Here are a couple of my favorites.
Movies:
John Bernard Books (The Shootist):
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them."
Rooster Cogburn (True Grit):
"I aim to kill you in one minute, Ned, or see you hang at Judge Parker's convience...Which will it be?"
Ned Pepper (True Git):
"That's mighty brave talk for a one-eyed fat man."
Rooster Cogburn (True Grit):
"Fill your hand, you son of a *****!"
Life and Times:
John Wayne on faith:
"When the road looks rough ahead, remember the 'Man Upstairs' and the word H-O-P-E. Hang onto both and 'Tough it out'."
John Wayne on politics:
"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..."
"If everything isn't black and white, I say why the hell not."
John Wayne on America:
"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."
John Wayne on Personal Philosophy:
"When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it."
"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."
"A man's got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.
John Wayne on death:
"God, how I hate solemn funerals. When I die, take me into a room and burn me. Then my family and a few good friends should get together, have a few good belts, and talk about the crazy old time we all had together."
John Wayne, honorary oscar speach 1979, two months later the cancer-stricken star died:
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Your applause is just about the only medicine a fella would ever need. I'm mighty pleases I can amble here tonight. Oscar and I have something in common. Oscar first came on the Hollywood scene in 1928. So did I. We're both a little weatherbeaten, but we're still hre and plan to be around a whole lot longer."
Final line in 'DUKE; The Life and Times of John Wayne' by Donald Shepherd, Robert Slatzer, and Dave Grayson:
"Marion Michael Morrison lies in an unmarked grave by the sea, but to his fans the world over, John Wayne lives."
