Rick Grimes may be gone from the landscape of The Walking Dead now, but for the vast majority of the series he has been the leader of the group and the show itself. Rick has always been far from perfect, but he typically does the right thing when it counts, and his good nature and strength as a leader created the group that followed him that eventually became a family.
Rick has had some memorable lines throughout his run on the series. These are 10 of Rick Grimes' best quotes from TWD.
The pain just doesn't go away. You make room for it.
The entire group on The Walking Dead has been through more than most people can even imagine, let alone deal with. But Rick Grimes has never hesitated to be the leader he needed to be, even when he shouldn't have been able to handle it.
This particular quote illuminates just how Rick has managed to do it, not by ignoring the pain or getting over it, but by making room for it and moving forward.
We’re the ones who live.
Rick's speech to the Alexandrians about how they've been living in a dream world that will never enable them to survive in the real one was one of his most memorable rants of all time, even if he was rudely interrupted by Michonne knocking him out.
But the conviction with which he speaks and this line in particular just goes to show how intensely motivated he is and how much faith he has in the group.
He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it.
The Walking Dead is a seemingly endless stream of horrible, depressing, and shocking deaths, but one of the earliest kills to have a huge impact on the group and audience was the death of Dale.
After lobbying so hard to retain the group's humanity, Dale is unexpectedly eviscerated by a walker, and although he clearly can't be saved it means a lot that Rick uses Dale's memory to bring the group together.
Things have happened, but it's always worked out for us, 'cause it's always been all of us. That's how I know. 'Cause as long as it's all of us, we can do anything.
Rick may be the leader of his group, and he may not always recognize the value in every single member of that group, but ultimately he does learn and understand that they all have made it because of each other.
What makes the series compelling is the relationships that have developed between the characters, so moments like this which speak to the family that they have become are very meaningful.
We won't get weak. That's not in us anymore.
One of the many philosophical questions that TWD asks about the nature of humanity is what the difference is between a strong person and a weak person. And in a few frightening stretches, Rick seems to believe that brutality is the key to survival.
When the group arrives at Alexandria, Carol, Carl, and some others express concern that the comfort will make them weak, but Rick is sure that nothing can ever make them weak again.
I couldn’t sacrifice one of us for the greater good because… because we are the greater good.
What it means to be "good" and "bad" in a world that has been ravaged by the zombie apocalypse is hard to define, and it's undeniable that Rick and many of the others in the group have done seriously awful things.
But hope is what has kept them going in situations that are unimaginably terrible, and Rick's faith in the people around him and the human spirit in general is inspiring.
Best we can do now is avoid it as long we can, keep one step ahead. I wish I had something better to say - something more profound. My father was good like that. But I'm tired, son.
It's a little ironic that one of Rick's best quotes throughout the series is about him not knowing what to say, but what makes Rick a good leader isn't what he says, it's what he does.
Most people in Rick's circumstances would have given up, or asked someone else to handle things, or just shut himself out from the world because it was too hard. But Rick always keeps going for the people he loves, even if he doesn't know what to say to them.
We do what we need to do and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we are the walking dead.
The world of TWD is a hard world, and Rick's group has had a harder go of it than most. But they've survived against all odds (at least, a few of them have survived).
After a truly miserable trudge through the heat and drought, Rick talks to the group about how to endure it, and shares the story of his veteran grandfather's experience at war to give everyone some grim inspiration to keep going.
But we can still come back. We're not too far gone. We get to come back. I know we all can change.
Like anyone would expect, Rick tends to vacillate between a more nihilistic and brutal outlook on life and a hopeful and inspiring outlook. And of course, he's always at his best when he's feeling optimistic.
After coming face to face with the Governor and his cronies again, he tries to convince his enemies that they can all still be the people that they were and it's not too late, and although his plea doesn't stop the fight, it does eventually win a friend in Tara.
Everything I did, it was for you … it still is. It’s gonna be.
It seems like after killing off dozens of characters there is nothing left that can shock the audience, but TWD threw everyone a curveball when they killed Carl.
Rick losing the one thing that has kept him going from the very start of the series was a deadly emotional blow, but the fact that Rick decides that Carl's memory is enough to keep him going and trying to make the world better is everything that anyone could want from him.