Sam Houston Quotes in Lone Star (1952)

Sam Houston: What brings you beyond the Pecos?

Thomas Craden: [Confronting Houston and Burke] I was chasing a renegade but instead I found two!

Sam Houston: You may have wondered why I delayed this attack for so long. I wanted Santa Ana to be positive we were running for the United States and then I wanted the Mexican army in a position from which it could not retreat. That's where it is right now. The Bay of San Jacinto is at their backs. All right are there any questions, gentlemen? Good luck - and remember the Alamo!

Santa Ana: General, if I may so, you may consider yourself born to no common destiny. You have conquered the Napoleon of the West. Now it remains to you to be generous to the vanquished.

Sam Houston: You should have remembered that kind of philosophy at the Alamo, General.

Santa Ana: What terms do you propose, General?

Sam Houston: I don't propose terms, I dictate them.

[last lines]

Deaf Smith: General Sam, what's the writin' on that paper say?

Sam Houston: Well, we've got a country officially now. This is an independent republic.

Deaf Smith: Who's going to be President?

Katherine Delaney: Sam Houston!

Sam Houston: You will remember this battle! Each minute! Each second! Until the day that you die! But that is for tomorrow, gentlemen. For today, Remember The Alamo!

Sam Houston: [responding to why he is continuing to retreat] In 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba. He moved swiftly to consolidate before the Grand Alliance could move against him. Wellington, with fewer men, retreated ahead of Napoleon, forcing Napoleon to chase him through Belgium. Wellington had a vision of a battlefield, he did not know where it was, but he knew he would know it when he saw it. He continued moving waiting for that ground and for Napoleon to make a mistake. Gentlemen, I do not consider myself to be Wellington; Santa Ana, however, considers himself to be Napoleon - the Napoleon of the West. I will continue to retreat gentlemen, until I find the ground in my vision and, when Santa Ana makes his mistake, I will attack.

Sam Houston: Captain Seguin, your men will remain behind to guard the camp. Things will get confusing out there with men shooting any Mexican they see.

Juan Seguin: General Houston; you ordered me to stay here and I obeyed. This is our fight too.

Sam Houston: Very well. Join Sherman on the left.

Davy Crockett: What are you sellin', Sam?

Sam Houston: Something a certain congressman might need in the future.

Davy Crockett: Are you sellin' rocking chairs, Sam?

Sam Houston: I'm selling Texas.

Davy Crockett: Now, what would I want with Norte Mexico?

Juan Seguin: [Houston is preparing to meet with the Texas Congress] They are gonna want you humble, General.

Sam Houston: I humble myself before God and there the list ends.

Sam Houston: [after it is proposed that Santa Anna be hanged] No. You'll settle for blood. I want Texas.

Sam Houston: [During an argument with a political opponent] I called him a 'catamite'; that's one step up from 'assistant pederast'!

[last lines]

Sam Houston: As long as that flag waves, you are guaranteed freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. It's a guarantee of the sanctity of the home, with freedom from search without a warrant; a guarantee against being held for crime without indictment and being innocent of that crime until proven guilty; a guarantee against being deprived of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness without due course of law and a trial by jury. And so, forever may it wave!