- Rita: [to Sherry] I don't know whether you joined us or we joined you, but it's good to be together.
- Chet Younger: You've been out looking for the man who stuck up the train?
- Sheriff Bravo Trimble: I figure I got more trail dust than he did dollars.
- Dan Mitchell: Now, Bravo, I thought we were old friends.
- Sheriff Bravo Trimble: We are, Dan, we are. But you got the idea that you ought to kick up a fuss about things that are going to happen anyway. I don't figure it that way. A man's got to live. Cows get lost, sometimes accidents happen and fellas get killed. Why get hot under the collar about I? And why go hunting for fellas that don't want to be found?
- Dan Mitchell: I understand you filed for reelection next fall, Bravo.
- Sheriff Bravo Trimble: Yeah, they talked me into it. I figured on opening up a saloon or maybe going back to practicing dentistry. But somebody has got to keep law and order in the county.
- Rita: You know, I think what I like least about you is you're so sure of yourself.
- Dan Mitchell: When a man rides down the middle of Texas Street, confidence is all he's got.
- Sherry Balder: Oh, Dan, if you care anything about me at all, take me away.
- Dan Mitchell: Sherry, I... I wouldn't be any good to you running away. Being afraid would take half the fun out of life for me.
- Dan Mitchell: The opinion in town is... you won't last long.
- Hannaberry: The opinion here is... we will.
- Dan Mitchell: [as he rides by her with the mostly bearded homesteaders] Hello Rita.
- Rita: You ought to grow a beard, too.
- Dan Mitchell: When you wear a sun bonnet and apron, I'll grow a beard.
- Rita: When I wear a sun bonnet and an apron, I'll grow a beard.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: [opening narration] Five years after the end of the Civil War, a thousand-mile cattle trail stretched from the plains of Texas to the railroad depots in Kansas. For ninety grueling days, through dust, heat, flies, loneliness, cowboys pushed Texas cattle northward on the Abilene Trail at an average speed of three quarters of a mile an hour toward Abilene, Kansas where raw-bred Southern beef could be turned into hard, Eastern cash. Abilene was the end of the trail, the end of the trailhands' thousand-mile, ninety-day-long boredom.
- Charlie Fair: It's a wonder Rita didn't slug yuh.
- Dan Mitchell: She works too hard at being mean, Charlie; real meanness comes natural.
- First Cowboy: [to another cowboy as they're shooting off their guns looking for a saloon] What kind of town is this? Not a saloon on that side of the street.
- Dan Mitchell: [Stealing a kiss from Rita, who's trying to resist] Better use some of that before it spoils.
- Dan Mitchell: [motioning for Chet to stand up and surrender] All right, Chet.
- Chet Younger: You'd better shoot. I'm not going.
- Dan Mitchell: You;re going!... across the saddle, kickin' and scratchin'... Have to bring you back alive, Chet. Gotta prove you're not tough to get. That's important to me.
- Dan Mitchell: [Trying to deter the cowboys from a shootout] Boys, back up. You wouldn't be happy buried a thousand miles from home.
- Dan Mitchell: Give me your word you'll stay here.
- Sheriff Bravo Trimble: [thinking the homesteader he's playing fan-tan with is an easy mark] Ever hear of a horse runnin' away from oats?