Fred C. Dobbs Quotes in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Fred C. Dobbs: Say, mister. Will you stake a fellow American to a meal?

American in Tampico in white suit: Such impudence never came my way. Early this afternoon I gave you money... while I was having my shoes polished I gave you MORE money... now you put the bite on me again. Do me a favor, will ya? Go occasionally to somebody else - it's beginning to get tiresome.

Fred C. Dobbs: Ah, excuse me, mister, I never knowed it was you. I never looked at your face - I just looked at your hands and the money you gave me. Beg pardon, mister, I promise I'll never put the bite on you again.

American in Tampico in white suit: [gives him a peso] This is the very last you get from me. Just to make sure you don't forget your promise, here's another peso.

[puts another peso in Dobbs' hand]

Fred C. Dobbs: Thanks, mister. Thanks.

American in Tampico in white suit: But from now on, you'll have to make your way through life without my assistance.

Fred C. Dobbs: I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Howard: We've wounded this mountain. It's our duty to close her wounds. It's the least we can do to show our gratitude for all the wealth she's given us. If you guys don't want to help me, I'll do it alone.

Bob Curtin: You talk about that mountain like it was a real woman.

Fred C. Dobbs: She's been a lot better to me than any woman I ever knew. Keep your shirt on, old-timer. Sure, I'll help ya.

Bob Curtin: Remember what you said back in Tampico about having to carry that old man on our backs?

Fred C. Dobbs: That was when I took him for an ordinary human being, not part goat.

Fred C. Dobbs: Hey, if there was gold in them mountains, how long would it have been there? Millions and millions of years, wouldn't it? What's our hurry? A couple of days, more or less, ain't gonna make a difference.

Fred C. Dobbs: This is the country where the nuggets of gold are just crying out for you to take them out of the ground and make 'em shine in coins on the fingers and necks of swell dames.

Fred C. Dobbs: Why am I elected to go to the village? Why me instead of you and Curtin? Oh, don't think I don't see through that. You two've thrown in against me. The two days I'd be gone would give you plenty of time to discover where my goods are, wouldn't it?

Howard: If you feel along those lines, why don't you take your goods with you?

Fred C. Dobbs: And run the risk of having them taken from me by bandits?

Howard: If you was to run into bandits, you'd be out of luck anyway. They'd kill you for the shoes on your feet.

Fred C. Dobbs: Oh, so that's it. Everything's clear now. You're hoping bandits will get me. That would save you a lot of trouble, wouldn't it? And your consciences wouldn't bother you none, neither.

Bob Curtin: Wouldn't it be better, the way things are, to separate tomorrow, or even tonight?

Fred C. Dobbs: That would suit you fine, wouldn't it?

Bob Curtin: Why me more than you?

Fred C. Dobbs: So you could fall on me from behind, sneak up and shoot me in the back.

Bob Curtin: All right, I'll go first.

Fred C. Dobbs: And wait for me on the trail to ambush me?

Fred C. Dobbs: What a town. Tampico.

Bob Curtin: You said it, brother. If I could just get me a job that would bring in enough to buy passage, I'd shake it's dust off my feet soon enough, you bet.

Fred C. Dobbs: You know, if I was a native, I'd get me a can of shoe polish and I'd be in business. They'd never let a gringo. You can sit on a bench 'til you're three-quarters starved... you can beg from another gringo... you can even commit burglary. You try shinin' shoes in the street, peddlin' lemonade out of a bucket, and your hash is settled. You'll never get another job from an American.

Bob Curtin: Yeah, and the natives would hound and pester you to death.

Fred C. Dobbs: Some town to be broke in.

Bob Curtain: What town isn't?

Fred C. Dobbs: Any more lip out of you and I'll haul off and let you have it. If you know what's good for you, you won't monkey around with Fred C. Dobbs.

Howard: Ah, $25,000.00 is plenty as far as I'm concerned. Enough to last me out the rest of my lifetime.

Fred C. Dobbs: Sure. You're old, I'm young. I need dough and plenty of it!