30 Best Isabel May Quotes

Elsa: I know death now, I've seen it. It had no fangs, it smiled at me, and it was beautiful!

Elsa: Violence has always haunted this family. It followed us from the Scottish Highlands and the slums of Dublin. It ravaged us upon the coffin ships of Ireland. Stranded us on the beaches of New Jersey ,devoured us upon the battlefields of Shiloh and Antietam. And it followed us here.. lurking beneath the pines and in the rivers..And where it doesn't follow, we hunt it down. We seek it

- You think they'll make it to Oregon?
- I don't think they'll make it out of Wyoming.
- Me neither.
Elsa: We never spoke of dreams or death again.
- Never spoke of the pioneers either.
- Because there was no need.

Elsa: What purpose does pain serve?
- I understand desire and fear...
- And love...
- And how they protect us and better our lives and bring new life.
- But grief...
- If I weren't so consumed by it, it would baffle me.

Elsa: To survive the frontier, you must learn to recognize those who won't.
- And be weary of their doomed decisions.
- They are to be avoided at all costs, because their fear is tragedy's closest cousin.
- And tragedy is contagious in this place.

Elsa: I laid in the grass...
- Closed my eyes...
- And I saw him.
- Laughed at his goofy hair.
- Felt the electricity of his touch.
- I laid in the grass and I loved him.

Ennis: Would you take off your hat? Wanna get a better look at you.
Elsa: Why get a better look?
Ennis: Well, there's a fair chance you're too purty for me. If you are, I'd rather know now so I don't waste my time.
Elsa: Maybe you're to pretty for me.
Ennis: [laughs] Well, shoot, I mean, if me bein' purty is a problem, then we ain't got a problem. Shoot.
[Elsa takes off her hat]
Ennis: Yep. Too purty for me. Dang it.

Elsa: Nothing had prepared me, no books, no teachers, not even my parents. I heard a thousand stories, but none could describe this place, it must be witnessed, to be understood, and yet I've seen it and understand it even less than before I first cast eyes on this place. Some call it the American dessert, others The Great Plains, but those phrases were invented by professors at universities surrounded by the illusion of order and the fantasy of right and wrong. To know it you must walk it, Bleed into its dirt, drown in its rivers, then its name becomes clear, it is hell, and there are demons everywhere. But if this is hell and I'm in it, then I must be a Demon too and I'm already dead.

Elsa: My father won't speak of the war.
- When men ask if he fought, he says no.
- I've seen fellow soldiers call out his name on the street.
- He turns and walks the other way.
- He spent three years in a union prison.
- When he came home, my mother said he weighed 97 pounds.

- with his foot tomorrow.
- Y'all can get up now.
Elsa: Are we in Montana?
- Almost.
- Honey, you need to lay down.
- Mm.
- I'm cold. Wanna sit by the fire.

Pastor: And now, why don't we take a moment to pray, uh, keeping in mind that our prayers should not be for our own benefit, but for our family, friends, fellow Texans, Americans of all races and religions and the world. Well, most of the world. Y'all know what countries to pick.
Mary: [to herself] Lord, please look after my family. Give them everything they need to be happy and healthy. And this lovely young girl with me tonight, help her stay on the path of righteousness.
Veronica: [to herself] God, please look after my sister. You can find her at the women's correctional facility in Lubbock. Help her seek salvation in you instead of cocaine, marijuana and bass players.
Georgie: [to himself] Jesus, I'm sure, even from Heaven, you can see how hot the girl sitting next to me is. And I know I'm not supposed to pray for myself, but here's the deal: if you can get her to fall in love with me and, you know, make some bad decisions, I swear I'll come to church every Sunday.
Mary: [to herself] And thank you for bringing Georgie tonight, even though you and I both know why he came. Speaking of which, whatever he's praying for right now, ignore it.
Veronica: [to herself] And please protect me from impure thoughts, and teach me to respect the sanctity of my body.
Georgie: [to himself] Now, if for instance, she and I were to go skinny dipping and one thing were to lead to another under the moonlit sky, get this: not only do I become a devout Christian, I will also bug everybody I meet to do the same. And you know I can be real annoying when I set my mind to it.
Mary: [to herself] Amen.
Veronica: [to herself] Amen.
Georgie: [to himself] I'm gonna take your silence as a yes.
[beat]
Georgie: Amen.

Elsa: Death is everywhere on the prairie.
- In every form you can imagine.
- And a few your worst nightmare couldn't muster...
- Death hides in the creek beds...
- Possesses animals...
- It hides in tall grass, waiting...

Elsa: Man will always seek to take from others that which he could make for himself. Those are the words that have governed this family.Or perhaps, it is our refusal to surrender that governs us.

Alina: There is pants. Should fit you. Too small for him. You have skinny hips.
Elsa: Oh, think so?
Alina: I know. I looking at you. When you have baby, its head come out looking like eggplant.

Elsa: Thought I was too pretty for you.
Ennis: You are, but I'm pretty short on common sense. So...
Elsa: I've painted a picture of my husband in my mind... And he don't look like you.
Ennis: Well, I'm a cowboy, Ma'am. We don't look like nobody's husband. But we're the ones you think about when your husband ain't around.

cowboy: Makes you wonder what the rich folk are doing, huh?
Elsa: They ain't doing this.
cowboy: No, ma'am, they ain't.
[both chuckle as cowboy reins and rides off]
Elsa: [internal monologue] I looked to my right and saw my father, somehow riding vertically toward the earth. Beyond him, cowboys and cattle pushed toward us, dust following them like a cloudy shadow. The light was soft and pale and pink, like God decided to light this day with candles and the whole of Texas spread out before me. It was the most magnificent thing I'd ever seen.
Elsa: [...] Freedom to most, it is an idea... an abstract thought that pertains to control. That's not freedom. That's independence. Freedom is riding wild over untamed land with no notion any moment exists beyond the one you are living. I knew nothing of the horror that hides in freedom's shadow.
[bandits attack]
Elsa: [...] And just like that, horror steps from the shadows.
Elsa: [...] What began as a journey had become a retreat... into the unknown. We were backing into the abyss, so worried our sins would follow us, we didn't bother watching where we walked... and behind us was a cliff.

Elsa: Should we pick it up?
Wade: We look for horses first.
- I guess you're both lightning.

Elsa: I felt their eyes move over me. Felt their pity and disapproval. And it meant nothing to me. The only thing that mattered was riding away, just as I was riding away from him. As I pondered the new journey before me, making it back to him. They watched the tears run my cheeks and I let them. I didn't turn my face or wipe them away. Tears we can't control, sobs and weeps are little surrenders, and I will surrender nothing to the pain. Tears may flow, but I will not weep. I am the wife of a warrior now. Which is to say, I am a warrior. And warriors don't cry. We're wasting time.

Elsa: [internal monologue] All I knew of sex was rumors. Stories traded among friends as we tried to imagine what that word really meant.
[spies on a couple below her window]
Elsa: Now I knew...
Alley: [from the alley] Woo!
Elsa: [...] So much I don't know about life. We learn to read, we learn rules, learn scripture and manners, and how to avoid saying or doing things that make others uncomfortable. All those things seem to be the opposite of life. Seem to strangle it. But now, I'm sleeping on the edge of civilization, and soon we leave the edge behind. Then no rules. Then, only life. What an adventure. What an adventure for all of us...

Veronica: Georgie, do you really think you're capable of just being my friend?
Georgie: That's a good question. My brain says yes.
Veronica: What about the rest of you?
Georgie: [with a twinkle in his eye] Honestly, I wouldn't trust it.

Elsa: Then / opened my eyes...
- And I could see color again.
Colton: Ch-ch-ch-ch...
Colton: Hup hup!
- Hup, hup... ch-ch-ch-ch-ch...

Elsa: I looked at my father, looked past his smile.
- Saw his worry.
- Saw something deeper.
- As if he were already in mourning.
- As if I were already gone.

Elsa: I'd known death since I was a child, it's everywhere, but it had never touched me, it had never placed Its' rotten finger on my heart, until today.

Elsa: There are no weekends on a ranch. The routine of Wednesday is the routine of Saturday. And the chores of Tuesday are still chores on Sunday. Though the banker and bookkeeper may be tethered to a calendar, ranchers are bound only to the seasons, and note the milestones of their lives by saying, "We were married in the spring," or "She was born in the fall," or perhaps, "On the hottest day in the driest summer ever to plague Montana, my husband returned to me."

Elsa: I remember stories of the great war, how it seemed man had lost all reason.
- That we 'd become animals, or perhaps we just surrendered to the fact that animals is all we've ever been.

Elsa: I have no home.
- Which is to say, my home is everywhere.

Elsa: But if this is hell, and I'm in it...
- Then I must be a demon too.
- And I'm already dead.

Elsa: In less than three weeks, we had shrunk by half.
- Eight men, six women, and four children had died.
- And now we leave at least that many behind...
- If strength is in numbers, then we are growing weaker.
- When we need our strength the most.

Elsa: The numbing shock of war is behind me now.
- Pain has taken its place.
- Hurts to move.
- Hurts to breathe.
- The back of my head throbs with every step of my horse.

Elsa: This way. Here.
- Stop.
[Weak] This is the spot.
- Where do you want to go?
- Against the tree.