Selected Quotes By John Wayne
"Are you going to believe what you see or what I tell you?"
John Wayne, Life
"About the worst thing an honest man can do is make an honest mistake."
John Wayne, Mistakes
"You have to be a man before you can be a gentleman."
John Wayne, Life
"My name is John Wayne. When I was a kid I had ring worm. Hell, I was more worm than boy for a couple of years."
John Wayne, Life
"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that's what you're asking. 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."
John Wayne, Ideas
"Fire can be our friend. Whether it's toasting marshmallows or raining down on Charlie."
John Wayne, Nature
"Did I ever tell you my father's last words to me? 'Careful son, I don't think the safety is on'. Before that."
John Wayne, Anger and Fighting
"When you side with a man you stay with him, and if you can't do that you're like some animal. You're finished."
John Wayne, Life
"If everything isn't black and white I say why the hell not."
John Wayne, Life
"Courage is being scared to death and standing up anyway."
John Wayne, Courage
"Don't hit your posset with a stick mister, it tends to make you cough."
John Wayne, Life
"Liberty Valance is a cancer on this fair town. He's the cancer and I'm the, uh...what cures cancer?"
John Wayne, Goals
"I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility."
John Wayne, Society
"I haven't had a fight since I was eleven. I only won that because she had an asthma attack."
John Wayne, Anger and Fighting
"As we live in an insane world major, maybe it's time we gave insane solutions a chance."
John Wayne, Life
"Fear is just one of the many words I don't know the meaning of."
John Wayne, Courage
"Drop that or I'll blow ya straight to Jesus."
John Wayne, Belief
"A man oughta do what he thinks is best."
John Wayne, Goals
"There's right and there's wrong. Y'gotta do one or the other. Do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat."
John Wayne, Life
"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."
John Wayne, Goals
"Seen better fights than this at a prayer meeting."
John Wayne, Anger and Fighting
"Life it tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
John Wayne, Life
"The worst part of it has been, I think, the adverse effect on family life. It kills off family conversation. And it’s harder to get your children to read books. I became a confirmed reader when I was growing up in Glendale. I’ve loved reading all my life. Now I’ve got this daughter, Aissa, a very bright young lady -- but it is a hard job to get her to read. Television’s just too easy."
John Wayne, Happiness, Life
"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."
John Wayne, Life
"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."
John Wayne, Goals
"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?"
John Wayne, Anger and Fighting
"A goal, A love and A dream give you total control over your body and your life."
John Wayne, Life, Love, Goals
"Thanking people is dangerous business. A name always slips your mind."
John Wayne, Life
"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."
John Wayne, Government
"If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow."
John Wayne, Management
"It's getting to be ri-goddamn-diculous."
John Wayne, Life
"We’re burnin’ daylight."
John Wayne, Time
"A man's got to do what a man's got to do."
John Wayne, Goals
"All battles are fought by scared men who'd rather be some place else."
John Wayne, Anger and Fighting
"My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for."
John Wayne, Hope
"Talk low, Talk slow, and Don't say too much."
John Wayne, Intelligence/Wisdom
"I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble."
John Wayne, Life
"I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living."
John Wayne, Society
"A man deserves a second chance, but keep an eye on him."
John Wayne, Life
"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."
John Wayne, Goals
"You're short on ears and long on mouth."
John Wayne, Life
"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."
John Wayne, Time
"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."