Memorable quotes for
Sergeant York (1941) More at IMDbPro »

Sergeant: Where did ya learn to shoot York?
Alvin: Well I ain't never *learned* Sergeant! Folks back home used to say I could shoot a rifle before I was *weaned*, but they was exaggeratin' some.
[everybody laughs]

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Gracie Williams: Folks say you're no good, 'ceptin' for fighting and hell-raising.

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Ike Botkin: Ain't nobody ever cut 5 centers, lessen' it were Daniel Boone.

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Alvin: Well I'm as much agin' killin' as ever, sir. But it was this way, Colonel. When I started out, I felt just like you said, but when I hear them machine guns a-goin', and all them fellas are droppin' around me... I figured them guns was killin' hundreds, maybe thousands, and there weren't nothin' anybody could do, but to stop them guns. And that's what I done.
Maj. Buxton: Do you mean to tell me that you did it to save lives?
Alvin: Yes sir, that was why.
Maj. Buxton: [amazed] Well, York, what you've just told me is the most extraordinary thing of all!

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Alvin: Therefore, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

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Alvin: What we done in France, we had to do. And some as done it, didn't come back, and that kind of thing ain't for buying and selling.

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Mother York: Don't rightly know, Child. Don't rightly know.

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Drummer: [remarking on the area's isolation] What I'd like to know is, how do you fellows get into this valley?
Zeke: We was born here!

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Pastor Rosier Pile: See that rock, Alvin? You've been plowin' around that rock a heap o' years.
Alvin: Sure have!
Pastor Rosier Pile: Did you ever think when you start plowin' yer furrows crooked, it's mighty hard to get 'em straight again?
Alvin: I never thought on it much.
Pastor Rosier Pile: It's that-a-way, I reckon, with other things 'sides plowin'. Satan's got ya by the shirt tail, Alvin!

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[Alvin puts a handful of dirt onto a plate at the table and pushes it toward his mother]
Mother York: That there's bottom land soil, ain't it? Queer how the folks on the bottom looks down on the folks on the top. It was always that way. No changin' it!
Alvin: I'm gonna *get* us a piece of bottom land!
Mother York: Your pa set out to get a piece of bottom land once. Nary a man ever tried any harder! Liked to *kill* hisself tryin'!

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Pastor Rosier Pile: War's way to the other side of the ocean, Alvin. Lots of things can happen before you get there. You put your trust in the Lord, and He'll look out for you.
Alvin: I done forgot the Lord! I ain't never gonna forget him again!

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Sgt. Early: [at the target range] Remember, guys, you're usin' real live ammunition! A bullet hasn't got any brains! It'll hit whatever you're aimin' at, so don't start murdering each other!

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Alvin: I ain't a-goin' to war. War's killin', and the book's agin' killin! So war is agin' the book!

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