John Wayne Quotes

There's been no top authority saying what marijuana does to you. I really don't know that much about it. I tried it once but it didn't do anything to me.

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.

Life is getting up one more time than you've been knocked down.

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.

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.

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.

I don't want ever to appear in a film that would embarrass a viewer. A man can take his wife, mother, and his daughter to one of my movies and never be ashamed or embarrassed for going.

I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst's couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.

Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful.

Any man who'd make an X-rated movie ought to have to take his daughter to see it.

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.

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.

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

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

I never trust a man that doesn't drink.

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.

A man ought to do what he thinks is right

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

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!

It's kind of a sad thing when a normal love of country makes you a super patriot. I do think we have a pretty wonderful country, and I thank God that He chose me to live here.

My main object in making a motion picture is entertainment. If at the same time I can strike a blow for liberty, then I'll stick one in.

I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people ... I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Native Americans] ... 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.

Nobody ever saw a cowboy on the psychiatrist's couch.

Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog!

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.

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

If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'

Contrary to what people think, I'm no politician, and when I have something to say I say it through my movies.

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

If you can't be thankful for what you have, be thankful for what you have escaped.

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

All battles are fought by scared men who'd rather be some place else.

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.

Out here, due process is a bullet.

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

TRUE Courage is when you are scared to death and STILL saddle up and ride in!

Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid.

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.

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 never killed a man I didn't have to.

Westerns are closer to art than anything else in the motion picture business.

I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

Paul Newman would have been a much more important star if he hadn't always tried to be an anti-hero, to show the human feet of clay.

I'm an American actor. I work with my clothes on. I have to. Riding a horse can be pretty tough on your legs and elsewheres.

You have to be a man before you can be a gentleman.

Very few of the so-called liberals are open-minded.... They shout you down and won't let you speak if you disagree with them.

Cause even grown men need understanding.

I'm sure we can talk things out like civilized people.