Sgt. Heppelfinger: Look, I didn't get you in this.
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: Oh, yes you did. I was gonna hide in the...
Sgt. Heppelfinger: A Marine never hides. That's what Semper Fidelis means: it means "face the music".
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: Well, it does not. It happens to mean "always faithful".
Sgt. Heppelfinger: That's right. Faithful to your mother.
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: It doesn't mean faithful to your mother at all. it means faithful to the Marines.

Sgt. Heppelfinger: They say opportunity's only got one hair on his head and you gotta grab it while it's going by and dog it down or you mightn't get another chance.

Sgt. Heppelfinger: We're just a little bit short of cash, see...
Cafe Owner: Uh, uh.
Sgt. Heppelfinger: ...or I'd never make you this proposition.
Cafe Owner: Ho, ho.
Sgt. Heppelfinger: I was going to save it for the museum, see, but when you're out on a limb you gotta make sacrifices, that's all. You follow me?
Cafe Owner: I'm ahead of you.
Sgt. Heppelfinger: I'm gonna let you in on the ground floor of something very, very rare. You remember when General Yamatoho committed hari-kari?
Cafe Owner: Possibly.
Sgt. Heppelfinger: I happened to be very close by, see.
[winks, indicates he pulled out one of Yamatoho's teeth and shows the very large elk's tooth he got from one of the other Marines]
Cafe Owner: Big man, wasn't he?
Sgt. Heppelfinger: Immense! This is one of the rarest mementos...
Cafe Owner: [as he pulls a large Japanese flag out of his coat] You wouldn't like to buy the flag they buried him in, would you? I could let you have it very reasonable.
[pulls out another flag]
Cafe Owner: I have it in several sizes.
[begins to pull other items out of his coat pockets]
Cafe Owner: MacArthur's suspenders! The first bullet that landed in Pearl Harbor... you can take your pick. A piece of a Japanese submarine.
[turns the piece of metal over]
Cafe Owner: If you look at it this way it becomes a German submarine.
[turns the piece again]
Cafe Owner: And this way it's a piece of a shell that just missed Montgomery! Here we have the seat of Rommel's pants. And last, but not least, we have a button from Hitler's coat... although that one I don't personally believe.
Sgt. Heppelfinger: Wise guy.

Forrest Noble: If he waited a year longer, there might have been three of us to welcome him. If he waited two years, there might have been...
Libby: Oh, shut up.
Forrest Noble: Well, that's what marriage is for isn't it?
Libby: Oh, I suppose so, if you look at it from a purely unromantic standpoint - like a breeding farm.

Doc Bissell: [explaining to Woodrow that the town still wants him to run for mayor] Politics is a very peculiar thing, Woodrow. If they want you, they want you. They don't need reasons anymore... they find their own reasons. It's just like when a girl wants a man.
Libby: That's right. You don't need reasons. Although they're probably there.

Mrs. Noble: [to her son, Forrest, answering Libby's desire not to tell Woodrow that she's become engaged to Forrest] Why under similar circumstances I'd be perfectly willing to pretend I wasn't married to your father for several weeks even.
Mayor Everett D. Noble: You can make it for several months as far as I'm concerned. Heh!

Mrs. Noble: Everett, I just have a feeling you're going to make an ass of yourself and I'm just going to pretend I don't know you.
Mayor Everett D. Noble: I wish you didn't have to pretend!

Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: [after hearing that the town wants to build a statue of him] What do I do now?
Sgt. Heppelfinger: Well, you just let it blow over.
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: Did you ever see a statue blow over?

Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: [eating pancakes for breakfast with the six Marines; Libby enters] Good morning, Libby. Won't you join us in a stack of collision mats - as they say in the good old Marine Corps. - and a cup of jamoke?

Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: [referring to the band] Why don't they play something gay?
[meaning happy]
Bartender: Why don't you acquire a gay viewpoint. It's all mental - every bit of it. Smile and the world smiles with you. Frown and you frown alone.
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith: I'd just as soon be alone if it's the same to you.
Bartender: Gratitude.