"Well ain't it a small world, spirituality speaking. Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I'm the only one that remains unaffiliated."
Everett says this after they pick up Tommy Johnson and find out that he's sold his soul to the devil the night before in trade for masterful guitar playing. In this quote, Everett declares himself an independent thinker. Unlike his companions, he is unwilling to submit to faith and religion just to fit in. He is declaring he is a man of science among the saved and the damned.
"Do not seek the treasure!"
Pete says this to Everett and Delmar in the movie theatre after he's been arrested and put back on the chain gang. He tells them this because he has told the Sheriff everything about the treasure, and he knows that the authorities are planning to set a trap for Delmar and Everett when they go and seek it.
"We thought you were a toad!"
Delmar says this to Pete when he sees him in the chain gang at the movies. Delmar believed his friend was turned into a toad by the three Sirens at the river, since all that was left of Pete when Delmar and Everett woke up was his clothes with a toad inside the shirt. Delmar is the most gullible one in the bunch, and is shocked to find that his friend is still alive.
"Well, any human being will cast about in a moment of stress. No, the fact is, they're flooding this valley so they can hydroelectric up the whole durn state. Yes, sir, the South is gonna change. Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with the old spiritual mumbo jumbo, the superstitions, and the backward ways. We're gonna see a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook us all up to a grid. Yes, sir, a veritable age of reason. Like the one they had in France. Not a moment too soon."
After the huge flood comes and washes everything away just as the boys are on the brink of death, Delmar and Pete question Everett about the fact that he doesn't believe in God. In the moments before the flood, he was praying, so it seems as though the flood was a divinely ordained act brought on by prayer. Everett remains true to his rational outlook, and suggests that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the flood. He then goes on to explain that the flood marks the infrastructural changes being made to the area, that soon they will have electricity and be living in an age of reason. This speech is somewhat ironic, because many of the things that have happened to the men at this point (including their getting swept up in the flood) are hard to explain on a rational basis.
"Damn! We're in a tight spot!"
Everett says this twice in the film. First, he says it when the authorities apprehend the boys in Wash's barn. Peeking out of the barn in his hairnet, he realizes that they are going to have to be crafty if they want to escape the lawmen outside. Later, he says it when they are about to be hanged by the sheriff. In both instances, Everett's line sounds like an understatement, because both scenarios seem impossible to wriggle free from. In both instances, however, the boys are saved at the last moment.
"Gopher, Everett?"
When they go into town after Wash's car breaks down, the men sit around a fire and Delmar roasts a gopher over the flames, a rather unappetizing sight. This line is comedic and shows that Delmar and the others are hillbillies of sorts, and that they are so desperate for food that they are not above eating a country rodent.
"Deceitful, two-faced she-woman. Never trust a female, Delmar, remember that one simple precept and your time with me will not have been ill spent."
Everett says this about his wife, Penny, after he realizes that she has lied to their daughters about his whereabouts and told them that he was hit by a train. Offended by Penny's coldness, Everett rails against the female sex, suggesting that women are untrustworthy and two-faced. While Everett has remained cool and composed for much of the movie, here he shows his more emotional and reactive side. Having traveled all this way to be reunited with his family, he is incensed to find that they don't want him back.
Everett: What'd the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?
Tommy: Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.
Delmar: Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?
Tommy: Well, I wasn't usin' it.
When the gang first picks up Tommy, he tells them that he sold his soul to the devil for better guitar skills. In this exchange we see that music is very important to Tommy, so important that he doesn't mind damning himself in the eyes of God if it means getting better at the guitar. After all, as he explains, he wasn't using his soul anyway.
"Sounded to me like he was harboring a hateful grudge against the Soggy Bottom Boys on account of their rough and rowdy past. Looks like Homer Stokes is the kind of fellow who wants to cast the first stone."
After Homer Stokes is carried out of his own campaign dinner for speaking out against the Soggy Bottom Boys, Pappy O'Daniel takes the opportunity to win over Stokes' supporters. He gets up and professes his love and admiration for the Soggy Bottom Boys, knowing that doing so will win over the crowds, who unconditionally love the musicians. Not only does he profess his support for the musicians, but he also pardons them for their past crimes, using his forgiving attitude as a way to differentiate himself from the unforgiving Stokes.
"Cows! I hate cows worse than coppers!"
After the boys realize that George Nelson is not just a friendly driver, but a violent bank robber on the run from the cops, he begins maniacally shooting at the cop cars with a machine gun. He is a charming fellow, but he seems to have an unhinged and sadistic side. His sadism is confirmed when he begins shooting at some cows grazing in a nearby pasture.
