Top 120 John Wayne Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I’m sure we can talk things out like civilized people.”

— John Wayne

52. “Courage is being completely paralyzed with fear and taking the first step anyway. Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.”

— John Wayne

53. “All men hate to hear “We need to talk about our relationship.” These seven words strike fear in the heart of even General Schwartzkopf.”

— John Wayne

54. “Most men hate to shop. That’s why the men’s department is usually on the first floor of a department store, two inches from the door.”

— John Wayne

55. “I’m a greedy old man. Life’s been good to me, and I want some more of it.”

— John Wayne

56. “Men forget everything; women remember everything.”

— John Wayne

57. “Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home.”

— John Wayne

58. “Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful.”

— John Wayne

59. “The West – the very words go straight to that place of the heart where Americans feel the spirit of pride in their western heritage – the triumph of personal courage over any obstacle, whether nature or man.”

— John Wayne

60. “I drink for comradeship, and when I drink for comradeship, I don’t bother to keep count.”

— John Wayne

61. “This kind of war, you’ve gotta believe in what you’re fighting for.”

— John Wayne

62. “Screw ambiguity. Perversion and corruption masquerade as ambiguity. I don’t trust ambiguity. John Wayne.”

— John Wayne

63. “Out here a man settles his own problems.”

— John Wayne

64. “A man is no better than he has to be.”

— John Wayne

65. “One look that works is better than twenty lines of dialogue.”

— John Wayne

66. “Paul Newman would have been a much more important star if he hadn’t always tried to be an anti-hero, to show the human feet of clay.”

— John Wayne

67. “I’m the stuff men are made of!”

— John Wayne

68. “When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it.”

— John Wayne

69. “Jesus Christ! I would crawl over the mountains of Beverly Hills on my hands and knees if I could do a movie with Doris Day!”

— John Wayne

70. “I never killed a man I didn’t have to.”

— John Wayne

71. “I eat as much as I ever did, I drink more than I should, and my sex life is none of your goddamned business.”

— John Wayne

72. “The hyphenated American is ridiculous. But that’s what we have to put up with. I think that any person that’s in the United States is better off here than they would be where they came from.”

— John Wayne

73. “I don’t want ever to appear in a film that would embarrass a viewer. A man can take his wife, mother, and his daughter to one of my movies and never be ashamed or embarrassed for going.”

— John Wayne

74. “I’m an American actor. I work with my clothes on. I have to. Riding a horse can be pretty tough on your legs and elsewheres.”

— John Wayne

75. “The fire is not discriminating. It burns anything in its path for whatever reason.”

— John Wayne

76. “I play John Wayne in every part regardless of the character, and I’ve been doing okay, haven’t I?”

— John Wayne

77. “When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I’m not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won’t be disappointed in me.”

— John Wayne

78. “You’re going to think I’m being corny, but this is how I really feel: I hope my family and my friends will be able to say that I was an honest, kind and fairly decent man.”

— John Wayne

79. “I figured I needed a gimmick, so I dreamed up this drawl, the squint and a way of moving meant to suggest that I wasn’t looking for trouble but would just as soon throw a bottle at your head as not. I practiced in front of a mirror.”

— John Wayne

80. “Life it tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.”

— John Wayne

81. “I believe humor nullifies violence.”

— John Wayne

82. “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”

— John Wayne

83. “I haven’t had a fight since I was eleven. I only won that because she had an asthma attack.”

— John Wayne

84. “The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license.”

— John Wayne

85. “If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‘Why the hell not?’”

— John Wayne

86. “I’ve had three wives, six children and six grandchildren and I still don’t understand women.”

— John Wayne

87. “Just one more question, Pilgrim. How far up your ass do you want my boot?”

— John Wayne

88. “But don’t get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman is concerned, I’m awfully happy there’s a thing called sex. It’s an extra something God gave us. I see no reason why it shouldn’t be in pictures. Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful.”

— John Wayne

89. “I’ve made over 250 pictures and have never shot a guy in the back. Change it.”

— John Wayne

90. “I am a demonstrative man, a baby picker-upper, a hugger and a kisser – that’s my nature.”

— John Wayne

91. “COWBOYS, just like the word says.”

— John Wayne

92. “I don’t have to assert my virility. I think my career has shown that I’m not exactly a pantywaist. But I do take pride in my work, even to the point of being the first one on the set in the morning. I’m a professional.”

— John Wayne

93. “Thanking people is dangerous business. A name always slips your mind.”

— John Wayne

94. “I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst’s couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.”

— John Wayne

95. “The guy you see on the screen isn’t really me. I’m Duke Morrison, and I never was and never will be a film personality like JOHN WAYNE. I know him well. I’m one of his closest students. I have to be. I made a living out of him.”

— John Wayne

96. “In my acting, I have to identify with something in the character. The big tough boy on the side of right – that’s me. Simple themes. Same me from the nuances. All I do is sell sincerity and I’ve been selling the hell out of that ever since I started.”

— John Wayne

97. “Get off your butt and join the Marines!”

— John Wayne

98. “Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog!”

— John Wayne

99. “General MacArthur told me, “You represent the American serviceman better than the American serviceman himself.””

— John Wayne

100. “Any man who’d make an X-rated movie ought to have to take his daughter to see it.”

— John Wayne