The Best Paul Kersey Quotes

Paul: [Kersey confronts the mugger who has wounded him in the leg] Hey!
[the mugger faces Kersey and knows Kersey has the drop on him]
Paul: Fill your hand.
Mugger: [Puzzled, evidently not familiar with the old-West metaphor] Huh?
Paul: Draw.
[Kersey passes out and the mugger flees]

Paul: Do you believe in Jesus? You're gonna meet Him.

Paul: Nothing to do but cut and run, huh? What else? What about the old American social custom of self-defense? If the police don't defend us, maybe we ought to do it ourselves.
Jack: We're not pioneers anymore, Dad.
Paul: What are we, Jack?
Jack: What do you mean?
Paul: I mean, if we're not pioneers, what have we become? What do you call people who, when they're faced with a condition or fear, do nothing about it, they just run and hide?
Jack: Civilized?
Paul: No.

Frank: We want you to get out of New York... Permanently.
Paul: [pause] Inspector... By sundown?

Jack: We gotta let the cops handle this, Dad!
Paul: Yeah?
[squint]
Paul: Well, what if the cops can't handle this, Jack?

Paul: You've got a prime figure. You really have, you know.
Joanna: That's a euphemism for fat.

Ames: You're probably one of them knee-jerk liberals that thinks us gun boys would shoot our guns because it's an extension of our penises.
Paul: Never thought about it that way. It could be true.
Ames: Well, maybe it is. But this is gun country.

Sam: [Paul and Sam listen to a police statement on the news] I'll bet muggings are down, and they're afraid to tell us.
Paul: There's only one way to find out. Take a walk on Columbus Avenue tonight.
Sam: Thanks a lot, Paul. I think I'll wait for the official report.

Paul: Any chance of catching these men?
Lt. Briggs: There's a chance, sure.
Paul: Just a chance?
Lt. Briggs: I'd be less than honest if I gave you more hope, Mr. Kersey. In the city, that's the way it is.

Sam: [Sam complains about the crime situation in the city] You know, decent people are going to have to work here and live somewhere else.
Paul: By "decent people," you mean people who can afford to live somewhere else.
Sam: Oh Christ, you are such a bleeding-heart liberal, Paul.
Paul: My heart bleeds a little for the underprivileged, yes.
Sam: The underprivileged are beating our goddamned brains out. You know what I say? Stick them in concentration camps, that's what I say.