- Paladin: This may not be the best of all possible worlds, but if we try we can make it the best of all compromises.
- Werner August: A moment please. I regret, sir, that the reputation of this wild country does not permit hospitality. I'd appreciate your leaving.
- Werner August: You recognise the stone?
- Paladin: Yes. Afro-Asian-Aboriginals. A marvel of West America.
- Werner August: It's taken me a whole year to trace them. To a thief who stole them from a strange man whom he said lived south of here.
- Werner August: Colette. My wife is dead.
- Elliott Spencer: Colette dead?
- Werner August: To me for many years. To others, for only three.
- Elliott Spencer: I feel sorry for you. To have had a beautiful woman and a lovely child. And to have known the wonder of neither.
- Paladin: Two gentlemen! Two gentlemen so mired in the muck of their own self-pity that they can't see the obvious. What do you think the death of either one of you is going to mean to this girl?
- Werner August: Where there is no mind, there can be no effect.