Few films had more clout in the 1990s than Tombstone. Of course, we’d all heard stories about the legendary Old West lawman Wyatt Earp. But no one could have predicted how enthralling the marshal, played by Kurt Russell, would be. Or, as played by Val Kilmer, Doc Holliday. Not to mention Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton as Earp’s brothers and Dana Delaney as the vivacious Josephine. Unsurprisingly, there are so many truly memorable Tombstone quotations with such a fantastic cast and intriguing story.
It’s natural to believe that a film based on events from the 1880s would be outdated. But there is where Tombstone’s charm rests. The lyrics from this classic tend to ring true no matter how much time passes. Continue reading to travel back to the okay Corral with Wyatt, Doc, and other legendary Tombstone, Arizona citizens.
We are here with the 20 best Doc Holliday quotes; continue reading ahead best Doc Holliday quotes ranked wise.
20. “Yes, it’s true you are a good woman. Then again, you may be the Antichrist.”
Doc falls after a lengthy poker game, and a doctor advises him to stop drinking, smoking, and even having sex if he wants to heal.
He attempts to talk to big-nose Kate about it, but all she does is pat him and hold a cigarette to his lips, fuelling his destructive instincts, like grabbing that spirited actress. But yet, hypocrisy knows no bounds, and he got a guilty conscience.
19. “That’s what I love about Wyatt. He can talk himself into anything.”
Doc reunites with the Earp Brothers in Tombstone and hears that Wyatt has taken over a faro game as his first source of money in town, the drunk piano player.
After Doc chastises him for his decision, holy dread, Wyatt answers, “Depends on how you look at it,” Doc can’t help but giggle at his friend’s optimism, who is a bullheaded man.
18. “You may, indeed, if you get lucky.”
Wyatt and Doc go to the theater together, where legendary Lawman Wyatt Earp falls in love with actress Josephine Marcus after seeing her earlier in the day.
Wyatt wants to be faithful to Mattie, but he can’t help but think, “I’ll be damned,” when Josephine is revealed to be the gorgeous devil in a scene from Faust, whose mouth is reckless. Doc responds casually and with excellent timing.
17. “Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.”
Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) arranges a meeting with the legendary Lawman Wyatt Earp, only to have Doc show up in his place. Doc knows he has chilled his opponent to the bone, playing for blood and remembering lying dead.
16. “Five hundred. Must be a peach of a hand.”
Doc Holliday’s initial comments establish the tone for his character throughout the film: oddly confident and playful despite his poor look due to illness, who are not friends anymore in enough pain.
It’s an appropriate first scene for Doc, seated across from Ed Bailey, a bigger, more able-looking gambler. A large pot is set out on the table between them.
15. “You Know, Ed, If I Thought You Weren’t My Friend, I Just Don’t Think I Could Bear It.”
Doc Holliday is shown in the film as a great card player, which gets him into his fair share of scraps in his entire life. One such disagreement immediately occurs when he is presented at the beginning like a sick horse coming.
Holliday is playing against Ed Bailey, who takes offense to Holliday’s success and becomes aggressive, only for Holiday to respond with sarcasm and pushback, who is an only human being with a guilty conscience.
14. “I Stand Corrected, Wyatt. You’re An Oak.”
When live Wyatt Earp first meets his major love interest, the actress Josephine Marcus, after a performance, she enters the saloon by dancing across the floor toward Earp.
Holliday had purposefully set Earp up by convincing him that he was a faithfully married man who would abandon all other women before she stepped in. When Earp keeps his promise and refuses to dance with Josephine, Holliday is forced to acknowledge defeat. Although he’s eventually correct and presumably knows it.
13. “Mr. Ringo’s An Educated Man. Now I Hate Him.”
In the film, Holliday’s major competitor is the merciless gunman Johnny Ringo, whose reputation appears to equal Holliday’s, as does his intellect and proficiency with a handgun with Wild Bill, they say.
On their first meeting, the two instantly engage in a verbal brawl that spills over from English into Latin. So naturally, this causes Holliday to explain in his trademark witty and caustic style.
12. “I Know; Why Don’t We Have A Spelling Contest.”
Holliday, played by Val Kilmer, is a guy who can’t stop himself from amusing himself and verbally knocking his opponent down a rung.
About halfway through the film, as the fundamental tensions begin to emerge, Holliday gets into another argument owing to his excessive success at cards.
Things become heated after defeating Ike Clanton 12 hands in a row. Sensing an opportunity to push his opponent, Holliday implies that poker isn’t Ike’s game and makes this suggestion a joke, eventually driving Clanton to explode.
Related: The 25 Iconic Quotes of Joaquin Phoenix From Joker Movie
11. “My Hypocrisy Goes Only So Far.”
Doc Holliday was arrested before accompanying Wyatt Earp on his revenge trip to find the cowboys who murdered Wyatt’s brother Morgan. Holliday made it a point to display his opponent his badge before engaging in a duel with Johnny Ringo, letting him know he had the legal right to shoot him dead.
Doc removed his badge after killing Johnny Ringo and placed it on the corpse. He spoke the above phrase to let Wyatt know that while he is pleased to stand alongside his buddy on his quest for revenge, it doesn’t change the reality that he will always be a murderer on the inside, and he’s okay with that.
10. “There’s No Normal Life; There’s Just Life. Now Get On With It.”
Doc Holliday says the following phrase to Wyatt Earp in his farewell talk after the hardened lawman admits all he needs now is a little normalcy. Doc tells his only buddy from his deathbed that no matter what we do, we all wind up in the same spot in the end, so you best find happiness.
Wyatt appears to take Doc’s words to heart and seeks out Josie – the woman he loves but is too terrified to commit to before meeting Doc.
9. “I’m Your Huckleberry.”
Perhaps Doc Holliday’s most famous phrase, he said it twice in Tombstone, the first time in reaction to Johnny Ringo’s open challenge to Wyatt Earp and his gang. However, Ringo’s fellow cowboys broke up the brawl before anything could happen.
Johnny Ringo won’t be so lucky the next time he encounters who he believes is Wyatt Earp, only to discover it’s Doc Holliday who has arrived to fight instead. Holliday calmly announced his approach with his most famous statement, and Johnny Ringo was sent minutes after.
8. “Johnny, I Apologize; I Forgot You Were There.”
Wyatt Earp was wandering the dusty streets of Tombstone with his brothers, unknowing that he was being followed by a gun-toting Johnny Tyler (Billy Bob Thornton), whom he had slapped around minutes before. Doc Holliday, who had been witnessing the situation, interrupted Tyler before he could pounce.
Johnny Tyler was terrified just by the presence of Holliday. As Holliday and the Earp brothers waited to catch up in the street, Doc finally let the cowardly Johnny Tyler off the hook by dismissing him with the aforementioned sentence.
7. “I’ve Not Yet Begun To Defile Myself.”
Doc Holliday had another deadly passion besides gunfighting and poker: drinking. Holliday became more reliant on drinking to relieve his discomfort as he grew older, and the consequences of TB worsened. Doc continued to mock the slow-witted cowboy while playing poker and winning hand after hand against Ike Clanton.
Ike retaliated violently before Wyatt Earp intervened and apologized on Holliday’s behalf, blaming his behavior on his inebriation. But no one knows his own boundaries better than Doc Holliday, who assured everyone with the comment above that he was only getting started.
6. “Why Johnny Ringo, You Look Like Somebody Just Walked Over Your Grave.”
Johnny Ringo, a vicious cowboy, had challenged Wyatt Earp to a duel to the death, but it was Doc Holliday who stepped up instead. Despite Ringo’s assurance, it was difficult to overlook the reality that Holliday was a well-known serial murderer with renowned speed.
Johnny Ringo couldn’t help but feel nervous when he saw the former dentist, and his concerns about his ability to beat him surfaced. Holliday had certainly seen that expression before in many of his previous opponents, and the aforementioned remark just highlighted what was clearly written across Ringo’s face.
5. “I’m Afraid The Strain Was More Than He Could Bear.”
Earp comes to discover Holliday lying over Ringo’s body after shooting and murdering him in their climactic battle, which was intended to take place between Ringo and Wyatt Earp until Doc stepped there to save Earp (since he affirmed to Earp before the duel that Wyatt could not beat Ringo).
Before Earp arrives, he laments, rather sarcastically, that Ringo is simply too “high-strung” and adds this explanation when Earp approaches. This, like the way in which Ringo dies, alludes to the belief that the real Johnny Ringo committed suicide.
4. “In Vino Veritas.”
Doc Holliday instantly insults Johnny Ringo upon meeting him. In an attempt to mediate peace, Wyatt Earp apologizes on Doc’s behalf, blaming his actions on inebriation, to which Doc responds in Latin, “In Vino Veritas,” or “In wine, there is truth.”
Doc Holliday is merely stating that just because he is inebriated does not mean he is not telling the truth. Ringo is also an educated guy, and the two gunslingers have a heated conversation in Latin. You don’t have to comprehend what they’re saying to realize these two are heading for war.
3. “I Have Two Guns, One For Each Of You.”
Doc had been playing piano earlier in the evening after a night of drinking and gaming. Wyatt is stopped when he is approached by a bunch of cowboys who want to release their leader, who is accused of murder.
Doc walks into the street to assist a buddy when one of the cowboys refers to him as “the intoxicated piano player” and tells him he’s probably seeing double. Never short on words, the assassin pulls out both handguns and declares, “I have two firearms, one for each of you.”
2. You’re A Daisy If You Do.”
Doc was in the sights of cowboy Frank McLaury during the Gunfight at the OK Corral, who yelled, “I’ve got you now, you son of a bi**h.” Always cool under pressure, Holliday just answered, “You’re a daisy if you do,” and watched as Morgan Earp shot McLaury.
According to witnesses, Doc Holliday, the poor soul, genuinely shouted the now-iconic statement when he found himself in the sights of Frank McLaury, which further adds to the famed outlaw’s legacy.
Related: The 20 Best Clueless Movie Quotes That Still Rule The World
1. “I’m Dying. How Are You?”
Doc Holliday could deliver the goods even when he was at his lowest. Doc’s answer to his best and only buddy, Wyatt Earp, was as stated above. The cop had arrived for one of his regular visits with Holliday, who was reaching the conclusion of his TB treatment.
Doc was lying in a hospital bed in Colorado. Wyatt inquired casually about Doc’s well-being. “I’m dying; how are you?” said Holliday nonchalantly.
Doc Holliday retained his incredible sense of humor till the end with an interesting little scene.
These were the best Doc Holliday quotes; why don’t you comment down your favorite one?
