"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

"If you're the police, where are your badges?"

"Nobody puts one over on Fred C. Dobbs!"

"Can you stake a fellow American to a meal?"

"I know what gold does to men's souls."

"That's gold, that's what it makes of us."

"Gold's a devilish sort of thing anyway."

"Why is gold worth some twenty bucks an ounce?"

"I don't know. Because it's scarce."

"A thousand men, say, go searchin' for gold. After six months, one of 'em's lucky: one out of a thousand. His find represents not only his own labor, but that of nine hundred and ninety-nine others to boot. That's six thousand months, five hundred years, scramblin' over a mountain, goin' hungry and thirsty. An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the findin' and the gettin' of it."

"I never thought of it just like that."

"Well, there's no other explanation, mister. Gold itself ain't good for nothing except making jewelry with and gold teeth."

"You start out, you tell yourself you'll be satisfied with 25,000 handsome smackers worth of it. So help me, Lord, and cross my heart. Fine resolution. After months of sweatin' yourself dizzy, and growin' short on provisions, and findin' nothin', you finally come down to 15,000, then ten. Finally, you say, 'Lord, let me just find $5,000 worth and I'll never ask for anythin' more the rest of my life.'"

"$5,000 is a lot of money."

"Yeah, here in this joint it seems like a lot. But I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn't be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death would keep you from trying to add 10,000 more. Ten, you'd want to get twenty-five; twenty-five you'd want to get fifty; fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know. Always one more."

"It wouldn't be that way with me. I swear it wouldn't. I'd take only what I set out to get, even if there was still a half a million dollars worth lying around waitin' to be picked up."

"I've dug in Alaska and in Canada and Colorado. I was with the crowd in British Honduras where I made my fare back home and almost enough over to cure me of the fever I'd caught. I've dug in California and Australia, all over the world practically."

"Never knew a prospector yet that died rich. Make one fortune, you're sure to blow it in trying to find another. I'm no exception to the rule."

"Aw sure, I'm an odd old bone now, but say, don't you guys think the spirit's gone. I'm all set to shoulder a pickax and a shovel any time anybody's willing to share expenses."

"I'd rather go by myself. Going it alone's the best way. But you got to have a stomach for loneliness. Some guys go nutty with it."

"On the other hand, going with a partner or two is dangerous. Murder's always lurkin' about. Partners accusin' each other of all sorts of crimes. Aw, as long as there's no find, the noble brotherhood will last, but when the piles of gold begin to grow, that's when the trouble starts."

"Me, now, I wouldn't mind a little of that kind of trouble."

"I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold gettin' bigger and bigger and bigger!"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"This stuff wouldn't pay you dinner for a carload. Next time you fellas strike it rich, holler for me, will ya, before you start splashing water around. Water's precious. Sometimes it can be more precious than gold."

"Hey you fellas, how about some beans? Ya want some beans? Goin' through some mighty rough country tomorrow - you better have some beans!"

"Well, how does it feel, you fellers, to be men of property?"

"It's come around to me again, but I won't take my turn if you guys'll stop worryin' about your goods and go to bed. We've got work to do tomorrow."

"He's insisting we return with him to his village and be his guests... He says if he doesn't pay off his debt, all the saints in heaven will be angry."

"This is no laughing matter. I'm afraid he's determined to take us with him, even if it means force."

"Mr. Dobbs has made off with our goods and is on his way north. Well, I reckon we can't blame him too much..."

"He's not a real killer as killer's go. I think he's as honest as the next fella - or almost. The big mistake was leaving you two fellas out there in the depths of the wilderness with more'n a hundred thousand between ya. That's a mighty big temptation, partner, believe me..."

"Maybe if I'd've been young and been out there with either one of you, I might have been tempted too."

"Oh laugh, Curtin, old boy. It's a great joke played on us by the Lord, or fate, or nature, whatever you prefer. But whoever or whatever played it certainly had a sense of humor! Ha! The gold has gone back to where we found it!"

"This is worth ten months of suffering and labor - this joke is!"

"Why not try gold diggin' for a change? Well, it ain't any riskier than waitin' around here for a break. And this is the country where the nuggets of gold are just cryin' for ya to take 'em out of the ground and make 'em shine in coins and on the fingers and necks of swell dames."

"Our money would last longer while we lived out in the open. The longer it lasts, the greater our chance of diggin' something up would be!"

"I'm rich, printed number! That's the kind of sugar Papa likes. Oh, two hundred pesos! Welcome, sweet little smackeroos."

"This is an all-or-nothing proposition, ain't it? If we make a find, we'll be lightin' our cigars with hundred dollar bills. If we don't, the difference between what you put up and what I put up ain't enough to keep me from being right back where I was this afternoon, polishing a bench with the seat of my pants. Put 'er there, pard."

"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."

"I sure had some cockeyed 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."

"Well sure! You're old... I'm young. I need dough and plenty of it."

"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."

"Fred C. Dobbs ain't a guy likes bein' taken advantage of - do the mug in, I say!"

"One less gun."

"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."

"I'll let you remember this the next time you try to do a good deed!"

"Ain't it always his burros that won't march in line... What was in your head when you offered to carry his goods for him that he couldn't manage by himself. He knew what he was doin' when he turned 'em over to us. Mighty cute of him, wasn't it?"

"Maybe I didn't kill him. Maybe he just staggered and fell down without being hit."

"Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you've got a conscience, it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you've got one, what can it do to ya? Makes me sick all this talking and fussing about nonsense."

"Maybe I'd better leave him like he is. Ain't very likely anybody will find him. In a week's time, the buzzards and the ants will have done away with him anyway."

"I don't know what's getting into me. Was that really a tiger? No. What if his eyes are open, looking at me? Best thing to do is to get to the railroad in a hurry. It's better not to have buried him. I did right, yeah!"

"What I should have done, maybe, bury his clothes and leave him to the ants and the buzzards... Buzzards! If somebody saw them circling, they'd know something was dead. Buzzards ain't spotted him yet. Lucky for me."

"Curtin! Curtin! Curtin! Where are you? Curtin! I gotta get ahold of myself! Mustn't lose my head. There's one thing certain, he ain't here. I got it. The tiger. Yeah, yeah that's it. The tiger must have dragged him off to his lair, that's what. Yeah, pretty soon, not even the bones will be left to tell the story. Done as if by order!"

"OK, I'm a liar. There isn't a Gila monster under there. Let's see you stick your hand in and get your goods out... Reach in and get your goods. If you don't we'll think you're yella, won't we, Howard?"

"They never let go, do they Howard, once they grab onto you? You cut 'em in two and the head'll still hang on until sundown, I hear. By that time, the victim doesn't usually care 'cause he's dead anyway. Isn't that right, Howard?"

"What's the matter, Dobbsie? Why don't you stick your hand right in and get your treasure? It couldn't be because you're scared to, could it, after the way you've been shooting your mouth off. Show us you ain't yella, Dobbsie. I'd hate to think that my partner had a yellow streak up his back."

"It seems between 'em they had a diamond ring, pearl earrings, and quite a lot of money, and a railway ticket with the date of the Agua Caliente train robbery on it. They've been here several days, drinking and shooting off their cannons so that the villagers are afraid to stick their noses out of their huts."

"You know, the Federales don't operate in our American way. They aren't fingerprint experts, that is, but they can follow any trail, and against them, no hideout's any use. They know all the tricks of the bandits. Yep, you can bet your sweet soul they'll trace down every last one of that group that attacked the train. It'll take time - months maybe - but they'll do it."

"Not many Americans get around this way. You're the first one I've bumped into for a long time."

"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 ship..."

"If I was a native, I'd get me a can of shoe polish and I'd be in business. They'd never let a gringo. You can sit on a bench til you're three-quarters starved. You can beg from another gringo. You can even commit burglary. But try shining shoes in the street or peddling lemonade out of a bucket and your hash is settled. You'd never get another job from an American."

"Let's see, three times 35 - is a hundred and five. I'll bet you 105,000 dollars that you go to sleep before I do."

"The worst ain't so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it'll be before it's happened."

"We've wounded this mountain. 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."

"You talk about that mountain like it was a real woman."

"She's been a lot better to me than any woman I ever knew."

"Ah, $25,000.00 is plenty as far as I'm concerned. Enough to last me out the rest of my lifetime."

"If I were you boys, I wouldn't talk or even think about women. T'aint good for your health."

"We are Federales... you know, the mounted police."

"Badges!? [puzzled pause] We ain't got no badges. [pause] We don't need no badges! [angry] I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

"There's a mountain waiting for the right guy to come along, discover a treasure, and then tickle her until she lets him have it. The question is, are you the right guy?"

"Aw, real bonanzas are few and far between that take a lot of finding."

"You talk as though you struck it rich sometime or other, Pop. How about it? Then what are you doin' in here, a down-and-outer?"

"The more he yearns for a woman's arms... the fiercer he lusts for the treasure that cursed them all!"

"The nearer they get to their treasure, the farther they get from the law."

"They sold their souls for..."

"Storming to a New High in High Adventure!"

"Gold in Mexico? Why sure there is."

"Not ten days from here by rail and pack train..."

"Say, answer me this one, will ya?"

"Here in this joint, it seems like a lot."

"I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold getting bigger and bigger and bigger..."

"Water's precious. Sometimes may be more precious than gold."

"Conscience. What a thing. If you believe you got a conscience it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you got one, what could it do t'ya? Makes me sick, all this talking and fussing about nonsense."

"- Howard: Ah, $25,000.00 is plenty as far as I'm concerned. Enough to last me out the rest of my lifetime. - Dobbs: Sure. You're old, I'm young. I need dough and plenty of it!"

"Keep..."

"Aah, gold's a devilish sort of thing, anyway."

"That's the gold. That's what it makes of us."