32 Lines That Prove Tombstone Is The Most Quotable Western Ever

There is no question that Tombstone is one of the best Westerns ever made, and as this list proves, it's easily the most quotable. If we're honest here, almost every line in the movie is quotable. While we can't just reproduce the script here, we can offer many of the lines we love the most. So, without further ado, our list of quotes that make Tombstone the most quotable Western ever.

"I'm your huckleberry"

You know this one had to be on the list. Doc Holliday in Tombstone is arguably Val Kilmer's best role, and his most famous line has to be when he is facing down Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) towards the very end of the movie. It certainly scares Ringo.

"You gonna do somethin' or just stand there and bleed?"

Almost as soon as Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and his brothers get to the town of Tombstone, Wyatt takes over the faro game at one of the saloons. The man he takes it over for, Johnny Tyler, played wonderfully by Billy Bob Thornton, has a lot to say, but nothing to back it up.

"All right, Clanton... you called down the thunder, well now you've got it!"

Wyatt Earp's revenge ride, at least how it's portrayed in the movie, starts with Wyatt taking out his first few Cowboys on a train platform after his brother leaves town. He leaves one man alive, Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang), so he can carry Wyatt's message back to the rest of the Cowboys.

"Listen, Mr. Kansas Law Dog. Law don't go around here. Savvy?"

Ike Clanton is one of the most memorable characters in Tombstone, and easily his most iconic line comes when the Cowboys first introduce themselves to Wyatt as the former lawman deals cards in the saloon. After Curly Bill (Powers Boothe) explains the situation in Tombstone, Ike backs up the words succinctly. There isn't much law in the mining town.

"Already got a guilty conscience. Might as well have the money, too."

It only takes a few moments for the movie to set the stage. Wyatt and the other Earps arrive by train into Tucson on their way to strike it rich in Tombstone. Wyatt's reputation as a legendary lawman precedes him, but he's not interested in becoming a sheriff again. That much, he makes clear.

"If we're gonna have a future in this town, it's gotta have some law and order!"

Virgil Earp (Sam Elliott) is as no-nonsense as his brother, Wyatt, and his reputation as a lawman was just as legendary at the time. Though he joined his brothers in Tombstone to strike it rich, it doesn't take long before he returns to fighting crime. Wyatt is upset, but Virgil has his reasons.

"I have nothing left, nothing to give you, I have no pride, no dignity, no money, I don't even know how we'll make a living, but I promise I'll love you the rest of your life"

It's easy to forget, among all the machismo in Tombstone, that there is also a pretty love story between Wyatt and Josephine (Dana Delaney) in the movie as well. Wyatt delivers some classic lines in that regard, including laying his cards on the table about how he envisions their life together. Luckily, she's rich.

"I have two guns, one for each of ya."

The real-life Doc Holliday was a legendary gunman and a legendary drunk. In this one life, he pretty much sums up just how confident he is in both those skills. When he's accused of seeing double, he retorts with a classic line that has become one of the most quoted in the movie.

"That's not what he said, you ignorant wretch. Your Spanish is worse than your English."

Johnny Ringo is a stylish bad guy and an associate of the Cowboys. He's also the smartest of the bunch, and in the beginning, after a priest condemns a group of Cowboys after they murder a wedding party, Johnny cuts down when his fellow Cowboys and explains what the priest was saying before Ringo shot him dead.

"I don't think I'll let you arrest us today, Behan."

Johnny Behan, played by The Closer's Jon Tenney, is the corrupt sheriff of Tombstone who aligns himself with the Cowboys. After the most famous moment in the movie, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, takes place, the sharp-dressed sheriff tries to arrest the Earps. Wyatt disagrees.

"All right, 'lunger'. Let's do it."

Tombstone is filled with great language from a bygone era. "Lunger" is one of those terms you hear and might not understand the context at first. When Ringo calls Holliday a lunger at their showdown, he's making fun of Holliday's health, as Holliday is dying of tuberculosis.

"You're a daisy if you do."

Val Kilmer had a lot of amazing lines to deliver in one of his best roles, and this one is right up near the top. It happens right at the end of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, when it appears Doc Holliday is out of bullets. As a cowboy takes aim, Doc dares the man to shoot. Of course, that was a bad idea, and the Cowboy should've just let things be.

"Go ahead, skin it! Skin that smokewagon and see what happens!"

"Smokewagon" has to be one of the best ways to say "gun" in the history of the English language. In that amazing confrontation between Johnny Tyler and Wyatt, Tyler starts to draw, then thinks better of it. Wyatt dares him to pull out the pistol, but Tyler relents.

"Remember what I said about people seein' a bright light before they die? It ain't true. I can't see a damn thing."

Morgan Earp, played by the late Bill Paxton, is the youngest and most naive Earp brother. Unlike his older brothers, he's got a more philosophical outlook on life, and, it turns out, death. After he's fatally shot by the Cowboys, he reminisces with Wyatt about what he believed happened when someone died, but tragically, it's not how it turns out to be for him.

"No need to go heeled to get the bulge on a tub like you."

Many people find themselves rewinding over and over to figure out exactly what Wyatt says to Johnny Tyler as their confrontation begins at the faro table. Wyatt immediately insults Tyler, and it only gets worse from that for Billy Bob Thornton's character.

"Why Ed does this mean we're not friends anymore? You know Ed, if I thought you weren't my friend... I just don't think I could bear it!"

The introduction of one of Val Kilmer's best characters comes near the beginning of the movie, and he's playing cards. After being accused of cheating, he takes offense and wonders why his opponent is so upset. All while tickling the ivory handle of one of his pistols. It's hard to believe Kilmer wasn't always the first choice for the role of Doc; originally, Willem Dafoe was who the producers wanted.

"Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave."

The final confrontation between Doc and Ringo is classic Western stuff. Ringo wasn't ready for Doc, but Doc was more than ready for Ringo.

"Look at all the stars. You look up and you think, "God made all this and He remembered to make a little speck like me." It's kind of flattering, really."

There are some moments of sweet levity in Tombstone, and often they come from Morgan Earp, and his philosophical pondering.

"I'm gettin' tired of your gas. Now jerk that pistol and go to work!"

Finally, Wyatt has had enough of Johnny Tyler's "gas" and tells him the fight is on. Tyler is far too scared to draw his pistol, though, and eventually Wyatt hauls him out of the saloon by his ear like a petulant child.

"I'm an oak alright."

This classic line is a throwback to earlier in the movie when Wyatt first sees Josephine in the saloon. He tries to explain to Doc that he's a married man and will stand by his vows. Doc calls him an "oak" when Wyatt rebuffs Josephine. Later, Wyatt sarcastically thinks back to that as he chases Josephine on horseback.

"My dear, you've set your gaze upon the quintessential frontier type. Note the lean silhouette... eyes closed by the sun, though sharp as a hawk. He's got the look of both predator and prey."

Billy Zane has one of the more under-appreciated roles in the movie as a traveling actor alongside Josephine. He does have one glowing moment, however, when he sums up Josephine's type of man by describing Wyatt.

"From now on I see a red sash, I kill the man wearing it. So run you cur. And tell the other curs the law is coming. You tell 'em I'm coming! And Hell's coming with me you hear! Hell's coming with me!"

Wyatt Earp's revenge ride is pretty much the whole third act of the movie, and it all starts when he lays down his threat to Ike Clanton and the rest of the Cowboys after taking some of them out after they killed Morgan and shot Virgil.

"Very cosmopolitan."

One of the funniest lines comes, unsurprisingly, from Doc Holliday. It's subtle, but after listening to Behan prattle on about how sophisticated Tombstone has become, four gunfighters spill into the street and duel it out in front of them all. Very cosmopolitan.

"Oh. Johnny, I apologize; I forgot you were there. You may go now."

Poor Johnny Tyler just can't get any respect. When he returns to confront Wyatt after losing his faro game, Doc dismisses him without giving him any respect.

"Fight's commenced! Get to fightin' or get away!"

Ike Clanton is a despicable character in Tombstone, and he's at his worst when he begs to get out of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Wyatt tells him exactly what to do.

"It's like I'm sittin' here playin' cards with my brother's kids or somethin'."

Though he has a pretty small role, Tombstone is still one of Billy Bob Thornton's best movies, and that's because the few lines he does have are priceless. Like when we, as an audience, first meet his character and he's annoyed with literally everything around him, especially the guy smoking next to him.

"You die first, get it? Your friends might get me in a rush, but not before I make your head into a canoe, you understand me?"

The first time Wyatt has a direct confrontation with Ike, Wyatt is outnumbered. Luckily, Ike's cooler head prevails (surprisingly), and when he figures out Wyatt is serious, he backs off with his men.

"Come on boys. We don't want any trouble in here. Not in any language."

Another local lawman, Marshal Fred White, played by legendary Western actor Harry Carey Jr., tries to keep things cool when they get heated between Doc and Ringo. It works at first, but the water between them keeps boiling.

"Why Kate, you're not wearing a bustle. How lewd."

"Big Nose" Kate (Joanna Pacuła) was Doc Holliday's long-time companion, and she was known to be just as tough as Doc, and just as ready for a fight, which is why she wasn't wearing a bustle.

"Forgive me if I don't shake hands."

When Doc first meets Behan, he makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the corrupt sheriff.

"Sure you do. Say goodbye to me. Go grab that spirited actress and make her your own. Take that beauty from it, don't look back. Live every second. Live right on to the end. Live Wyatt. Live for me. Wyatt, if you were ever my friend - if ya ever had even the slightest of feelin' for me, leave now. Leave now... Please."

If ever there was proof that Val Kilmer should have won an Oscar in his career, it's his final scene with Kurt Russell, as he lies dying of tuberculosis. It's masterful.

"Well... bye."

Powers Boothe plays Curly Bill, the de facto leader of the Cowboys, and when he thinks he's finally run the Earps out of town, he only has two words for them. Those two words, "Well, bye," have since become a meme that is useful for so many things. It, like all the rest of the lines on this list, is a true classic.