Calvera Quotes in The Magnificent Seven (1960)

[Calvera has just captured the Seven]

Calvera: What I don't understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place, hmm? Why, huh?

Chris: I wonder myself.

Calvera: No, come on, come on, tell me why.

Vin: It's like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question, "Why?"

Calvera: And?

Vin: He said, "It seemed to be a good idea at the time."

Calvera: If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.

Calvera: [dying - to Chris] You came back - for a place like this. Why? A man like you. Why?

Calvera: Generosity... that was my first mistake. I leave these people a little bit extra, and then they hire these men to make trouble. It shows you, sooner or later, you must answer for every good deed.

Calvera: Last month we were in San Juan. Rich town. Sit down. Rich town, much blessed by God. Big church. Not like here - little church, priest comes twice a year. BIG one. You'd think we'd find gold candlesticks. Poor box filled to overflowing. Do you know what we found? Brass candlesticks. Almost nothing in the poor box.

Sidekick: But we took it anyway.

Calvera: I KNOW we took it anyway. I'm trying to show him how little religion some people now have.

[the village Calvera's raiding has changed]

Calvera: New wall.

Chris: There are lots of new walls, all around.

Calvera: They won't keep me out!

Chris: They were built to keep you in.

Calvera: Now, to business! I could kill you all. You agree?

[Dead silence]

Calvera: Well, you don't disagree!

[as the seven are about to leave the village]

Calvera: You'll do much better on the other side of the border. There you can steal cattle, hold up trains... all you have to face is sheriff, marshall. Once I rob a bank in Texas; your government get after me with a whole army... whole army! One little bank. Is clear the meaning: in Texas, only Texans can rob banks. Ha ha.

[they look at him in silence]

Calvera: Adios!

Calvera: I should have guessed. When my men didn't come back I should have guessed. How many of you did they hire?

Chris: Enough!

Calvera: Somehow I don't think you've solved my problem.

Chris: Solving your problems isn't our line.

Calvera: We have a saying here: a thief who steals from a thief is pardoned for one hundred years.

Calvera: What if you had to carry my load? The need to provide food, like a father, to fill the mouths of his hungry men?