Lawmen: Bass Reeves
Sundays on Paramount+Bass Reeves Quotes
Billy: Can I kill this crazy old fool, Bass? He's a goddamned blight!
Crazy Old Fool: There ain't no law here. This here's hell.
Bass: Until God say otherwise, I'm the only law there is.
Silas Cobb: Bass Reeves got the jump on me through a damned window. At least you're known to be a reasonable black bastard.
Bass: I said easy, but hard is just fine.
Billy: Had it comin' the way I see it.
Bass: Course he did. Still don't make it right, do it?
Billy: Don't rain on me like that, Bass.
Bass: Silas Cobb was a drunkard, adulterer, and a thief, but a man all the same. Second I called out his name, that man was my responsibility. My responsibility.
Judge Parker: I was encouraged to hire you because of the color of your skin. Because the Indians would listen to someone like you. May be true, but that’s not why I called you in. I need a man with a good gun and a straight spine. You up for the task?
Bass: I wouldn’t be sitting here in my Sunday best if I wasn’t.
Judge Parker: It’s hard work. It exacts a toll. Few men survive long enough to be good at it. And those that do end up like Sherrill Lynn.
Bass: I ain’t never goin’ to be Sherrill Lynn.
Judge Parker: Well, let’s make it official. May I? [asks for Bass’s bible] Oh. Your good book’s got stories of its own.
Bass: That it does.
Judge Parker: Well, you’ll have to enlighten me one of these days.
Judge Parker: Repeat after me. I, Bass Reeves, do solemnly swear.
Bass: I, Bass Reeves, do solemnly swear
Judge Parker: that I will faithfully execute
Bass: That I will faithfully execute
Judge Parker: all lawful precepts directed to the Marshal of the United States
Bass: all lawful precepts directed to the Marshal of the United States
Judge Parker: for the Western District of Arkansas
Bass: for the Western District of Arkansas
Judge Parker: without malice or partiality
Bass: without malice or partiality
Judge Parker: perform the duties of Deputy Marshal
Bass: perform the duties of Deputy Marshal
Judge Parker: and take only my lawful fees
Bass: and take only my lawful fees
Judge Parker: so help me, God.
Bass: so help me, God.
Judge Parker: You have miles to ride. Godspeed the horses.
Keep your current path; this your fate, Billy Crow. Empty boots strung up on a lawman’s saddle.
Bass: It’s hard for a man to put fear and hate behind him.
Sherrill: Oh, hell, Bass. I ain’t even tryin’.
Bass: Black, white, or red, we all just men.
Bass: Why this man called One Charlie?
Sherrill: Cause there ain’t another Charlie like him.
George: It’s a damn confederacy of dunces, Bass. It’s not debatable, is it?
Bass: No, sir.
George: No, sir, indeed. Strike my tent, pack my gear. Pack the horses.
Jennie: Man in town tried to sell me paradise, so I bought that piano instead.
Bass: With what?
Jennie: With the promise that my husband was makin’ a decent payday.
Bass: About that…
Bass: No need to puff your chest in front of my family.
Sherrill: Just so we’re clear. I would have done One Charlie the same way, not think twice about it if it meant it was you and I walking away from there with air in our lungs.
Bass: And I’m not lookin’ to take anything back, either.
Sherrill: Christ, Bass. You are the most earnest man I have ever met, which is likely to get you killed one day. You got sand for this. Most men don’t.
Bass: What you saying?
Sherrill: I had a revelation if you will, and I took some of your earnestness to Judge Parker.
Bass: And?
Sherrill: And he wants to make you a Goddamned Deputy US Marshal. You think you can handle the weight of the badge?
Bass: I know I can.
Sherrill: You leave here, don’t you be thinking you’ll get one thin cent of what I promised you.
Bass: That scar on your head? It’s got chains around your heart.
Sherrill: Spoken from a man who knows.
Bass: You like the man you are, Deputy?
