70+ True Detective Quotes That All Crime Drama Fans Should Know

'True Detective' is a fictional series, spreading over three seasons, the first season aired in 2014 on HBO.

The 'True Detective' season 1 cast detective Rustin Cohle played by Matthew McConaughey and detective Marty Hart played by Woody Harrelson. They solve the murder mystery of Dora Lange, a prostitute after seventeen years.

While solving this criminal case, they are opened up to and taken aback by their world which they thought they had left behind. If your interest lies in the crime drama, then quotes from 'True Detective' will keep you wondering.

'True Detective' season 2 quotes are puzzling and bizarre. 'True Detective' season 3 quotes are deeply analytical. These quotes are not too long to get perplexed.

The series cast consists mainly of Michelle Monaghan played Maggie Hart, who worked alongside Rust Cohle, Ray Velcoro, a detective in the City of Vinci played by Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, a criminal played Frank Semyon, Wayne Hays, a detective played by Mahershala Ali and Joey Theriot, a preacher played by Shea Whigham.

You can get the determination to solve any crime case by giving a read to the [wire quotes] and [detective quotes] as well.

Cohle Quotes

The below given best of Rust Cohle quotes will give you the brains to solve a crime mystery. The 'True Detective' season 1 quotes given by Rust Cohle will take you to an environment of fear and horror.

Rust Cohle philosophy is simple yet intriguing. 'True Detective' Rust quotes will help you get good at one thing in life and that is to learn problem-solving skills. People incapable of guilt usually search for a problem-solving skilled person and since you will be mastering this skill, be careful!

1. “This is a world where nothing is solved. Someone once told me, time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve ever done or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.”

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

This quote tops the list of the best 'True Detective' quotes. It is the 'time is a flat circle' quote.

2. "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

3. "I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware; nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. "

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

4. “The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

5. "Trouble with dying later is you've already grown up. Damage is done. It's too late."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

6. "In eternity, where there is no time, nothing can grow. Nothing can become. Nothing changes. So death created time to grow the things it would kill."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

7. "People incapable of guilt, usually do have a good time."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

8. “To realize that all your life—you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memory, all your pain—it was all the same thing.

It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person. And like a lot of dreams there's a monster at the end of it.”

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective' monster quote.

9. "Martin Hart: You think that notebook is a stone tablet?

Rust Cohle: What's it say about life? You gotta get together, tell yourself stories that violate every law of the universe just to get through the god damn day. Nah. What's that say about your reality, Marty?"

- Rust Cohle, Notebook quote, 'True Detective'.

10. "There is no such thing as forgiveness, people just have short memories."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

11. "You know, people that give me advice, I reckon they're talking to themselves."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

12. "I don't sleep, I just dream."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

13. "I'd consider myself a realist, all right? But in philosophical terms, I'm what's called a pessimist."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective' pessimism quote.

14. "My life has been a circle of violence and degradation as long as I can remember. I'm ready to tie it off."

- Rust Cohle, 'True Detective'.

15. “I know who I am. And after all these years, there’s a victory in that.”

- Rust Cohle.

16. “People out here, it’s like they don’t even know the outside world exists.”

- Rust Cohle.

17. “This place is like somebody’s memory of a town, and the memory is fading. It’s like there was never anything here but a jungle.”

- Rust Cohle.

18. “The newspapers are gonna be tough on you. And prison is very, very hard on people who hurt kids. If you get the opportunity, you should kill yourself.”

- Rust Cohle.

19. "If the common good has got to make up fairy tales, then it’s not good for anybody."

- Rust Cohle.

20. "Certain linguistic anthropologists think that religion is a language virus that rewrites pathways in the brain, dulls critical thinking."

- Rust Cohle.

21. "We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self. This accretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed, with total assurance, that we’re each somebody. When, in fact, everybody’s nobody."

- Rust Cohle.

22. "You never liked being judged."

- Rust Cohle.

23. "Everybody judges, all the time. You got a problem with that, you’re living wrong."

- Rust Cohle.

24. "Our sentience is just cycling through our lives like carts on a track."

- Rust Cohle.

25. "See everything outside our dimension that's eternity. Eternity looking down on us. Now to us, it's a sphere but to them, it's a circle."

- Rust Cohle.

26. "I can't say the job made me this way. More like me being this way made me right for the job. I used to think about it more, but you reach a certain age you know who you are."

- Rust Cohle.

27. "She articulated a person with vision. Vision is meaning. Meaning is historical."

- Rust Cohle.

28. "Fulfillment and closure. Empty jars to store this... Abstract shit storm. Nothing is ever over."

- Rust Cohle.

29. "This is what I mean when I am talking about time and death and futility. There are broader ideas at work, mainly what is owed between us as a society for our mutual illusion."

- Rust Cohle.

30. "Look, as sentient meat, however illusory our identities are, we craft those identities by making value judgments. Everybody judges, all the time. Now, you got a problem with that, you're living wrong."

- Rust Cohle.

31. "Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light's winning."

- Rust Cohle.

Detective Quotes

When we are surrounded by obvious and common things, it becomes difficult to observe uncommon instances. Detective catchphrases reflected here are humor and perplexing.

'True Detective' quotes reflect a true sense of mystery and defectiveness. Check in the list of best 'True Detective' quotes that will make you incredible at identifying mysteries. These famous detective quotes will increase your wit and wisdom.

32. "Man’s game charges a man’s price. Take that away from this, you have nothing else."

- Marty Hart.

33. "Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed."

- Friedrich Nietzsche.

This is the 'True Detective' Nietzsche quote. Appearing in 'True Detective' this quote was actually first said by the German Philosopher of the 19th century.

34. "Those moments, they stare back at you. You don't remember them, they remember you. Turn around, there they are, staring."

- Ani.

35. "You know, for somebody who doesn't think reality matters, you sure spend an awful lot of time fretting about it."

- Marty Hart.

36. "We get the world we deserve."

- Ray Velcoro.

37. "Never do anything out of hunger. Even eating."

- Frank Semyon.

38. "No, you’re right I don’t, not by you. It’s hard to find something in a man that rejects people as much as you do, you know that?"

- Hart.

39. "No. I don't do somebody else's timing. My own kid I see. Yeah. It's my responsibility. But, you don't take on somebody else's grief."

- Frank.

40. "I don't know what I'm gonna do. But the smartest person I know told me I'd be good at almost anything."

- Wayne Hays.

41. “Solution to my whole life was right under my nose— that woman, those kids— and I was watching everything else. See, infidelity is one kind of sin, but my true failure was inattention.”

- Martin Hart.

42. "The bad thing it makes you better. Stronger. It gives you something most people don’t have."

- Frank Semyon.

43. "My strong suspicion is we get the world we deserve."

- Ray Velcoro.

44. “Everything’s ending. Time to wake up.”

- Frank Semyon.

45. "I thought it took God seven days to make the world."

- Ronald.

46. "He rested on the seventh. I always thought He should have put the extra day in"

- Wayne Hays.

47. "It's always too late... whatever we do."

- Wayne Hays.

48. "I'll take a hard truth over a nice lie any day."

- Amelia Reardon.

49. "Being police, there's no certainty. A lot of the time, there's no clarity at all. You just do your best and learn to live with ambiguity."

- Wayne Hays.

50. “I try to limit the people I can disappoint.”

- Ray Velcoro.

51. “Sometimes a good beating provokes personal growth.”

- Ray Velcoro.

52. “I used to want to be an astronaut. But astronauts don’t even go to the moon anymore.”

- Ray Velcoro.

53. “One thing I learned, the war? Life happens now. Then later's now, y'know? It's never behind you.” - Wayne Hays.

54. "Loyalty’s important and usually painful."

- Ray Velcoro.

55. "That’s what pain does. It shows you what was on the inside."

- Frank Semyon.

56. "Pain is inexhaustible. It’s only people that get exhausted."

- Ray Velcoro.

57. "Sometimes your worst self is your best self."

- Frank Semyon.

58. "All my life I wanted to be nearer to God. The only nearness? Silence."

- Joel Theriot.

59. "If the common good's got to make up fairy tales then it's not good for anybody."

- Rust Cohle.

60. "I try to limit the people I can disappoint and I make sure to know the difference between my obligations and somebody else's."

- Ray Velcoro.

Philosophical Quotes

The fixation for crime and mystery solving has already grown in good time these days. Below you will get a comprehensive list of philosophical quotes that were quoted by Rust Cohle, Marty Hart, and other detective characters of the series. These even include some funny detective quotes from the show.

61. "Marty Hart: I mean, can you imagine if people didn't believe, what things they'd get up to?

Rust Cohle: Exact same thing they do now. Just out in the open."

-'True Detective'.

62. "Some people, no matter where they look, they see themselves."

- Marty Hart.

63. "This world is a veil, and the face you wear is not your own."

- Joel Theriot, 'True Detective' Preacher.

64. "Lucy: Yeah, I know. You're kinda strange like you might be dangerous.

Rust Cohle: Of course I'm dangerous. I'm the police. I can do terrible things to people with impunity."

-'True Detective'.

65. "Lisa Tragnetti: You just want your cake and to eat it too.

Marty Hart: What the hell good is cake if you can't eat it?"

-'True Detective'.

66. "I contemplate the moment in the garden, the idea of allowing your own crucifixion."

- Rust Cohle.

67. “Back then, the visions…most of the time I was convinced that I’d lost it. But there were other times, I thought I was main-lining the secret truth of the universe.”

- Rust Cohle.

68. "Nothing’s ever fulfilled, not until the very end. and closure. Nothing is ever over.”

- Rust Cohle.

69. "Maynard Gilbough: You know what happened there between them?

Marty Hart: What always happens between men and women?... Reality."

-'True Detective'.

70. "Because there's a feeling you might notice it sometimes... this feeling like life has slipped through your fingers... like the future is behind you like it's always been behind you."

- Marty Hart.

71. "You know the good years when you're in them...."

- Marty Hart.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 70+ True Detective Quotes That All Crime Drama Fans Should Know then why not take a look at Woodrow Wilson quotes or Twin Peaks quotes.