking people is dangerous business. A name always slips your mind.

I don't have to assert my virility. I think my career has shown that I'm not exactly a pantywaist. But I do take pride in my work, even to the point of being the first one on the set in the morning. I'm a professional.

This kind of war, you've gotta believe in what you're fighting for.

I never shot nobody I didnt have to.

Wayne: I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them ..... the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. .... I'm quite sure that the concept of a Government-run reservation .... seems to be what the socialists are working for now -- to have everyone cared for from cradle to grave ..... But you can't whine and bellyache 'cause somebody else got a break and you didn't, like those Indians are. We'll all be on a reservation soon if the socialists keep subsidizing groups like them with our tax money.

It rankles me when somebody tries to force somebody to do something.

I drink for comradeship, and when I drink for comradeship, I don't bother to keep count.

Every country in the world loved the folklore of the West--the music, the dress, the excitement, everything that was associated with the opening of a new territory. It took everybody out of their own little world. The cowboy lasted a hundred years, created more songs and prose and poetry than any other folk figure. The closest thing was the Japanese samurai. Now, I wonder who'll continue it.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.

Most men hate to shop. That's why the men's department is usually on the first floor of a department store, two inches from the door.

We brought nothing into this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out.

Sometimes I wonder whose side God's on.

Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave?

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. I was proud when President Nixon ordered the mining of Haiphong Harbor, which we should have done long ago, because I think we're helping a brave little country defend herself against Communist invasion. That's what I tried to show in The Green Berets and I took plenty of abuse from the critics.

Out here a man settles his own problems.

We built your fort. We will not have it used against us.

The West - the very words go straight to that place of the heart where Americans feel the spirit of pride in their western heritage - the triumph of personal courage over any obstacle, whether nature or man.

In my acting, I have to identify with something in the character. The big tough boy on the side of right - that's me. Simple themes. Same me from the nuances. All I do is sell sincerity and I've been selling the hell out of that ever since I started.

Communism is quite obviously still a threat. Yes, they are human beings, with a right to their point of view . . .

I am a demonstrative man, a baby picker-upper, a hugger and a kisser--that's my nature.

The fire is not discriminating. It burns anything in its path for whatever reason.

That's why men need instant replays in sports. They've already forgotten what happened.

If a man says, "I'll call you," and he doesn't, he didn't forget. . . . he didn't lose your number. . . . he didn't die. He just didn't want to call you.

Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.

I would think somebody like Jane Fonda and her idiot husband would be terribly ashamed and saddened that they were a part of causing us to stop helping the South Vietnamese. Now look what's happening. They're getting killed by the millions. Murdered by the millions. How the hell can she and her husband sleep at night?

I'm a greedy old man. Life's been good to me, and I want some more of it.

When you stop fighting, that's death.

Republic. I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling.

Jesus Christ! I would crawl over the mountains of Beverly Hills on my hands and knees if I could do a movie with Doris Day!