The Last of the Mohicans (1992) - Quotes

The End of a Native Era

Chingachgook: The frontier moves with the sun and pushes the Red Man of these wilderness forests in front of it until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be no more, or be not us.

Hawkeye: That is my father's sadness talking.

Chingachgook: No, it is true. The frontier place is for people like my white son and his woman and their children. And one day there will be no more frontier. And men like you will go too, like the Mohicans. And new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But once, we were here.

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A Call for Peace and Understanding

Hawkeye: I come to you unarmed and in peace to unstuff your ears, Sachem. Let the children of the dead Colonel Munro go free. Take fire out of the English anger over the murder of their helpless ones. Sachem, the French fathers made peace. Magua broke it. It is false that the French will be friends still to the Huron. Would Magua use the ways of Les Francais and the Yengeese? Would you?

Magua: Yes.

Hawkeye: Would the Huron make his Algonquin brothers foolish with brandy and steal his lands to sell them for gold to the white man? Would Huron have greed for more land than a man can use? Would Huron fool Seneca into taking all the furs of all the animals of the forest for beads and strong whiskey? Those are the ways of the Yengeese and the Francais traders and their masters in Europe infected with the sickness of greed. Magua's heart is twisted. He would make himself into what twisted him. I am Nathaniel of the Yengeese. Hawkeye, adopted son of Chingachgook of the Mohican people. Let the children of the dead Munro and the Yengeese officer go free. This belt, which is a record of the days of my father's people, speaks for my truth.

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A Difficult Decision Amidst Uncertainty

Cora Munro: Go ahead.

Maj. Heyward: What the bloody hell plan is this?

Cora Munro: I want you to go.

Hawkeye: If we go, there's a chance there won't be a fight. There's no powder. If we don't go in that, there's no chance. None. Do you understand?

Maj. Heyward: Coward!

Cora Munro: You've done everything you can do. Save yourself. If the worst happens, and only one of us survives, something of the other does too.

Hawkeye: No. You stay alive. If they don't kill you, they'll take you north, up to Huron land. Submit, do you hear? You're strong, you survive. You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Commitment to a Cause

Cora Munro: They're going to hang you. Why didn't you leave when you had the chance?

Hawkeye: Because what I'm interested in is right here.

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Justice and Loyalty in Conflict

Cora Munro: [about Hawkeye] He saved us. We're alive only because of him.

Colonel Munro: The man encouraged the colonials to desert in this very room and in my presence!

British Officer: [hands papers to Colonel Munro] Sir!

Colonel Munro: He is guilty of sedition. He must be tried and hanged like any other criminal, regardless of what he did for my children.

Cora Munro: [to Heyward] But he knew the consequences, and he stayed. Are those the actions of a criminal? Duncan, do something.

Maj. Heyward: He knew the penalty for his actions. He ought to pay without sending you to beg.

Cora Munro: You know he wouldn't send me. You falsely spoke of what you saw. What happened at the farm was as Nathaniel said.

Colonel Munro: But not with enough certainty to outweigh British interests in this fort.

Maj. Heyward: And who empowered these colonials to pass judgment on England's policies, and to come and go without so much as a "by your leave"?

Cora Munro: They do not live their lives "by your leave"! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!

Maj. Heyward: You are defending him because you've become infatuated with him!

Cora Munro: Duncan, you are a man with a few admirable qualities, but taken as a whole, I was wrong to have thought so highly of you.

Colonel Munro: Cora! Cora, I would do anything I could to keep you from being hurt. But this man is guilty of sedition... and subject to military justice and beyond pardon.

Cora Munro: Justice? If that's justice than the sooner French guns blow the English out of America the better it will be for the people here!

Colonel Munro: You do not know what you're saying, girl!

Cora Munro: Yes I do, I know exactly what what I'm saying, and if it is sedition, than I am guilty of sedition too!

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A Choice Between Duty and Desire

Jack Winthrop: You're not coming with us?

Hawkeye: I've got a reason to stay.

Jack Winthrop: That reason wear a striped skirt and work in the surgery?

Hawkeye: It does. No offense, but it's a better looking reason than you, Jack Winthrop.

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Conflict Over Honor and Responsibility

Colonel Munro: Montcalm is a soldier and a gentleman, not a butcher.

Hawkeye: Easy for you to suppose, it's their women and children on the farms, not yours!

Colonel Munro: You forget yourself, sir.

Jack Winthrop: We're not forgetting Webb's promise.

Colonel Munro: British promises are honored. And the militia will not be released, because I need more definite proof than this man's word.

Jack Winthrop: Nathaniel's word's been good on the frontier a long time before you got here.

Colonel Munro: This meeting is over, the militia stays.

Jack Winthrop: Does the rule of English law no longer govern? Has it been replaced by absolutism?

Hawkeye: If English law cannot be trusted maybe these people would do better making their own peace with the French.

Maj. Heyward: That is sedition!

Hawkeye: That is the truth.

Maj. Heyward: I'll have you beaten from this fort!

Hawkeye: Someday, I think you and I are going to have a serious disagreement.

Colonel Munro: Anyone fomenting or advocating the leaving of Fort William Henry will be hung for sedition. Anyone actually CAUGHT leaving will be shot for desertion. Now my decision is final. Get out!

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Reflections on Life and Heritage

Hawkeye: My father's people say that at the birth of the sun and of his brother the moon, their mother died. So the sun gave to the earth her body, from which was to spring all life. And he drew forth from her breast the stars, and the stars he threw into the night sky to remind him of her soul. So there's the Cameron's monument. My folks too, I guess.

Cora Munro: You are right, Mr. Poe. We do not understand what is happening here. And it's not as I imagined it would be, thinking of it in Boston and in London...

Hawkeye: Sorry to disappoint you.

Cora Munro: No, on the contrary. It is more deeply stirring to my blood than any imagining could possibly have been.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Struggles of Frontier Life

Cora Munro: Why were those people living in this defenseless place?

Hawkeye: After seven years indentured service in Virginia, they headed out here cause the frontier's the only land available to poor people. Out here, they're beholden to none. Not living by another's leave.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Navigating Directions Amidst War

Maj. Heyward: There is a war on. How is it you are heading west?

Hawkeye: Well, we face to the north and, real subtle-like, turn left.

Patriotism and Loyalty Examined in Dialogue

British Soldier: You call yourself a patriot, and loyal subject to the Crown?

Hawkeye: I do not call myself subject to much at all.

Cultural Tensions in Leadership Choices

Maj. Heyward: You there, Scout! We must rest soon, the women are tired.

Magua: No, two leagues, better water. We stop there.

Maj. Heyward: No, we'll stop in the glade just ahead. When the ladies are rested, we will proceed. Do you understand?

Magua: [speaking Huron] Magua understands that the white man is a dog to his women. When they are tired, he puts down his tomahawk to feed their laziness.

Maj. Heyward: Excuse me, what did you say?

Magua: Magua said... I understand English, very well.

Conflicting Perspectives on War and Survival

Gen. Webb: Kindly inform Major Heyward that he has little to fear from this General Marquis de Montcalm in the first place; and scant need of a colonial militia in the second because the French haven't the nature for war. Their Gallic laziness combines with their Latinate voluptuousness with the result that they would rather eat and make love with their faces than fight.

Huron Chief: [''speaking French] The white man came and night entered our future with him. Our council has asked the question since I was a boy: What are the Huron to do?

Betrayal and Deceit in Communication

Magua: You speak poison with two tongues!

Magua's Vow of Revenge and Destruction

Magua: When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. Before he dies, Magua will put his children under the knife, so the Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever.

Understanding Death and Honor in Conflict

Colonel Munro: Death and honor are thought to be the same, but today I have learned that sometimes they are not.

Chingachgook's Tribute to Uncas

Chingachgook: Great Spirit, Maker of All Life. A warrior goes to you swift and straight as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him and let him take his place at the council fire of my people. He is Uncas, my son. Tell them to be patient and ask death for speed; for they are all there but one — I, Chingachgook — Last of the Mohicans.