- Josh Breeden: Letter? Last time a letter came for me was sometime during the war. Advertising circular for some kind of bile tonic.
- Josh Breeden: The name is Josh Breeden, Andie, and I ain't his or anybody else's grandpap, and I got no future plans to be either!
- Josh Breeden: He had a hide on him that was tougher than a wild boar. He was bigger than a longhorn. That's how he come by the name, Old Bigger.
- Mrs. Moyer: Now, young man, you don't have to tell me your name again. Morning meal, oatmeal, gruel, mash, mushy, Mr Mushgrove. You see, I've never lost track of a single letter yet.
- Josh Breeden: Maybe Favor's got you and them whipped but not me. I come 70 years without bending to nobody yet. And I won't scrabble in the dirt for him, or you, or nobody.
- Josh Breeden: The best saloon would have the prettiest girls. And the prettiest girls would have Mr Rowdy Yates. And Mr Rowdy Yates is gonna to be my personal telegraph.
- Rowdy Yates: Get me out of here!
- [a steaming hot bath and being supervised by his Boss]
- Rowdy Yates: I'm already clean the day I was born, and my skin's half-boiled off.
- Gil Favor: I'd say you were still at least a good 20 proof. Now, look, Rowdy, you got a long, hard ride ahead of you. Whether we go broke or not on this herd depends on how fast and how well you ride.
- [He pours a bucket of cold water over Rowdy's head]
- Rowdy Yates: Even the Kiowas got the decency to scalp a man before they boil them.
- Josh Breeden: Over there, short red, oughta trim out a nice, marbled haunch, kinda scraggly on the flank on account of the Mexican strain. That white one over there, half-bloat through eating drought weed. That one you wouldn't get 12 pounds a hand.
- E.L. Pine: I'd say eleven on. You know, Mr Breeden, you got a close eye.
- Josh Breeden: You just show me the way the bull twists its tail and I'll tell you whether to buy it for breeding or for eating.
- Gil Favor: Pride is something a man can hold onto. 'Cos sometimes it's got to bend with the wind a little bit. But a man's got real pride inside of him, he can afford to bend a little bit 'cos he knows the roots of it, go deep enough, it'll last out his time. That job on the tote wagon is still open, Josh.
- Josh Breeden: I guess I sure got enough time to bend to hunker into that, wouldn't I?
- Gil Favor: Yeah, some, I reckon, sure. But not too much, leastways, not inside.
- Gil Favor: Dry holes, floods, no train. That ain't enough for you, huh? You gonna horse around until we really lose the herd! Just because you're a stubborn old man who oughta be snorting flies on a poor farm! Well, no more, old man! You can pack off and I mean right now!
- Josh Breeden: You're firing me? You can't. I quit better men before you were bite-winged . Forty years back.
- Gil Favor: Forty years back! I know! I know! What was it it, ah, you broke trail through the Apache.
- Josh Breeden: Yeah.
- [They yell at each other about the passes and trails]
- Gil Favor: I've heard them al twenty times. It's time to do the swapping at the old folks' home.