Pastor Bjoerling: Charlie Anderson, I wonder if you'd be good enough to tell me why you even bother coming to services. Meaning no disrespect, of course.
Charlie Anderson: It was my wife's last request, Pastor Bjoerling. Meaning no disrespect, of course.

Pastor Bjoerling: There are no doubt some present, Charlie Anderson, who wonder why you and yours are never on time for the Lord's services.
Charlie Anderson: Have I kept the Lord waiting, Pastor Bjoerling?
Pastor Bjoerling: You have not.
[all laugh]

Charlie Anderson: [a young Confederate picket has just shot one of Anderson's sons] Dead. Dead! How old are you? How old?
Young Picket on Road: Sixteen.
Charlie Anderson: [In a rage, but restraining himself] Six - Sixteen. I'm not gonna' kill you. I want you to live! I want you to live to be an old man. And I want you to have many... many, many children. And I want you to feel about your children then... the way I feel about mine now! And someday, when a man comes along and kills one of 'em, I want you to remember! I want you to remember.

Charlie Anderson: [to the engineer, explaining the decision to burn the prison bound train] You run a sad kind of a train, mister. You take people away when they don't want to go and won't bring them back when they're ready.

Charlie Anderson: Can you give me one good reason why I should let my sons march down that road like a bunch of damn fools?
Lt. Johnson: Virginia needs all her sons, Mr. Anderson.
Charlie Anderson: They don't belong to the state they belong to ME! When they were babies I never saw the state comin' around here with a spare tit!

Charlie Anderson: Do you like her?
Lt. Sam: Well, I just said I...
Charlie Anderson: No, no. You just said you loved her. There's some difference between lovin' and likin'. When I married Jennie's mother, I-I didn't love her - I liked her... I liked her a lot. I liked Martha for at least three years after we were married and then one day it just dawned on me I loved her. I still do... still do. You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.

Charlie Anderson: I was talking to Henry.
Henry Anderson: Sir?
Charlie Anderson: Well, what do you think?
Henry Anderson: Well, no sir, I wouldn't.
Charlie Anderson: Why not?
Henry Anderson: I don't see any reason to fight for something I don't believe is right and I don't think a real friend would ask me to.

Charlie Anderson: I'm glad you're here, Johnson. I've been meaning to have a word with your people about those cannons of yours. The chickens have stopped laying, the cows have dried up. Who do I send the bill to?

Charlie Anderson: If we don't try we don't do. And if we don't do, why are we here on this Earth?

Charlie Anderson: It's no easy job, Sam, to take care of a woman.
Lt. Sam: No, sir.
Charlie Anderson: They expect things they never ask for. And when they don't get them, they ask you why. Sometimes they don't ask... and just go ahead and punish you for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to do in the first place.