Father Zaccardi: [referring to a crucifix] Did you ever see Him before?
Nevada Smith: Yeah, once. He was on the end of a little silver chain.
Father Zaccardi: He;s the son of God. He came to Earth to teach men love by example.
Nevada Smith: Well, he must have missed somebody. That looks worse than hangin'!

Father Zaccardi: Don't, don't say what you will or won't do. Just remember when you ride out of here, God goes with you.
Nevada Smith: ...I'll keep that in mind.

Pilar: Just treat me nice, Max. That's all I want.

Nevada Smith: [to Fitch] You're just not worth killing.

Nevada Smith: Jesse!
Jesse Coe: [Jesse pretends he doesn't hear and keeps dealing cards] Any cards, boys?
Nevada Smith: You, dealing cards.
Jesse Coe: Jesse who?
Nevada Smith: Jesse Coward! Jesse Murderer! Woman-killer!
Jesse Coe: Now wait a minute, my name is Jack Langley.
Nevada Smith: When you killed my mother and father, it was Jesse.

Buck Mason: [watching Smith down a whiskey] Hell of a way to begin a day, ain't it?
Nevada Smith: Well, I ain't cryin' about it; why should you?
Buck Mason: If ever you could, it'd add 20 years to your life. Yeah, maybe somebody else's.

Storekeeper: Yes, sir, can I help you today?
Nevada Smith: Can of peaches... A big can please!
Storekeeper: [Giving him a can] Best Eastern peaches in the West.
Nevada Smith: Would you open it for me?
Storekeeper: No charge!

Jonas Cord: [Cord shoots a bottle out of the air] Now you get so you can do that with either hand, when you're half-drunk, or half-awake, or inside of a dark room, off the back of a running horse, you might stand a chance. A small chance.
Nevada Smith: Would you teach me?
Jonas Cord: I sell guns, I don't teach killing.
Nevada Smith: Then I'll learn myself.
Jonas Cord: You won't live that long.
Nevada Smith: Well thank you for the food and advice, Mr. Cord. I guess I'll be on my way.
Jonas Cord: Where to? How? What with? Even if I did teach you something, that's only half of it. When you're looking for them three men, you gotta live, don't you? You gotta eat. You need clothes, food, horses, saddles, guns, ammunition, money. How you gonna get that? Tracking beaver on Sundays? I'll tell you how you'll get it. You'll wind up stealing, and killing, and turn yourself into the same kind of animal you're trying to track down. Can't you see that?
Nevada Smith: I don't see nothing, except my father laying on a blood-covered floor, all burnt and cut, with the top of his head blown to pieces! And my mother, split up the middle, and every square inch of her skin ripped off.

Jonas Cord: [Cord teaches Max to play poker] Now the lowest hand you can get is a pair, that's two of a kind. Then two pair, then three of a kind, and then a straight.
Nevada Smith: Three of what kind?
Jonas Cord: Three of anything. Three nines, three tens, three jacks.
Nevada Smith: Which ones are the tens?
Jonas Cord: Don't you know how to read?
Nevada Smith: I never went to school.
Jonas Cord: Or write?
Nevada Smith: Well, if I knew how to write, I'd know how to read.

Jonas Cord: [Max misses a plate Cord throws in the air] Go on home, boy. Take the shortcut.
Nevada Smith: The sun was in my eyes and I wasn't expecting it!
Jonas Cord: Do you expect a man's gonna hold still for you with the sun at your back, and give you warning so you can stand there and shoot at him?
Nevada Smith: I can hit a rabbit at 80 yards with a rifle.
Jonas Cord: A rabbit don't shoot back. And how you think you're gonna swing a rifle in a barroom.
Nevada Smith: I never been *in* a barroom!
Jonas Cord: Look, just to find them, you're gonna have to comb out every saloon, gambling hall, hog farm, and whore house between here and Mexico. What do you think you're after, three preachers? You gonna gun 'em down at 80 yards when they're coming out of a church social? You're hunting three men who steal because they're too damn lazy to work, and they kill because they love to, and they hide out like rats in the garbage. So if you're gonna get 'em, you're gonna have to eat, drink, and wallow in that garbage right with 'em, 'til you get so you think like 'em and smell like 'em.
Nevada Smith: I'll do what I have to do.