Memorable quotes for
Dances with Wolves (1990) More at IMDbPro »

John Dunbar: The strangeness of this life cannot be measured: in trying to produce my own death, I was elevated to the status of a living hero.
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Ten Bears: [in Lakota; subtitled] Let us smoke a while.
John Dunbar: [voiceover] With Ten Bears, it was always more than a while. There was purpose in everything he did, and I knew he wanted me to stay. But I was sure of myself. I would be an excuse, and that's all the Army would need to find this place. I pushed him as far as I could to move the camp. But in the end, he only smiled and talked of simple pleasures. He reminded me that at his age, a good fire was better than anything. Ten Bears was an extraordinary man.
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Sgt. Bauer: Turned injun, didn't yeh.
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Kicking Bird: [in Lakota; subtitled] I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life there is one that matters most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail and it is good to see.
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John Dunbar: [in Lakota; subtitled] We are trying for a baby.
Kicking Bird: [in Lakota] No waiting?
John Dunbar: No waiting.
Kicking Bird: I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life, there are some that matter most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail, and it is good to see.
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Wind In His Hair: [in Lakota; subtitled] We will shoot some arrows into the white man. If he truly has medicine, he will not be hurt. If he has no medicine, he will be dead.
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Stands With a Fist: My place is with you. I go where you go.
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John Dunbar: Dunbar, not Dumb Bear.
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Major Fambrough: You wish to see the frontier?
John Dunbar: Yes sir, before it's gone.
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[Dunbar has found an old skeleton on the prairie]
Timmons: I'll bet someone back east is going, "Now why don't he write?"
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John Dunbar: [writing in his diary] If it wasn't for my companion, I believe I'd be having the time of my life.
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Wind In His Hair: [in Lakota; subtitled] Dances With Wolves! I am Wind In His Hair. Do you see that I am your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?
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[Ten Bears shows Dunbar an old Spanish Conquistador's helmet]
Ten Bears: [in Lakota; subtitled] The white men who wore this came around the time of my grandfather's grandfather. Eventually we drove them out. Then the Mexicans came. But they do not come here any more. In my own time, the Texans. They have been like all the others. They take without asking. But I think you are right. I think they will keep coming. When I think of that, I look at this helmet. I don't know if we are ready for these people. Our country is all that we have, and we will fight to keep it.
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Major Fambrough: Sir knight? I've just pissed in my pants... and nobody can do anything about it.
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Ten Bears: [in Lakota; subtitled] You are the only white man I have ever known. I have thought about you a lot. More than you think. And I understand your concern. But I think you are wrong. The white man the soldiers are looking for no longer exists. Now there is only a Sioux named Dances With Wolves.
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Stands With a Fist: [translating for Kicking Bird] He thanks Dances with Wolves for coming.
John Dunbar: Who is Dances with Wolves?
Stands With a Fist: It is the name all the people are calling you now.
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Lt. Elgin: Spivy! You bash that prisoner one more time, I'll put those shackles on YOU!
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Toughest Pawnee: [speaking Pawnee; subtitled] Only a white man would make a fire for everyone to see.
Pawnee #1: [in Pawnee] Maybe there's more than one.
Pawnee #2: [in Pawnee] There may be three or four.
Toughest Pawnee: [in Pawnee] I know three or four who will not be making the trip home.
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Kicking Bird: [after receiving the pipe from Dances With Wolves] How does it smoke?
John Dunbar: I don't know; I haven't smoked it yet.
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John Dunbar: I am Lieutenant John J. Dunbar and this is my post.
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Stands With a Fist: He also asks if you would watch over his family while he is gone.
[pauses]
Stands With a Fist: This thing he asks of you is a great honor.
John Dunbar: Tell him I would be happy to watch over his family.
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Timmons: [after he has bent over and farted] Why don't you put that in your book?
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John Dunbar: [voice-over] Nothing I have been told about these people is correct. They are not thieves or beggars. They are not the bogeymen they are made out to be. On the contrary, they are polite guest and I enjoy their humor.
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John Dunbar: [voice-over] I had never really known who John Dunbar was. Perhaps because the name itself had no meaning. But as I heard my Sioux name being called over and over, I knew for the first time who I really was.
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John Dunbar: [voice-over] They were a people so eager to laugh, so devoted to family, so dedicated to each other. The only word that comes to mind is harmony.
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[talking about the white men coming]
Kicking Bird: How many?
John Dunbar: Like the stars.
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John Dunbar: [at the celebration of the buffalo feast, noticing a big Sioux man has his Lieutenant's hat] That's my hat... that's my hat!
Big Warrior: [in Lakota, as all becomes quiet in the tent] I found it on the prarie. It's mine.
Wind In His Hair: [stands up, in Lakota] The hat belongs to Lieutenant.
Big Warrior: He left it on the prarie. He didn't want it.
Wind In His Hair: Well, you can see he wants it now. We all know it's a soldier hat. We all know who wears it. If you want to keep it, that's fine. But give something for it.
[the Sioux takes his knife and sheath off his belt and gives it to Dunbar]
Wind In His Hair: [in English, to Dunbar] Good... trade!
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John Dunbar: [to his army captors who are interrogating him, in Lakota] My name is Dances with Wolves. I have nothing to say to you. You are not worth talking to.
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John Dunbar: [voice over] It seems everyday ends with a miracle here. And whatever God may be, I thank God for this day
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Pawnee #1: [speaking Pawnee; subtitled] We have nothing to show for this trail.
Pawnee #2: [in Pawnee] We have no rifles. White men are sure to have rifles!
Pawnee #3: [in Pawnee] If they don't have rifles, it's hard to say how many might be down there. We should forget this and go home.
Toughest Pawnee: [in Pawnee] Then go. I would rather die than argue to any white man about a single line of smoke in my own country!
[the Toughest Pawnee rides off into the direction of the smoke]
Pawnee #1: [in Pawnee] He will not quit until we are all dead.
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Wind In His Hair: [watching Dunbar dance around like a buffalo] His mind is gone!
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[Repeated line]
Timmons: [after they have reached an abandoned fort] There ain't nothing here lieutenant.
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John Dunbar: Guns would make one warrior like two.
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Major Fambrough: The king is dead...
[raises a pistol to his head]
Major Fambrough: Long live the king...
[pulls the trigger]
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John Dunbar: [voice-over] It was hard to know how to feel. I had never been in a battle like this one. This had not been a fight for territory or riches or to make men free. This battle had no ego. It had been fought to preserve the food stores that would see us through winter, to protect the lives of women and children and loved ones only a few feet away. I felt a pride I had never felt before.
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John Dunbar: How come we haven't seen any buffalo?
Timmons: Can't figure the stinking buffalo. Sometimes you don't see them for days, and sometimes they're out there as thick as curls on a whore.
John Dunbar: What about Indians?
Timmons: Indians? Goddamn Indians you'd just as soon not see, unless the bastards are dead. They're nothing but thieves and beggars.
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Stands With a Fist: [explaining how she got her name] I worked every day... very hard... there was a woman who didn't like me. She called me bad names... sometimes she beat me. One day she was calling me these bad names, her face in my face, and I hit her. I was not very big, but she fell down. She fell hard and didn't move. I stood over her with my fist and asked if any other woman wanted to call me bad names... No one bothered me after that day.
John Dunbar: [smiles] I wouldn't think so.
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General Tide: [after Dunbar's suicide attempt at the enemy lines] You rest easy, son. You'll keep your leg, as God is my judge, you'll keep it.
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Sergeant Pepper: [at the inactive battlefield] Some of the boys are saying that if we ain't gonna fight we could just settle the whole business with a little high stakes poker. Wouldn't that be a sight... a bunch of fellas sitting in the middle of this field drawing cards...
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John Dunbar: Many times I'd felt alone, but until this afternoon I'd never felt completely lonely.
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