Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid.

I never have really become accustomed to the 'John.' Nobody ever really calls me John... I've always been Duke or Marion or John Wayne. It's a name that goes well together, and it's like one word -- John Wayne.

Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid.

Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.

Life's tough but it's tougher if you're stupid.

I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.

Life is getting up one more time than you've been knocked down.

Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you -- either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation.

I want to play a real man in all my films, and I define manhood simply:

men should be tough, fair, and courageous, never petty,

never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either.

Republic. I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling.

There's right and there's wrong. Y'gotta do one or the other. Do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.

I didn't vote for him, but he's my President, and I hope he does a good job.

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.

In westerns, you meet a hardy bunch of characters. There is no jealousy on such pictures.

America is the land of freedom and that's the way I enjoy living.

Let's say I hope that I appeal to the more carefree times in a person's life rather than to his reasoning adulthood. I'd just like to be an image that reminds someone of joy rather than of the problems of the world.

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.

All battles are fought by scared men who'd rather be some place else.

Never apologize and never explain-it's a sign of weakness.

A man's got to do what a man's got to do.