Jebediah Nightlinger Quotes in The Cowboys (1972)

Jebediah Nightlinger: [praying to God before he's about to hanged by Asa Watts and his gang] I regret trifling with married women. I'm thoroughly ashamed at cheating at cards. I deplore my occasional departures from the truth. Forgive me for taking your name in vain, my Saturday drunkenness, my Sunday sloth. Above all, forgive me for the men I've killed in anger

[eyes shifting to Asa Watts]

Jebediah Nightlinger: ... and those I am about to.

Jebediah Nightlinger: [referring to the madam Kate Collingwood's offer of sexual favor] Well, I have the inclination, the maturity, and the wherewithal... but unfortunately, I don't have the time.

Jebediah Nightlinger: This may seem a lonesome place to leave him, but he is not alone, because many of his kind rest here with him. The prairie was like a mother to Mr. Andersen. He belonged to her. She cared for him while he lived. And she is nursing him while he sleeps.

Fats - Cowboy: Mr. Nightlinger, are you black all over?

Jebediah Nightlinger: 'Cept for the whites of my eyes.

Homer Weems - Cowboy: Is... your...?

Jebediah Nightlinger: It is... black, too.

Charles 'Slim' Honeycutt: See? He's the same as us, 'cept for that color.

Jebediah Nightlinger: The same as you?

[turns around slowly with a huge knife in hand and chuckles]

Jebediah Nightlinger: The same as you?

[guffaws loudly as the boys huddle together, startled]

Jebediah Nightlinger: Ohhh, children... My father was a brawny Moor, six feet six inches tall. He bound his head in a red velvet cloth

[hands knife to Slim and the boys relax, but listen]

Jebediah Nightlinger: he wore a curved sword, forged from the finest Toledo steel. He captured a lady, bright and dark. he took her in his arms and wrapped her in a warm quilt and carried her off. They came to a castle and he battered down the doors with the trunk of an oak tree and KILLED EVERYBODY IN IT, just so they could rest the night. Later, while she slept, he walked the parapets... and became a king.

Charlie Schwartz - Cowboy: [in awe] Is that true?

Jebediah Nightlinger: If it isn't, it oughta be...

Jebediah Nightlinger: If you're lying, remember one thing. I could swallow each of you whole without choking. All I need do is butter your heads and pin your ears back.

Jebediah Nightlinger: It smells of boy in here.

Jebediah Nightlinger: My name is Nightlinger, and I'm in charge of these boys.

Mrs. Kate Collingwood: My name is Mrs. Collingwood, and I'm, uh... in charge of these girls.

Jebediah Nightlinger: I just heard from a highly exited youngster that there were some soiled doves winging through here.

Mrs. Kate Collingwood: [laughing] Well... what do you want from me?

Jebediah Nightlinger: Madam, you know young boys... they dream of golden skin and unbound hair. Even if I could lock them up they would find a way of getting here.

Mrs. Kate Collingwood: There is very little I could do about that.

Jebediah Nightlinger: I'm sure you would handle everything most tastefully. It's a question of, uh... waiting for a more appropriate time in their lives. Perhaps it would be wiser to wait until next year... or even the year after.

Mrs. Kate Collingwood: With any luck, I'll be retired by then. Well... the first time should be in the back of a buggy with a... girl that they think they're in love with. Alright... we'll move on.

Jebediah Nightlinger: You are a charming and sensible lady.

Mrs. Kate Collingwood: What about you?

Jebediah Nightlinger: Well, I have the inclination... the maturity... and the wherewithal... but unfortunately, I don't have the time.

[Both laugh]

Jebediah Nightlinger: You're staring at me, children. I feel your eyes on my back. Now why is that?

Wil Andersen: I like to travel with a man I'm used to.

Jebediah Nightlinger: You'll get used to me.

Jebediah Nightlinger: You know in the late war between the states I served under an officer just like you.

Wil Andersen: Is that right?

Jebediah Nightlinger: As a matter of fact I shot that military gentlemen in the buttocks. Just outside Vicksburg.

Wil Andersen: I'd of hung ya.

Jebediah Nightlinger: They gave me a medal.

Wil Andersen: In my regiment, Mr. Nightlinger, I was known as 'Old Ironpants'. You might keep that in mind!