Matt: "Pretty deep for a redhead."
Miss Kitty: "I'm pretty deep for a redhead."

Louie Pheeters: [sitting at the bar in episode "Slocum"] Excepting some women, of course, just ain't nothing prettier than a full bottle.

Festus Haggen: I just thought...
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Don't think! That's when you get dangerous.

Festus Haggen: Don't you think somebody oughta reckon with him, Matthew?

On a long ride with Matt, Chester declares, "Why I'm so hungry, my stomach is growing teeth."

Reb Kittredge:
Are you in love with Curly?

Rita:
He wants to marry me.

Reb Kittredge:
That's not what I asked you.

Rita:
I don't know why that would interest you.

Reb Kittredge:
I don't want to stake my claim on range that's already taken up.

Festus:

Hotter than a jug full of red ants.

Chester: Even the taters is moldy.

Curly Mather: You're pretty tough with that gun strapped around your waist. I wonder how tough you'd be without it.
Reb Kittredge: You ain't never going to find out, Curly. I'm never going to take it off.

Miss Kitty: "Sure beats anything I ever saw with a gun."

[the teaser of the very first episode, "Matt Gets It."]
John Wayne: Good evening. My name's Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before. I hope so. I've been kicking around Hollywood a long time. I've made a lot of pictures out here. All kinds. Some of them have been westerns and that's what I'm here to tell you about tonight. A western. A new television show called "Gunsmoke". When I first heard about the show "Gunsmoke", I knew there was only one man to play in it. James Arness. He's a young fellow, and may be new to some of you. But I've worked with him and I predict he'll be a big star. And now, I'm proud to present "Gunsmoke".

Judge Anderson: "...the only difference between a rut and a grave is measurement."

Matt: "If you dig a hole in the ground, you're expected to fill it more than you dug out."

Matt Dillon: You know, Kitty, it's really been good seeing you again. Maybe when all this is over and I get back... [his sentence is incomplete as Kitty responds]
Kitty Russell: I'll be here. [as Matt closes the door behind him]
Kitty Russell: Aren't I always?

Ma Fowler: "Class will tell every time."

Cowboy: "That is some kind of horse."

Festus Haggen: Don't you think somebody oughta reckon with him, Matthew?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: What did you say his name was again, Festus?
Festus Haggen: I think its Sinclair... Jack Sinclair.
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: He's got no left hand?
Festus Haggen: That's right. Anyways, don't you think somebody ought to go reckon with him?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: No!
Festus Haggen: Why not, Matthew?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: Because it was my bullet that took his hand!

Big Thicket: "It's guns and guts that made history."

Marshal Matt Dillon: [in bed at the start of the show, after listening to target practice outside and Festus snoring inside] I'm caught between a shootout and a sawmill!

Matt: "... no man lives by his own rules."

Curly Mather: You're pretty tough with that gun strapped around your waist. I wonder how tough you'd be without it.

Reb Kittredge: You ain't never going to find out, Curly.

[the teaser of the very first episode, "Matt Gets It."]
John Wayne: Good evening. My name's Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before. I hope so. I've been kicking around Hollywood a long time. I've made a lot of pictures out here. All kinds. Some of them have been westerns and that's what I'm here to tell you about tonight. A western. A new television show called "Gunsmoke". When I first heard about the show "Gunsmoke", I knew there was only one man to play in it. James Arness. He's a young fellow, and maybe new to some of you. But I've worked with him and I predict he'll be a big star. And now I'm proud to present "Gunsmoke".

Trafton: "... Then you've got the reason they made Hell."

Kitty Russell: Matt, you can't account for everything that happens to people who touch you. You know, I learned a long time ago, there are some things in this life that you just accept the way they are.
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: That's pretty deep for a redhead.
Kitty Russell: I'm a pretty deep redhead.

Festus: "You can't hang a feller for tryin' to do right."

Chester: Well, at least Raffie's gonna have plenty to eat and someplace to sleep now. You know, he must've had a pretty terrible time in the war.
Doc: Yeah, I guess it addled him some, too.

Sgt. Holly: "Sam!"
Sam: "What?"
Sgt. Holly: "Corn whiskey without the kernels."

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: I'll tell you why the Hagens live so long.

Festus Haggen: Why?

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: 'Cause they're too dumb to know they're dead!

Redneck: "You talk real good sense, Pete."

Matt: "We'd better get ready; come on."

Chester: "Is that Pete?"
Matt: "Yeah. He was burned to death."

Matt: "Jeff, you just hold easy on that trigger finger."

Festus:

Tighter than the feathers on a prairie chicken's rump.

John Milligan: "All horses should've been left on the ark."

Linder Hogue: "You are the laziest man the Almighty ever breathed life into!"

Reb Kittredge:
Then get out of camp!

Curly Mather:
I'll leave when I'm ready.

Reb Kittredge:
You'll leave right now!

Curly Mather:
I reckon that's a choice I'll make for myself.

Reb Kittredge:
The only choice you've got is how you'll go -- either riding on a horse or feet first.

Curly Mather:
You've been twirling a pretty big rope ever since you came here. Maybe it's time someone took the slack out of your rope.

Reb Kittredge:
Anytime you're ready.

Festus: "Folks does things that has to be did. That's all there is to it. They don't do it to hurt folks that's close to 'em, folks that they love more than they ought to."

Matt: "The only thing I'm tellin' you is to get that body out of here."

Matt: "Still coming up with easy answers, huh?"

Matt: "...no man lives by his own rules."

Bob Johnson: "You're a man of some persuasion, Marshal."

Doc: (to Matt)"No one makes their own rules; you told me that."

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: I'll tell you why the Hagens live so long.
Festus Haggen: Why?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: 'Cause they're too dumb to know they're dead.

Matt: "A man who can admit that he's wrong's in a good position to make things right."

Trudy Trent: It's a palace of joy, this place, ain't it Marshal? You know how we spent last Christmas? He got drunk and set fire to me! Honest, if I hadn't run out in that snow, I would've burned up. And then he wouldn't let me back in and I near froze to death!
Asa Trent: [Lecherously touches Trudy's neck] Taught you to be a good little girl!
Trudy Trent: Oh yeah, Pa, it was the best Christmas I ever spent! I won't never forget it!

Festus: "Oh, fiddle! That don't make no never mind "

Matt: "I guess a man's entitled to be buried under the name he chooses."

Louie Pheeters: [sitting at the bar in episode "Slocum"] Excepting some women, of course, just ain't nothing prettier than a full bottle.

Adam Kimbro: "Hell with the lid off."

Matt Dillon:

"Blaming her would be like blaming the night for being dark."

(Last line of the series.)
Abel Pugh: "Yes, sir."

Festus Haggen: Don't you think somebody oughta reckon with him, Matthew?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: What did you say his name was again, Festus?
Festus Haggen: I think its Sinclair... Jack Sinclair.
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: He's got no left hand?
Festus Haggen: That's right. Anyways, don't you think somebody ought to go reckon with him?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: No.
Festus Haggen: Why not, Matthew?
U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon: Because it was my bullet that took his hand.

John Wayne: "It's honest, it's adult, it's realistic... And now I'm proud to present my friend Jim Arness in -- Gunsmoke."

(First lines of the series.)
Marshal Matt Dillon: (narrating)"I try to remember that if they'd argued a little they might not be here. Arguing doesn't fill any graves. Take me. I'm a U.S. Marshal. How many I'd rather have argued than gone for guns."

Judge Warfield: "And that philosophy placed him at the end of a rope."

Cope Borden: "A shotgun can tear up a man pretty bad."

Matt: "I can't shoot people who haven't done a wrong thing in their lives until today."

Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: [Festus offers to buy Doc a beer with a silver dollar that he earned from shoeing horses in episode "Whelan's Men".] Why don't you take that money and invest it in something? Why don't you do that?
Festus Haggen: Invest it in what?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: There's wonderful land values outside of Dodge. Now why don't you go out there someplace, look around, and buy yourself a lot?
Festus Haggen: A lot of what?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: A lot! A lot of land!
Festus Haggen: Well fiddle, I can't afford to buy a lot of land. You probably could the way you've been a bilking and gouging...
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Oh, hush up! I'm trying to help you, for heaven sakes. It don't cost a whole lot to buy a little lot.
Festus Haggen: What do you mean it don't cost a whole lot to buy a little, or a whole lot to buy a lot, what do you mean?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: Well, I mean,... a little lot of land!
Festus Haggen: But there ain't no such a thing. A little's a little, and a lot's a lot, there ain't no little lot, or lot of little, don't you see? Now you want that beer or don't you?
Dr. Galen 'Doc' Adams: No I'm... I'm all worn out.
Festus Haggen: [and as Doc walks away Festus Hollers] If you change your mind me and Newly will be over at the Longbranch having a whole lot of little beers.
[Chuckles and flips his silver dollar]
Festus Haggen: Now I'm buying.