From gunslinging one-liners to angry cop retorts, Clint Eastwood quotes keep his characters iconic decades later. Eastwood is a seasoned Hollywood legend with dozens of classic films under his belt, both as a leading man and a sharp-eyed director. Throughout his career, Eastwood has played such unforgettable roles as vigilante cop Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry series and vengeful bounty hunter “The Man with No Name” in the Dollars trilogy. These antihero characters are full of quotable lines.
In his Oscar-nominated career as an actor, Eastwood has delivered quotes written by John Milius, Paul Haggis, and William Goldman. Their scripts have given him plenty of great one-liners and impassioned speeches to work with, and he’s nailed every on-camera delivery to create some fan-favorite quotes. From Walt Kowalski’s quippy grumblings in Gran Torino to William Munny’s grizzled monologues about the many regrets from his gunfighting days in Unforgiven, there are a ton of classic quotes from Eastwood’s beloved characters.
30 “It’s Not Real Easy To Like Something You Know Nothing About.”
The Man With No Name — A Fistful Of Dollars
In A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name rides into the town of San Miguel on the U.S. and Mexico border. There, he learns about a feud between two smuggler families wanting to take control of the town. The Man with No Name decides to play both sides of the war and find a way to play the families against each other. This works out well, and, at one point, he talks to two members of one of the families, Don Miguel and Ramón. This is when he explains his thoughts on peace.
He doesn’t believe in peace and would rather move on than stick around and profit from peace.
Ramón said life is precious and there is room for everyone in the town. He said he was ready to hang up his gun and stop fighting. His brother, Don Miguel, said that he is also tired of all the killings and wants to stop fighting as well. Clearly, this is not what The Man with No Name wants to hear, and he mocks their ideals. They ask why he doesn’t like peace, and he delivers this quote. He doesn’t believe in peace and would rather move on than stick around and profit from peace.
29 “God Is Not On Our Side ‘Cause He Hates Idiots.”
The Man With No Name — The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
There are a lot of great Clint Eastwood quotes in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and most of them show that he takes no nonsense and has little room to care for ideals that don’t line up with reality. His Man with No Name lets the men he is working with know that he is in charge and won’t suffer fools, leading to a big battle. There is one point earlier in the movie where The Man with No Name is speaking to Tuco about some approaching troops and the danger they possess.
The Man with No Name delivers this line, revealing God will never be on their side.
Tuco tells The Man with No Name that they are wearing grey (Confederacy colors) like they are. He feels they can say hi and then go on their way as long as they don’t cause any problems. He even hints that they could just talk about how great the Confederacy is and get to leave. He then claims he can tell them that God hates the “Yanks” and they can use that to convince the troops they are on their side. However, The Man with No Name delivers this line, revealing God will never be on their side.
28 “Everybody’s Got A Right To Be A Sucker Once.”
Hogan – Two Mules For Sister Sara
Tow Mules for Sister Sara is a 1970 Western by Don Siegel (Dirty Harry), with Clint Eastwood starring as Hogan, a former Northern soldier right after the Civil War. The film starts with him riding up on some bandits about to rape a naked woman. He kills the bandits and saves the woman, only to have her put on a habit and show that she is a nun – Sister Sara. She asks for his protection since she is a Juarista, raising money to help Mexican revolutionaries fight against French occupation.
He tells her he is only interested in money and doesn’t care about anyone’s causes, not even his own.
He finally agrees to help her, and the two have an odd couple pairing as they encounter danger. He fights to keep her alive, but she keeps asking him if there is any cause he stands for. He tells her he is only interested in money and doesn’t care about anyone’s causes, not even his own. She asked why he fought in the Civil War if he felt that way, and this was the answer he gave her, explaining he was allowed to be suckered into a cause once, but not again.
27 “When An Adult Male Is Chasing A Female With Intent To Commit Rape, I Shoot The Bastard. That’s My Policy.”
Harry Callahan – Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry Callahan is a product of a forgotten era. When Dirty Harry came out in 1971, the idea of a tough cop willing to shoot down the bad guys was something that people got behind. While that is not a trait that works out well in today’s society, at the time, it made Dirty Harry a hero to many moviegoers. In the first film, he also explains why he does what he does, and from his way of thinking, it makes plenty of sense. During this scene, his superiors tell him the new policy of not killing criminals.
That leads to this quote. For Callahan, he doesn’t just shoot any criminal, but when someone goes as far as this one did, planning to sexually assault a woman, he will do whatever he can to make sure it won’t happen again. Quotes like this are why Harry could never stay out of trouble with his superiors or the press after his more violent outbursts, but, for him, it is what makes him a cop who will do what no one else would to protect his city.
26 “Yes You Do.”
The Stranger – High Plains Drifter
There has always been a big mystery to the identity of The Stranger from High Plains Drifter. Some theories indicate that he is Death incarnate, coming to the corrupt town to rid it of evil. Other theories indicate that The Stranger is actually the reincarnation of murdered U.S. Marshal Jim Duncan, who was whipped to death by outlaws. These are the men that he comes to the town to eliminate. There is another theory that The Stranger is Duncan’s brother, seeking vengeance.
When Mordecai says he never did know The Stranger’s name, the man delivers this line.
This Clint Eastwood quote from the film is one that leaves it up to both the viewers and the little person that he appointed the town’s sheriff and mayor, Mordecai. After the final battle, The Stranger is riding out of town on his horse and comes across Mordecai, who is finishing up engraving the tombstone for Marshall Jim Duncan. When Mordecai says he never did know The Stranger’s name, the man delivers this line, and Mordecai’s expression tells him all he needs to know.
25 “Every Gun Makes Its Own Tune”
The Man With No Name — The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Eastwood’s Man with No Name is a man of few words in the Dollars trilogy. But, when he does have something to say, it’s usually pretty profound. The line, “Every gun makes its own tune,” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is indicative of the poetic dialogue that Sergio Leone included to match the operatic feel of his classic spaghetti westerns. It is also a Clint Eastwood quote that shows he is as experienced a gunfighter as anyone in the movie, knowing that no two guns are alike, even if they are the same model.
As the third movie in the
Man With No Name
trilogy, Eastwood also had Leone’s dialogue down pat by this time and when he said something, people listened.
This also shows that he knows whose gun is fired, because Tuco assembled his own gun, and his ear can pick out exactly who he needs to target. Known in this movie as “Blondie,” The Man With No Name proves that he is smarter than most of his enemies and that is why he is always able to stay one step ahead of them at all times. As the third movie in the Man With No Name trilogy, Eastwood also had Leone’s dialogue down pat by this time and when he said something, people listened.
24 “Mo Cuishle Means ‘My Darling, My Blood'”
Frankie Dunn — Million Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby is a highly quotable movie where Clint Eastwood plays a boxing trainer who reluctantly agrees to train a female boxer, despite him saying he doesn’t train women and that the woman, Maggie (Hilary Swank), is too old to start a boxing career. Frankie Dunn is cantankerous and blunt, and he trains Maggie hard, but the movie is a tragedy. This is emphasized when he uses the Gaelic phrase “mo cuishle.” He finally opens up to Maggie, finally translating the phrase and confirming how he feels about her: “My darling, my blood.”
It is a line to show that, after his training. he cares for her like a daughter. This revelation cuts like a knife because Maggie’s story ends with her opponent breaking her neck by sucker-punching her, resulting in her falling and hitting her head on the corner bench. Frankie helps her end her own life, so her pain can end, and it shows that, even when doing something he believes could sacrifice his soul, he wants to protect and care for this woman who he said was like a daughter to him.
23 “A Good Man Always Knows His Limitations”
Harry Callahan — Magnum Force
One of Clint Eastwood’s most iconic roles (and quotable ones) is as Detective Harry Callahan, a character he developed in the movie Dirty Harry. This franchise resulted in several movies, and in Magnum Force, Harry delivers a line that has gone down in history as one of the better-known movie quotes. This is the second movie in the franchise and Harry is back with more one-liners, similar to the ones that fans still quote to this day from the first movie.
By the end, his lieutenant is no longer a ”
good man
.”
Harry is a cop who will stop at nothing to take down the bad guy. However, he knows there are limitations, as he himself admits twice in the movie. Early on, his lieutenant says he never had to pull his gun, and Harry says, “A good man always knows his limitations.” which is basically an insult to his boss. Later, he learns his boss is a dirty cop, and when the lieutenant dies in a car explosion, Harry changes the line to, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” By the end, his lieutenant is no longer a “good man.”
22 “When A Man’s Got Money In His Pocket, He Begins To Appreciate Peace”
The Man With No Name — A Fistful Of Dollars
Sergio Leone introduced his brilliant character of The Man With no Name by remaking Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo in a blood-soaked American Western setting in his seminal masterpiece A Fistful of Dollars. Like Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars is a brutal portrayal of a stranger helping a town in the middle of gang warfare. He hits the gangs where it hurts: their money. The unnamed stranger, referred to as “Joe,” agrees to help both sides in the gang war — for a price — he then sets them against each other.
This quote is an interesting one that shows his thoughts on Wild West outlaws. As he says, “When a man’s got money in his pocket, he begins to appreciate peace.” What this means is that, when an outlaw finally gets some money, there is no reason to cause trouble because he has what he wants and doesn’t want to place a target on his head. Why look for trouble when a person is living well? It is when they need money that they look for trouble, which this outlaw finds with the gangs in the town.
21 “So Is Being In A Gang, Dips***!”
Walt Kowalski, Gran Torino
Gran Turino is one of Clint Eastwood’s most polarizing movies. In this movie, he plays Walt Kowalski, a recently widowed and highly prejudiced man who is a retired factory worker and a Vietnam Vet. What makes the movie so polarizing is that Walt uses constant ethnic slurs throughout the film, and while he softens up somewhat around the people he gets to know — although that doesn’t stop his harsh insults. He is even more lethal with the quotes when facing gang members in his home in Detroit.
This is a quick one-liner, but later in the movie, Walt does what he can to save Thao from spilling any blood
In this scene, Walt is at home and standing by his car when a gang member starts to talk trash to him. Walt is unphased and easily strikes back. When his neighbor’s son Thao, whom a gang has tried to initiate, says that smoking is bad for his health, Walt responds with, “So is being in a gang, dips***.” This is a quick one-liner, but later in the movie, Walt does what he can to save Thao from spilling any blood and gives up his life to convince his neighbors to stand up to the gangs and testify against them for his murder.
20 “With All Due Respect, Sir, You’re Beginning To Bore The Hell Out Of Me”
Gunnery Sgt. Thomas ‘Gunny’ Highway — Heartbreak Ridge
In Heartbreak Ridge, Eastwood plays a maverick U.S. Marine near retirement tasked with getting a platoon of undisciplined Marines ready for the invasion of Grenada. The great irony of this character is that, while he wants his underlings to respect his leadership, he has very little respect for his own superiors (despite prefacing his insults “with all due respect”). This makes more sense when watching the movie as a military-action comedy, with Eastwood playing the straight-laced face among the lunacy.
While the back-and-forth between Highway and his superiors is funny and seemingly hard to believe, the movie was written by a Vietnam veteran named James Carabatsos about his experiences. However, the Army refused to participate with the film because they didn’t approve of how it portrayed Highway, which they referred to as a “stereotype” that doesn’t really exist anymore (via Los Angeles Times). Heartbreak Ridge also picked up an Oscar nomination for its sound effects.
19 “Alive Or Dead? It’s Your Choice”
The Man With No Name — For A Few Dollars More
All the toughest bounty hunters give their bounties a choice between being captured dead or alive. The Man with No Name offers his bounty this choice in For a Few Dollars More. The movie sees the Man With No Name walk into a bar looking for his target. When someone gives up the target to the bounty hunter, he heads over and interrupts their poker game in a move that has them all knowing they are in trouble. He beats the man up and then makes him an offer.
The Man With no Name guns him down, realizing that the man has accepted the offer of ”
dead.
“
The Man With no Name gives him the option: “Alive or dead? It’s your choice.” When three men come to his rescue, the bounty hunter kills them and then his target goes for a gun himself. The Man With no Name guns him down, realizing that the man has accepted the offer of “dead.” It is a great Western scene showing that he is a fair man, but is quick on the draw when someone decides they are not willing to listen to reason. The next scene has him insulting the sheriff, proving that he fears no man.
18 “Girlie, Tough Ain’t Enough”
Frankie Dunn — Million Dollar Baby
Frankie sums up the entire premise of Million Dollar Baby in four words. He doesn’t think Maggie can fight, just because she’s a woman. When she argues that she’s tough, Frankie tells her, “Girlie, tough ain’t enough.” His derogatory use of “girlie” ties into the sexist prejudice that Frankie has against female fighters, setting up a whole different kind of fight for Maggie to fight (on top of the boxing matches). This is a Clint Eastwood quote that is in place to allow him to show he has learned and is ready to become a better person.
Frankie is estranged from his daughter, which is likely because of his misogynistic opinion of women in general. However, as the film progresses, Frankie trains Maggie, and the two become close, where he begins to look at her like a daughter, and offers him a chance to do something good for her — something he could never do for his own daughter. Sadly, the movie ends tragically for Maggie, and after she dies, Frankie leaves the sport forever — but not before Scrap (Morgan Freeman) has a chance to write a letter to Frankie’s daughter, telling her the steps her dad had taken.
17 “We All Have It Coming, Kid”
William ‘Will’ Munny — Unforgiven
One of the many complex themes that Unforgiven deals with is the relentlessness and inevitability of death. The movie is all about the morality of killing and whether or not killing can be justified. As William Munny points out, however, it happens, death is coming for everyone. This is also a line that really plays into the theme of the movie, which is about the end of the classic Western tales, the old-school Western movies, and even the end of the Wild West itself, which was happening at the time period that this film took place.
Adds a lot of significance to his wisdom and life experience — both for his character, as an outlaw, and Eastwood himself
When William delivers this quote, it sounds like he is speaking from experience. For over two decades, Clint Eastwood was the face of the spaghetti Western, and his roles remain iconic to this day. That makes him the perfect choice to direct Unforgiven, and the fact that he is the man who delivers this line is poetic concerning his status. It adds a lot of significance to his wisdom and life experience — both for his character, as an outlaw, and Eastwood himself, as the face of the Western genre.
16 “If You Want A Guarantee, Buy A Toaster”
Nick Pulovski — The Rookie
With Eastwood playing an aging tough-as-nails cop, The Rookie is widely regarded as an unofficial Dirty Harry movie. While he wasn’t playing Harry Callahan in this movie, his character of Sergeant Nick Pulovski certainly shares Harry’s knack for delivering one-liners like, “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” The Rookie is a movie that tried to capitalize on rising star Charlie Sheen in 1990 by casting him as a hot-shot young cop (the rookie of the title) and then teaming him up with Eastwood’s grizzled veteran cop.
This line comes when Nick talks to David’s dad, Eugene Ackerman (Tom Skerritt). David’s dad, fearing for his son’s life, asks Nick to guarantee he will look after his son and make sure nothing happens to him. Nick, not swayed and knowing this isn’t a promise he can make, delivers this line, emphasizing that there are no guarantees in their line of police work, and if Mr. Ackerman wants a guarantee, he should stick with buying home goods and not watch his son’s career in law enforcement.
15 “Sometimes The Dead Can Be More Useful Than The Living”
The Man With No Name — A Fistful Of Dollars
Sergio Leone established his penchant for weaving thought-provoking dialogue into his blood-drenched westerns with lines like this in A Fistful of Dollars. The Man With No Name is quick on the draw but he’s also quick to philosophize about his own grisly business. In A Fistful of Dollars, The Man With No Name places the bodies of the dead soldiers in a grave, as he hopes to raise the conflict between the two warring rival families in this Western remake of the Japanese masterpiece Yojimbo.
Yet another moment where The Man With No Name shows he is as smart as he is a good shot.
As he puts the bodies into the grave, he explains that these dead bodies can help him achieve his goals in this case, because “The dead can be more useful than the living.” He then continued with these thoughts as he said that dead bodies helped him out of more tough spots than anyone would believe. He reveals they don’t talk, and he can even make a dead body look alive if he has enough time. This is yet another moment where The Man With No Name shows he is as smart as he is a good shot.
14 “I’m Coming Down There In Five Minutes And You Better Have Those Files Open, You Pencil-Pushing Son Of A B****!”
Harry Callahan — The Enforcer
Harry Callahan was more rounded as a character than ever in his third outing of the Dirth Harry franchise, The Enforcer. Instead of learning from his mistakes and becoming a team player, Harry has doubled down on his roguish behavior. This was more evident when Lieutenant Al Bressler was unable to get the files that Callahan needed for a case. As Callahan listens to Bressler get the run-around by their own files division, he grabs the phone out of his hand and delivers this perfectly threatening quote.
Enforcer is a tough movie, as Harry is forced into office duty, so he can’t be there when his partner is killed in an attack by homegrown terrorists known as the People’s Revolutionary Strike Force. He returns to the streets after this, but is forced to team up with a woman who was a desk officer worker with no field experience (Tyne Daly), which he is not excited about. This entire movie is about Harry fighting his own department as much as he is the terrorist group, making his frustrations obvious.
13 “Dying Ain’t Much Of A Living, Boy”
Josey Wales — The Outlaw Josey Wales
While Clint Eastwood has played lots of outlaws in his Western movies, his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales has him playing a man with an actual bounty on his head. However, he has no intent on coming in quietly when bounty hunters come after him. When a young bounty hunter tries to bring in Clint Eastwood’s titular outlaw in The Outlaw Josey Wales, he tells Wales that “a man’s got to do something for a living.” Knowing that the bounty hunter doesn’t stand a chance against him, Wales morbidly jokes, “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.”
This line is not just a line he delivers to the bounty hunter, but also his own truth, as he has no life left, and he is just fighting until he finally dies himself.
In this movie, Josey Wales is a former Confederate guerrilla who becomes a wanted man after Union soldiers murder his family, only for him to escape. Josey Wales wants revenge in this movie, and while there are bounty hunters coming after him, his main focus is always on vengeance for his family’s death. This line is not just a line he delivers to the bounty hunter, but also his own truth, as he has no life left, and he is just fighting until he finally dies himself.
12 “It’s A Hell Of A Thing, Killin’ A Man”
William ‘Will’ Munny — Unforgiven
Unforgiven isn’t a traditional black-and-white Western about good triumphing over evil. It’s a bleak, contemplative meditation on the ethics of killing. William Munny, a notorious killer, is contrasted with the Schofield Kid, a naive young gunman who dreams of being a notorious killer (but finds that killing a man is “a hell of a thing”). This is a movie about the end of the Wild West, and it is Eastwood’s chance to put the Western movie to bed once and for all with a perfect conclusion to his decades of work in the genre.
For much of his career, the best Clint Eastwood quotes are often cool and collected warnings before he kills someone, or at least puts the fear of God into them. With that said, by this point in both his career and William Munny’s life, he is tired of all the killing and is ready to put his guns away. He sees a lot of himself in the young gunman, but he also wants to warn the kid that the life of killing people will eventually either lead him to his grave, or to the same spot that William has found himself in, waiting for the end to come.
11 “Everybody Wants Results, But Nobody Wants To Do What They Have To Do To Get Them Done”
Harry Callahan — Dirty Harry
Harry sums up his ethos perfectly in this quote from the first Dirty Harry movie. With the Scorpio Killer running rampant in San Francisco, Harry is more than happy to bend the law to bring him to justice. As he faces red tape at every turn, Harry points out that everyone in the force wants results, but he’s the only one willing to do the dirty work to get those results. Harry is the only person who will act on his instincts and make impulsive decisions, which often result in stopping the bad guys, albeit with some property damage.
Since criminals won’t play by the rules, he feels the best way to stop them is to break a few rules along the way as well.
He is as close as a movie can get to a vigilante, but he does it all with a badge, making him a danger to his superiors and those around him. However, it also means that he will do whatever it takes to stop the Scorpio Killer, and this means doing things that no one else wants to talk about or even acknowledge. Since criminals won’t play by the rules, he feels the best way to stop them is to break a few rules along the way as well.
