- [first lines]
- Louise Ellison: I see why they call this place Hell on Wheels. Rough men, loose women, whiskey, sin, and guns.
- Cullen Bohannan: Ain't a church social, ma'am.
- Aaron Hatch: It is by Heavenly Father's decree that we're here. And it shall be by His will, not yours, that we leave.
- Cullen Bohannan: Even God can't stop the rail, Mr. Hatch.
- Cullen Bohannan: [about Durant's schemes] Shit! I should have killed that son of a bitch when I had the chance!
- Louise Ellison: [walking up from behind] May I quote you on that, Mr. Bohannan.
- Margaret Palmer: So, you're borrowing money you don't have, from a company you don't work for, to buy property you can't afford, to build a city that doesn't exist.
- Thomas 'Doc' Durant: "Spear-heading" as it were. A new way of doing business in America.
- Elam Ferguson: [interrupting Barlow, who was starting yet another story] Don't you Ever stop talkin'?
- Dick Barlow: No sir, I do not. Out here, a quiet man is twice as likely as a noisy one to have his beard clung to by a bear
- Louise Ellison: How many men do you have?
- Cullen Bohannan: Near 3,000. Work 6 days a week, sunup, sundown. $1.50 a day. Them's good wages.
- Louise Ellison: How many miles do you make a day?
- Cullen Bohannan: Two now, weather and Indians permittin'. Rust eaters lay the rails. Walking boss makes sure the gauge is right. Spiker teams secure the rails to the ground. Fish-plates tie them together. Three swings of the hammer per spike, 10 spikes per rail, 400 rails to a mile, 1,500 miles to Sacramento.
- Louise Ellison: Do you really believe you can win the race against the Central Pacific to build this road?
- Cullen Bohannan: Wouldn't be here otherwise.
- Louise Ellison: You think you can do it without Thomas Durant's political connections? Without his money, his ego to drive it on?
- Cullen Bohannan: Well here I stand, and here he don't.
- Doctor Major Augustus Bendix: [twirling his gun cylinder] The United States Cavalry was not built for waiting.
- Elam Ferguson: We ain't come here to kill women and children.
- Doctor Major Augustus Bendix: The disorganized brain is lacking in moral principles. You aware of that, Bohannan?
- Cullen Bohannan: Not something I ponder nights.
- Doctor Major Augustus Bendix: Moral principles are the first line of defense against criminal behavior.
- Cullen Bohannan: Learn somethin' new every day.
- Doctor Major Augustus Bendix: Without moral principles, these Mormons will inevitable turn to violence to solve their problems, just like the heathens.