- Jacob Gustavson: You are no man of God!
- Frank Griffin: [chuckles] God? What God? Mister, you clearly don't know where you are. Look around. There ain't no higher-up around here to watch over you and your young'ns. This here's the paradise of the locust the lizard the snake. It's the land of the blade and the rifle. It's godless country. And the sooner you accept your inevitable demise, the longer you're all gonna live.
- A.T. Grigg: So, tell me, Mrs. Cummings
- Mary Agnes: McNue.
- A.T. Grigg: Excuse me?
- Mary Agnes: I've returned to my maiden surname. Albert's dead. There's no reason for me to keep carrying his name like a bucket of water. He's got a brother in Missouri for that.
- Roy Goode: If I was to stay here and break them horses for you there'd be something else I'd be wanting from you.
- Alice Fletcher: And what might that be?
- Roy Goode: Teach me how to read.
- Alice Fletcher: I could do that.
- [first lines]
- Charlotte Temple: [reading from newspaper] Since Mr. James Sloan took over Quicksilver Mining, a beneficial change has taken place in the mines. Industry, order, and respect for the constituted authorities prevail. Every man knows his place and performs his duty. Mr. Sloan is said to be fair, honest and good-humored. This reporter can also attest that he is a tall man, rather handsome, with a beautiful baritone. And if all that isn't enough, he writes the most beautiful poetry. Sonnets.
- Mary Agnes: Just like Shakespeare.
- Charlotte Temple: Least you coulda done is put on a dress.
- A.T. Grigg: Miss Dunne I don't believe I ever had me a marm as pretty as you are.
- Callie Dunne: Thank you, sir.
- A.T. Grigg: But may I ask, have you always had a fondness for teaching children?
- Callie Dunne: No, sir. I'd always been a whore. I just sort of fell into teaching after Magdalena's closed. Then the schoolhouse got struck by lightning and burned down. Took the old marm with it.
- [smirks all around the table]
- Frank Griffin: [about his adoptive father] I learned to love Mr. Haight. He taught me with the stick and the bullwhip and the knife how to love. Same as I love Roy Goode now. For he's my son. I chose him. And that is a more powerful bond, a more powerful love than being born into it. I aim to show him that love when we meet up again. We know he came through this way. A skinny little fella. The kind you might mistakenly underestimate.
- Frank Griffin: Are you crying, sir?
- A.T. Grigg: [mopping his eye] No, it's just my eye. Old war wound.
- Frank Griffin: You fought in what war?
- A.T. Grigg: I fought my wife. May she rest in peace. And on the last occasion, she broke a bottle of liniment across my cheek.