Summary

  • "Every gun makes its own tune" - The Man With No Name from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Poetic dialogue in a classic spaghetti western.
  • "Mo Cuishle means 'my darling, my blood'" - A heartfelt moment from Frankie Dunn in Million Dollar Baby, showing his care for Maggie.
  • "A good man always knows his limitations" - Harry Callahan in Magnum Force, showcasing Harry's sharp wit and no-nonsense approach.

From gunslinging one-liners to angry cop retorts, Clint Eastwood quotes keep his characters iconic decades later. Eastwood is a seasoned Hollywood legend with dozens of classic films under his belt, both as a leading man and a sharp-eyed director. Throughout his career, Eastwood has played such unforgettable roles as vigilante cop Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry series and vengeful bounty hunter “The Man with No Name” in the Dollars trilogy. These antihero characters are full of quotable lines.

In his Oscar-nominated career as an actor, Eastwood has delivered quotes written by John Milius, Paul Haggis, and William Goldman. Their scripts have given him plenty of great one-liners and impassioned speeches to work with, and he’s nailed every on-camera delivery to create some fan-favorite quotes. From Walt Kowalski’s quippy grumblings in Gran Torino to William Munny’s grizzled monologues about the many regrets from his gunfighting days in Unforgiven, there are a ton of classic quotes from Eastwood’s beloved characters.

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25 "Every Gun Makes Its Own Tune"

The Man With No Name — The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly

Eastwood’s Man with No Name is a man of few words in the Dollars trilogy. But, when he does have something to say, it’s usually pretty profound. The line, “Every gun makes its own tune,” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is indicative of the poetic dialogue that Sergio Leone included to match the operatic feel of his classic spaghetti westerns. It is also a Clint Eastwood quote that shows he is as experienced a gunfighter as anyone in the movie, knowing that no two guns are alike, even if they are the same model.

As the third movie in the Man With No Name trilogy, Eastwood also had Leone's dialogue down pat by this time and when he said something, people listened.

This also shows that he knows whose gun is fired, because Tuco assembled his own gun, and his ear can pick out exactly who he needs to target. Known in this movie as "Blondie," The Man With No Name proves that he is smarter than most of his enemies and that is why he is always able to stay one step ahead of them at all times. As the third movie in the Man With No Name trilogy, Eastwood also had Leone's dialogue down pat by this time and when he said something, people listened.

24 "Mo Cuishle Means 'My Darling, My Blood'"

Frankie Dunn — Million Dollar Baby

Frank talking to Maggie in the ring while a crowd watches in Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby is a highly quotable movie where Clint Eastwood plays a boxing trainer who reluctantly agrees to train a female boxer, despite him saying he doesn't train women and that the woman, Maggie (Hilary Swank), is too old to start a boxing career. Frankie Dunn is cantankerous and blunt, and he trains Maggie hard, but the movie is a tragedy. This is emphasized when he uses the Gaelic phrase “mo cuishle.” He finally opens up to Maggie, finally translating the phrase and confirming how he feels about her: “My darling, my blood.

It is a line to show that, after his training. he cares for her like a daughter. This revelation cuts like a knife because Maggie's story ends with her opponent breaking her neck by sucker-punching her, resulting in her falling and hitting her head on the corner bench. Frankie helps her end her own life, so her pain can end, and it shows that, even when doing something he believes could sacrifice his soul, he wants to protect and care for this woman who he said was like a daughter to him.

23 "A Good Man Always Knows His Limitations"

Harry Callahan — Magnum Force

clint eastwood as harry and john mitchum as de georgio in magnum force

One of Clint Eastwood's most iconic roles (and quotable ones) is as Detective Harry Callahan, a character he developed in the movie Dirty Harry. This franchise resulted in several movies, and in Magnum Force, Harry delivers a line that has gone down in history as one of the better-known movie quotes. This is the second movie in the franchise and Harry is back with more one-liners, similar to the ones that fans still quote to this day from the first movie.

By the end, his lieutenant is no longer a "good man."

Harry is a cop who will stop at nothing to take down the bad guy. However, he knows there are limitations, as he himself admits twice in the movie. Early on, his lieutenant says he never had to pull his gun, and Harry says, “A good man always knows his limitations.which is basically an insult to his boss. Later, he learns his boss is a dirty cop, and when the lieutenant dies in a car explosion, Harry changes the line to, "A man’s got to know his limitations." By the end, his lieutenant is no longer a "good man."

22 "When A Man's Got Money In His Pocket, He Begins To Appreciate Peace"

The Man With No Name — A Fistful Of Dollars

Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name with a gun in A Fistful of Dollars

Sergio Leone introduced his brilliant character of The Man With no Name by remaking Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo in a blood-soaked American Western setting in his seminal masterpiece A Fistful of Dollars. Like Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars is a brutal portrayal of a stranger helping a town in the middle of gang warfare. He hits the gangs where it hurts: their money. The unnamed stranger, referred to as "Joe," agrees to help both sides in the gang war — for a price — he then sets them against each other.

This quote is an interesting one that shows his thoughts on Wild West outlaws. As he says, "When a man's got money in his pocket, he begins to appreciate peace." What this means is that, when an outlaw finally gets some money, there is no reason to cause trouble because he has what he wants and doesn't want to place a target on his head. Why look for trouble when a person is living well? It is when they need money that they look for trouble, which this outlaw finds with the gangs in the town.

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21 "So Is Being In A Gang, Dips***!"

Walt Kowalski, Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood pointing a finger in Gran Turino

Gran Turino is one of Clint Eastwood's most polarizing movies. In this movie, he plays Walt Kowalski, a recently widowed and highly prejudiced man who is a retired factory worker and a Vietnam Vet. What makes the movie so polarizing is that Walt uses constant ethnic slurs throughout the film, and while he softens up somewhat around the people he gets to know — although that doesn't stop his harsh insults. He is even more lethal with the quotes when facing gang members in his home in Detroit.

This is a quick one-liner, but later in the movie, Walt does what he can to save Thao from spilling any blood

In this scene, Walt is at home and standing by his car when a gang member starts to talk trash to him. Walt is unphased and easily strikes back. When his neighbor's son Thao, whom a gang has tried to initiate, says that smoking is bad for his health, Walt responds with, “So is being in a gang, dips***.” This is a quick one-liner, but later in the movie, Walt does what he can to save Thao from spilling any blood and gives up his life to convince his neighbors to stand up to the gangs and testify against them for his murder.

20 "With All Due Respect, Sir, You're Beginning To Bore The Hell Out Of Me"

Gunnery Sgt. Thomas 'Gunny' Highway — Heartbreak Ridge

Clint Eastwood in a military uniform in Heartbreak Ridge

In Heartbreak Ridge, Eastwood plays a maverick U.S. Marine near retirement tasked with getting a platoon of undisciplined Marines ready for the invasion of Grenada. The great irony of this character is that, while he wants his underlings to respect his leadership, he has very little respect for his own superiors (despite prefacing his insults “with all due respect”). This makes more sense when watching the movie as a military-action comedy, with Eastwood playing the straight-laced face among the lunacy.

While the back-and-forth between Highway and his superiors is funny and seemingly hard to believe, the movie was written by a Vietnam veteran named James Carabatsos about his experiences. However, the Army refused to participate with the film because they didn't approve of how it portrayed Highway, which they referred to as a "stereotype" that doesn't really exist anymore (via Los Angeles Times). Heartbreak Ridge also picked up an Oscar nomination for its sound effects.

19 "Alive Or Dead? It's Your Choice"

The Man With No Name — For A Few Dollars More

A scene from For A Few Dollars More featuring Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood standing together

All the toughest bounty hunters give their bounties a choice between being captured dead or alive. The Man with No Name offers his bounty this choice in For a Few Dollars More. The movie sees the Man With No Name walk into a bar looking for his target. When someone gives up the target to the bounty hunter, he heads over and interrupts their poker game in a move that has them all knowing they are in trouble. He beats the man up and then makes him an offer.

The Man With no Name guns him down, realizing that the man has accepted the offer of "dead."

The Man With no Name gives him the option: “Alive or dead? It’s your choice.” When three men come to his rescue, the bounty hunter kills them and then his target goes for a gun himself. The Man With no Name guns him down, realizing that the man has accepted the offer of "dead." It is a great Western scene showing that he is a fair man, but is quick on the draw when someone decides they are not willing to listen to reason. The next scene has him insulting the sheriff, proving that he fears no man.

18 "Girlie, Tough Ain't Enough"

Frankie Dunn — Million Dollar Baby

Frankie (Clint Eastwood) talking to Maggie (Hillary Swank) in Million Dollar Baby

Frankie sums up the entire premise of Million Dollar Baby in four words. He doesn’t think Maggie can fight, just because she’s a woman. When she argues that she’s tough, Frankie tells her, “Girlie, tough ain’t enough.” His derogatory use of “girlie” ties into the sexist prejudice that Frankie has against female fighters, setting up a whole different kind of fight for Maggie to fight (on top of the boxing matches). This is a Clint Eastwood quote that is in place to allow him to show he has learned and is ready to become a better person.

Frankie is estranged from his daughter, which is likely because of his misogynistic opinion of women in general. However, as the film progresses, Frankie trains Maggie, and the two become close, where he begins to look at her like a daughter, and offers him a chance to do something good for her — something he could never do for his own daughter. Sadly, the movie ends tragically for Maggie, and after she dies, Frankie leaves the sport forever — but not before Scrap (Morgan Freeman) has a chance to write a letter to Frankie's daughter, telling her the steps her dad had taken.

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17 "We All Have It Coming, Kid"

William 'Will' Munny — Unforgiven

A Schofield revolver being held near Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven

One of the many complex themes that Unforgiven deals with is the relentlessness and inevitability of death. The movie is all about the morality of killing and whether or not killing can be justified. As William Munny points out, however, it happens, death is coming for everyone. This is also a line that really plays into the theme of the movie, which is about the end of the classic Western tales, the old-school Western movies, and even the end of the Wild West itself, which was happening at the time period that this film took place.

Adds a lot of significance to his wisdom and life experience — both for his character, as an outlaw, and Eastwood himself

When William delivers this quote, it sounds like he is speaking from experience. For over two decades, Clint Eastwood was the face of the spaghetti Western, and his roles remain iconic to this day. That makes him the perfect choice to direct Unforgiven, and the fact that he is the man who delivers this line is poetic concerning his status. It adds a lot of significance to his wisdom and life experience — both for his character, as an outlaw, and Eastwood himself, as the face of the Western genre.

16 "If You Want A Guarantee, Buy A Toaster"

Nick Pulovski — The Rookie

Clint Eastwood with a gun in The Rookie

With Eastwood playing an aging tough-as-nails cop, The Rookie is widely regarded as an unofficial Dirty Harry movie. While he wasn't playing Harry Callahan in this movie, his character of Sergeant Nick Pulovski certainly shares Harry’s knack for delivering one-liners like, “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.The Rookie is a movie that tried to capitalize on rising star Charlie Sheen in 1990 by casting him as a hot-shot young cop (the rookie of the title) and then teaming him up with Eastwood's grizzled veteran cop.

This line comes when Nick talks to David's dad, Eugene Ackerman (Tom Skerritt). David's dad, fearing for his son's life, asks Nick to guarantee he will look after his son and make sure nothing happens to him. Nick, not swayed and knowing this isn't a promise he can make, delivers this line, emphasizing that there are no guarantees in their line of police work and if Mr. Ackerman wants a guarantee, he should stick with buying home goods and not watch his son's career in law enforcement.

15 "Sometimes The Dead Can Be More Useful Than The Living"

The Man With No Name — A Fistful Of Dollars

Clint Eastwood smoking in A Fistful of Dollars

Sergio Leone established his penchant for weaving thought-provoking dialogue into his blood-drenched westerns with lines like this in A Fistful of Dollars. The Man With No Name is quick on the draw but he’s also quick to philosophize about his own grisly business. In A Fistful of Dollars, The Man With No Name places the bodies of the dead soldiers in a grave, as he hopes to raise the conflict between the two warring rival families in this Western remake of the Japanese masterpiece Yojimbo.

Yet another moment where The Man With No Name shows he is as smart as he is a good shot.

As he puts the bodies into the grave, he explains that these dead bodies can help him achieve his goals in this case, because "The dead can be more useful than the living." He then continued with these thoughts as he said that dead bodies helped him out of more tough spots than anyone would believe. He reveals they don't talk, and he can even make a dead body look alive if he has enough time. This is yet another moment where The Man With No Name shows he is as smart as he is a good shot.

14 "I'm Coming Down There In Five Minutes And You Better Have Those Files Open, You Pencil-Pushing Son Of A B****!"

Harry Callahan — The Enforcer

Clint Eastwood with Tyne Daly in The Enforcer

Harry Callahan was more rounded as a character than ever in his third outing of the Dirth Harry franchise, The Enforcer. Instead of learning from his mistakes and becoming a team player, Harry has doubled down on his roguish behavior. This was more evident when Lieutenant Al Bressler was unable to get the files that Callahan needed for a case. As Callahan listens to Bressler get the run-around by their own files division, he grabs the phone out of his hand and delivers this perfectly threatening quote.

Enforcer is a tough movie, as Harry is forced into office duty, so he can't be there when his partner is killed in an attack by homegrown terrorists known as the People's Revolutionary Strike Force. He returns to the streets after this, but is forced to team up with a woman who was a desk officer worker with no field experience (Tyne Daly), which he is not excited about. This entire movie is about Harry fighting his own department as much as he is the terrorist group, making his frustrations obvious.

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13 "Dying Ain't Much Of A Living, Boy"

Josey Wales — The Outlaw Josey Wales

Clint Eastwood with two guns in The Outlaw Josey Wales

While Clint Eastwood has played lots of outlaws in his Western movies, his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales has him playing a man with an actual bounty on his head. However, he has no intent on coming in quietly when bounty hunters come after him. When a young bounty hunter tries to bring in Clint Eastwood’s titular outlaw in The Outlaw Josey Wales, he tells Wales that “a man’s got to do something for a living. Knowing that the bounty hunter doesn’t stand a chance against him, Wales morbidly jokes, “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.

This line is not just a line he delivers to the bounty hunter, but also his own truth, as he has no life left, and he is just fighting until he finally dies himself.

In this movie, Josey Wales is a former Confederate guerrilla who becomes a wanted man after Union soldiers murder his family, only for him to escape. Josey Wales wants revenge in this movie, and while there are bounty hunters coming after him, his main focus is always on vengeance for his family's death. This line is not just a line he delivers to the bounty hunter, but also his own truth, as he has no life left, and he is just fighting until he finally dies himself.

12 "It's A Hell Of A Thing, Killin' A Man"

William 'Will' Munny — Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood as William Munny sneering at the camera in Unforgiven.

Unforgiven isn’t a traditional black-and-white Western about good triumphing over evil. It’s a bleak, contemplative meditation on the ethics of killing. William Munny, a notorious killer, is contrasted with the Schofield Kid, a naive young gunman who dreams of being a notorious killer (but finds that killing a man is “a hell of a thing”). This is a movie about the end of the Wild West, and it is Eastwood's chance to put the Western movie to bed once and for all with a perfect conclusion to his decades of work in the genre.

For much of his career, the best Clint Eastwood quotes are often cool and collected warnings before he kills someone, or at least puts the fear of God into them. With that said, by this point in both his career and William Munny's life, he is tired of all the killing and is ready to put his guns away. He sees a lot of himself in the young gunman, but he also wants to warn the kid that the life of killing people will eventually either lead him to his grave, or to the same spot that William has found himself in, waiting for the end to come.

11 "Everybody Wants Results, But Nobody Wants To Do What They Have To Do To Get Them Done"

Harry Callahan — Dirty Harry

Chio (Reni Santoni) looking at Harry (Clint Eastwood) in Dirty Harry

Harry sums up his ethos perfectly in this quote from the first Dirty Harry movie. With the Scorpio Killer running rampant in San Francisco, Harry is more than happy to bend the law to bring him to justice. As he faces red tape at every turn, Harry points out that everyone in the force wants results, but he’s the only one willing to do the dirty work to get those results. Harry is the only person who will act on his instincts and make impulsive decisions, which often result in stopping the bad guys, albeit with some property damage.

Since criminals won't play by the rules, he feels the best way to stop them is to break a few rules along the way as well.

He is as close as a movie can get to a vigilante, but he does it all with a badge, making him a danger to his superiors and those around him. However, it also means that he will do whatever it takes to stop the Scorpio Killer, and this means doing things that no one else wants to talk about or even acknowledge. Since criminals won't play by the rules, he feels the best way to stop them is to break a few rules along the way as well.

10 "'Bout Time This Town Had A New Sheriff."

The Stranger — High Plains Drifter

Clint Eastwood talks to another man while riding a horse in High Plains Drifter

Clint Eastwood plays his usual gunslinging antihero who saves a town from corruption in High Plains Drifter. But this one has a Satanic twist as Eastwood’s character is implied to be the Devil, who arrives to deliver the townspeople to the fires of Hell. The “new sheriff” in question is someone that the Stanger appoints, as he knows the old one is corrupt. He places a downtrodden man named Mordecai as the sheriff and mayor and then, comfortable about the position, sets out to cleanse the town of its evil.

Eastwood also uses this exact same line in For A Few Dollars More. He shows up in town looking for someone and when he finds them, he sets out to bring them down. After he finishes his job and kills everyone he needs to, he then heads out to collect his bounty from the local sheriff. When the sheriff whines about how long it took him to collect this much money, The Man With No Name looks at him with disgust and takes his badge before walking out. He tosses the sheriff's badge down and says the town needs a new sheriff.

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9 "Get Off My Lawn"

Walt Kowalski — Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood with a shotgun in Gran Torino

Gran Torino is a movie that many film fans often make fun of because it is about an older man who is tired of the way the world has turned out throughout the years. It has Eastwood starring as a cranky man who delivers racial slurs, even to people he likes, and judges everyone who comes near him. He also has a lot of reasons to feel like things are slipping out of control, thanks to the gang activities that have started to plague Detroit and specifically his own neighborhood.

Walt from Gran Torino encapsulates the gruff, grumpy demeanor of Eastwood’s late-career roles.

Walt from Gran Torino encapsulates the gruff, grumpy demeanor of Eastwood’s late-career roles. Walt’s disdain for the criminals in his neighborhood and general indifference by his neighbors are summed up in the oft-quoted line, “Get off my lawn.” In four words, audiences know everything they need to know about the character. The fact that this is one of the most repeated Clint Eastwood quotes of all time, mostly by young people mimicking the elderly's frustration with the world, speaks volumes.

8 "I'm Not Okay. I'm Sick, I'm Tired, And I'm Armed, Too, So Be Careful."

Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan — In The Line Of Fire

Clint Eastwood walking alongside a motorcade in In the Line of Fire

Clint Eastwood plays a different kind of cop in his political thriller In the Line of Fire as a Secret Service Agent protecting the President of the United States. He has even more of a personal vendetta against would-be presidential assassin Mitch Leary than the U.S. president he’s trying to assassinate. The movie features him in the role he has perfected over the years — an aging tough guy who still has the ability to take out the bad guys, although he is up to three times the age of his fellow officers.

This Clint Eastwood quote is another one that focuses on his age, while also a funny comment that many people echo in different situations. The fact that the movie takes place in the 1990s, and Eastwood's Fran Horrigan is an original Secret Service Agent from John F. Kennedy's days as President speaks volumes. Most people stop when they say they are "sick" and "tired." Horrigan adds that he is also armed, and that makes him a very dangerous man.

7 "I'm Here To Kill You, Little Bill"

William 'Will' Munny — Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood as Will Munny holding up a rifle in Unforgiven

In Unforgiven, when William Munny comes after Little Bill for the death of his friend Ned, he delivers some of the best Clint Eastwood quotes in any movie he has ever appeared in. It all starts with him asking who runs the establishment. When the owner steps forward and explains that he bought it and runs it, William shoots the unarmed man dead on the spot and then delivers the line, "He shoulda armed himself, if hes gonna decorate his bar with my friend."

William then turns his attention to Little Bill with a haunting monologue in the subversive finale of Unforgiven

William then turns his attention to Little Bill with a haunting monologue in the subversive finale of Unforgiven: “I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.” Munny makes no attempt to pretend he’s a good guy. He doesn’t kill Bill for the good of the town; he does it to avenge his friend. What results is a gunfight that sees the aging outlaw gun down everyone helping Bill before all is said and done.

6 "This Is My Fighter"

Frankie Dunn — Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

When Million Dollar Baby started, Frankie didn't want to train Maggie. He didn't see any future for her as a boxer and his misogynistic attitude toward women not only estranged him from his daughter but cast doubt on Maggie as well. Not only did this change as the movie wore on, but Frankie began to look at Maggie as more than someone he was training. He started to look at her like his daughter, and this gave him a second chance at helping a young woman on her way to her dreams after failing before.

When Frankie says, “This is my fighter,” in Million Dollar Baby, it’s a simple answer to a simple question. However, it has a deeper significance because it shows Frankie getting behind Maggie’s boxing career and fully supporting her as his personal ward. This all led to the tragic moment in the boxing ring for Maggie, but Frankie was there for her like he wasn't for his daughter, and like Maggie's own family wasn't there for her. This quote showed two broken people who found a way to fix each other.

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