[First lines] One Stab: Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends.
Alfred: I followed all of the rules, man's and God's. And you, you followed none of them. And they all loved you more. Samuel, Father, and my... even my own wife.
One Stab: Every warrior hopes a good death will find him.
One Stab: I thought Tristan would never live to be an old man. I was wrong about that. I was wrong about many things. It was those who loved him most who died young. He was a rock they broke themselves against however much he tried to protect them.
Tristan: Samuel, God bless you. You are good at everything you try to do. I'm sure it'll be the same with fucking. Samuel: Tristan, really. We're talking about my future wife. Tristan: Oh, you're not gonna fuck her? Samuel: No! Tristan: No? Samuel: N...
One Stab: She was like the water that freezes inside a rock and breaks it apart. It was no more her fault than it is the fault of the water when the rock shatters.
Susannah: Tristan, I have nowhere to send this letter and no reason to believe you wish to receive it. I write it only for myself. And so I will hide it away along with all the things left unsaid and undone between us.
Susannah: Were you going to say goodbye? Tristan? How long will you be gone? Tristan: Not long. A few months. Susannah: I can make it better for you. Tristan: No. Susannah: If we'd had a child or if I were pregnant, would you still be going? Tristan:...
Colonel Ludlow: Indians! Indians were the issue in those days. I can assure you, gentlemen, there is nothing quite so grotesque as the meeting of a child with a bullet; or an entire village slaughtered while sleeping. That was the Government's resolu...
Tristan: You see this man? His name is One Stab. He's a venerated elder of the Cree nation. He's counted coup on hundreds of his enemies. He is our friend, and he is thirsty.
Alfred: What is he wanted for, Sheriff? John T. O'Banion: That would be of a private nature Colonel Ludlow: A private nature? That's a public office you hold, isn't it, Sheriff?
Susannah: Forever turned out to be too long.
Tristan: Because you love her, I will forgive that, ONCE! Say that again, and you are no longer my brother.
One Stab: [Describing Tristan] I think it was the bear, growling inside him. Making him do bad things. Nothing that Tristan did was truly his own fault. It was the bear.
One Stab: Tristan died in 1963. The moon of the popping trees. He was last seen up in the North Country, where the hunting was still good. His grave is unmarked, but it does not matter. He had always lived in the borderland anyway, somewhere between ...
Alfred: Susannah, you deserve to be happy.
Samuel: Still hung over? Tristan: Still drunk!
Tristan: You know when Samuel died... when Samuel died, I cursed God. Did I damn everybody around me as well as myself? Colonel Ludlow: No. You are not damned, Tristan... I won't allow that.
