Captain John Miller: Mike, Are you alright?
Sergeant Horvath: I just got the wind knocked out of me. I'm fine!

[talking about how to disable the tanks]
Captain John Miller: you take a standard G.I sock, cram it with as much Composition B as it can hold, rig up a simple fuse, the coat the whole thing with axel grease. now when you throw it, it should stick. its a bomb that sticks, it a "sticky bomb". think of a better way to knock out the tracks and im all ears.
Private Reiben: This is great, now we have to surrender our socks.

Captain John Miller: I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.

Captain John Miller: Back home, when I'd tell people what I do for a living, they'd think, "Well, yeah, that figures." But over here, it's a... a big mystery. So I guess I've changed some.

Private Ryan: Uh sir? Where am I to be during all this?
Captain John Miller: No more than two feet away from me. And that's not negotiable.

Private Reiben: [shouts at Private Ryan] Hey asshole! Two of our guys died trying to find you all right?

Captain John Miller: Get your gear. Let's go.
[Reiben stays put]
Sergeant Horvath: You heard him, gear up. Your captain just gave you an order.
Private Reiben: Yeah, like the one he gave to take this machine gun. That was a real doosey, wasn't it?
[walks over to Miller]
Sergeant Horvath: Soldier, you are way out of line!
Private Reiben: Yes sir, that was one hell of a call coming to take this nest, but hell, we only lost one of our guys going for it. That's right, I hope Mama Ryan's real fuck'n happy knowing that Little Jimmy's life is a little bit more important than two of our guys! But then again we haven't found him yet have we? Have we!?

Lieutenant Dewindt: FUBAR.
Private Reiben: FUBAR.
Sergeant Horvath: FUBAR.
Captain John Miller: FUBAR
Private Jackson: Y'all got that right.
Corporal Upham: I looked up fubar in the German dictionary and there's no fubar in here.

[Listening skeptically to German propaganda coming over a loudspeaker]
Captain John Miller: "The Statue of Liberty is kaput" -- that's disconcerting.

Gen. George C. Marshall: I have here a very old letter, written to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston. "Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln."

Captain John Miller: I don't gripe to you. I don't gripe in front of you. You should know that.
Private Reiben: Sorry, sir, but let's say you weren't a Captain, or maybe I was a Major. What would you say then?
Captain John Miller: In that case, I'd say this is an excellent mission, sir, with an extremely valuable objective, sir. Worthy of my best efforts, sir. Moreover, I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan and am willing to lay down the lives of me and my men---especially you, Reiben---to ease her suffering.

Captain John Miller: Caparzo, get that kid back up there!
Private Caparzo: Captain, the decent thing to do would be take her over to the next town.
Captain John Miller: We're not here to do the decent thing, we're here to follow fucking orders!

Private Reiben: You want to explain the math of this to me? I mean, where's the sense in risking the lives of the eight of us to save one guy?
Captain John Miller: Anyone wanna answer that?
Medic Wade: Hey, think about the poor bastard's mother.
Private Reiben: Hey, Wade, I got a mother, you got a mother, the sarge has got a mother. I'm willing to bet that even the Captain's got a mother. Well, maybe not the Captain, but the rest of us have got mothers.

[Lining up a rifle shot.]
Private Jackson: Be not that far from me, for trouble is near; haste Thee to help me.

[Lining up a rifle shot.]
Private Jackson: Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

[Lining up a rifle shot.]
Private Jackson: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

[Lining up a rifle shot.]
Private Jackson: O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Private Jackson: Seems to me, Cap'n, this mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources.

Private Jackson: Well, sir, seems to me, God gave me a special gift, fashioned in me a fine instrument of warfare.

Sergeant Horvath: I don't know. Part of me thinks the kid's right. He asks what he's done to deserve this. He wants to stay here, fine. Let's leave him and go home. But then another part of me thinks, what if by some miracle we stay, then actually make it out of here. Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful mess. Like you said, Captain, maybe we do that, we all earn the right to go home.

Captain John Miller: James... I'm here to tell you your brothers were killed in combat. They're dead.
Private Ryan: Which one, sir?
Captain John Miller: All of them.

Sergeant Horvath: You don't know when to shut up; you don't know HOW to shut up!

Sergeant Horvath: Stars
Lieutenant Dewindt: Yeah, Brigadier General Amend, deputy commander, 101st. Some fucking genius had the great idea of welding a couple of steel plates onto our deck to keep the general safe from ground fire. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell me about it until we were just getting airborne. Well, that's like trying to fly a freight train. OK? Gross overload. Trim characteristics all shot to hell. I nearly broke both my arms trying to keep her level. And when- and when we released, you know I cut as hard as I could, tried to gain some altitude and still keep her from stalling. We came down like a fucking meteor. And that is how we ended up. And the others, they stopped easy enough OK, though, you know? We were just-we were just too damn heavy, you know? The grass was wet, downward slope and all. 22 guys dead.
Captain John Miller: All that for a general?
Lieutenant Dewindt: One man.
Private Reiben: Lot of that going around.

Private Reiben: I got a bad feeling about this one.
Captain John Miller: When was the last time you felt good about anything?

Private Jackson: What I mean, sir, is if you was to put me with this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and including one mile from Adolf Hitler... with a clean line of sight... well, pack your bags, boys. War's over.

Captain John Miller: It's like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

Private Reiben: What's the use in risking the lives of the 8 of us to save one guy?

Captain John Miller: He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting lightbulb.

Captain John Miller: You see, when... when you end up killing one your men, you see, you tell yourself it happened so you could save the lives of two or three or ten others. Maybe a hundred others. Do you know how many men I've lost under my command?
Sergeant Horvath: How many?
Captain John Miller: Ninety-four. But that means I've saved the lives of ten times that many, doesn't it? Maybe even 20, right? Twenty times as many? And that's how simple it is. That's how you... that's how you rationalize making the choice between the mission and the man.

Private Reiben: You wouldn't shoot the kraut and now you're gonna shoot me?
Sergeant Horvath: He's better than you.

Sergeant Horvath: This time the mission is the man.

Captain John Miller: Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much, my wife is even gonna recognize me whenever it is I get back to her... and how I'll ever be able to... tell about days like today. Ahh, Ryan... I don't know anything about Ryan, I don't care. The man means nothing to me, he's just a name. But if, you know, if going to Reméal, and finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife, well then... then that's my mission.

Captain John Miller: Things have taken a turn for the surreal.

Private Ryan: Picture a girl who took a nose dive from the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

[Being told he can go home.]
Private Ryan: Hell, these guys deserve to go home as much as I do. They've fought just as hard.
Captain John Miller: Is that what I'm supposed to tell your mother when she gets another folded American flag?
Private Ryan: You can tell her that when you found me, I was with the only brothers I had left. And that there was no way I was deserting them. I think she'd understand that.

Captain John Miller: [weakly mutters something]
Private Ryan: [leans in closer] What, sir?
Captain John Miller: James, earn this......earn it.

Captain Hamill: You got to take Caen so you can take Saint Lo.
Captain John Miller: You've got to take Saint Lo to take Valognes.
Captain Hamill: Valognes you got Cherbourg.
Captain John Miller: Cherbourg you got Paris.
Captain Hamill: Paris you got Berlin.
Captain John Miller: And then that big boat home.

[Miller purposely draws fire.]
Sergeant Horvath: Captain, if your mother saw you do that, she'd be very upset.

Private Reiben: What's the saying? "If God's on our side, who the hell could be on theirs?
Upham: If God is for us, who could be against us?

[Arguing about whether or not to attack the radio nest]
Private Reiben: I'm just saying, this seems like an unnecessary risk considering our objective, sir.
Captain John Miller: Our objective is to win the war.

Captain John Miller: I'll see you on the beach

[Srgt. Horvath just got shot for the third time]