Rick Grimes is one of the main characters of The Walking Dead who is known for his incredibly strong morals as he keeps those around him safe. He was a former sheriff’s deputy who traveled to Atlanta in search of his wife, Lori, and his son, Carl.
After he was reunited with his family, he slowly became the leader of a group of survivors as they look for someplace safe. Throughout the first season, he continuously had to adapt to the new environment while attempting to protect his group. When he learned of the severity of the apocalypse, he refused to let his family and group be harmed by the exploding CDC.
In the second season, he continues on being a protective “fatherly figure” as he looked for Sophia who was missing, in spite of Shane arguing that she is dead. However, after the destruction of Hershell’s farm because of Shane’s death, Rick went through a phase of coldness and there was a heavy tension between his relationship with Lori, Carl and the group.
Season 3 introduced a colder and tougher Rick in spite of still being distant to Lori and the members of the group. However, his skills from many months on the road helped him keep the group alive for many months and even lead them to occupying the West Georgia Correctional Facility. In contrast to the previous season where his killing of Shane led to a major meltdown, Rick now had no hesitation in killing humans that threaten him or his family. When Lori died, Rick became emotionally unstable which led to him becoming even more ruthless and cruel. Only when the Governor caused Andrea’s death did he come back to his old self. Rick then stepped down from being the group’s leader so that he can focus on raising Carl.
In the fourth season, he was repeatedly asked by the group to become the leader once more but when the Governor attacked the prison and left it destroyed, Rick was too distraught and remorseful to step up. Because it was assumed that Judith, his daughter, was dead, he grew more overprotective of Carl which led to arguments with him. When he reunited with Michonne, he became more relaxed and loosened his grip on Carl. By the time they arrived at Terminus, Rick goes back to being the group’s leader and realizes that he can still retain his humanity through protecting the group and his family.
In season 5, Rick is shown to not easily trust new people which led to tensions with the newcomers, Aaron and Gabriel. The only time that Rick was able to relax was when they arrived at the Alexandria Safe-Zone where he became very active in the community and was appointed as constables along with Michonne. Despite this, he and the group viewed Alexandrians as weak so they tried to lead the community to a “survival of the fittest” mentality. As such, when Walkers entered the Alexandria, Rick showed the importance of changing in order to survive. After this, Rick was then declared as Alexandria’s leader and he helped Alexandria improve. In the following seasons, it was shown that Rick never really let go of his ruthlessness and which led to much consequences. When Carl died, Rick is absolutely devastated and he went back to being a cold-blooded killer.
Season 9 showed a more peaceful version of Rick as he tries to accomplish Carl’s vision of rebuilding civilization. This however leads to his presumed death as he sacrificed himself when he destroyed the bridge to protect his loved ones.
Overall, his natural leadership made him an admirable and responsible friend and father who guided his family and group to safety despite having to destroy threats that were formerly close to him. Rick’s skills from being a former police greatly helped in aiding his and the group’s survival. Above all, he is shown to be strongly family-oriented and with a great passion in protecting his family. Despite the tension and the heavy burden of being a leader, he still managed to get the group to safety and keep them alive. To show his battle-hardened yet protective characteristics, here are some of Rick Grimes quotes:
10 best Rick Grimes Quotes ever:
- “I got a call”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “I’m doing stuff, Lori… things”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “We have to come for them before they come to us. It’s that simple.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “We know what needs to be done and we do it. We’re the ones who live.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “You pull the trigger, you have to mean it”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “We don’t kill the living”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “You want to make today your last day on Earth?”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “I’m sorry this happened to you”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “I’m not your governor”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
- “Yeah, I remember him. I remember him every day.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 1 of the Walking Dead
- “I can’t let a man die of thirst. Me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. There’s no way for anything to die, let alone a human being.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “You don’t know what it’s like out there. You may think you do but you don’t”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “We don’t have to be afraid anymore. We’re safe here.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “Do not enter the safety. It belongs to the dead now”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “Maybe we got a second chance. Not many people get that.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “There’s us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “There’s always hope. Maybe it won’t be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “I’m grateful”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
- “I can see you make a habit of missing the point.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 1
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 2 of the Walking Dead
- “Last time I asked God for a favor and stopped to admire a view, my son got shot. I try not to mix it up with the almighty anymore.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “I’m not the good guy anymore”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “But get one thing straight. You’re staying, this isn’t a democracy anymore.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “We’re all infected. At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “Little girl goes missing, you look for her. Simple.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “I’m a father. He’s the one thing I don’t want to fail. I feel like I do everyday.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “I didn’t as for this. I killed my best friend for you people.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “This isn’t about what we believe anymore. It’s about them.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “No more kid stuff. I wish you had the childhood I had, but that’s not gonna happen. People are gonna die.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
- “The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 2
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 3 of the Walking Dead
- “You’re the town drunk who knocked over my fence and ripped up my yard, nothing more.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 3
- “I couldn’t sacrifice one of us for the greater good because… because we are the greater good. We’re the reason we’re still here, not me. This is life and death. How you live, how you die isn’t up to me.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 3
- “We choose to go, we choose to stay, we stick together.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 3
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 4 of the Walking Dead
- “Don’t look back, Carl.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “We’ve all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive. But we can still come back. We’re not too far gone. We get to come back. I know we all can change.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “We can all live together. There’s enough room for all of us.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “We’ve all lost someone”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “You do a lot for us. For the kids. You sacrifice a lot. Is there anything you wouldn’t do for the people here?”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “You have to have numbers. People are the best defense against walkers or people.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why?”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “They’re screwing with the wrong people”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “We let go of all of it, and nobody dies”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
- “I know we’ll never be able to go back to the way things used to be. I would’ve clung to that for you, for Judith, but now she’s gone. And you, you’re a man now Carl.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 4
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 5 of the Walking Dead
- “You are not safe. No matter how many people are around, or how clear the area looks, no matter what anyone says, no matter what you think, you are not safe. It only takes one second, one second and it’s over. Never let your guard down, ever. I want you to promise me.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “Just because we’re good people doesn’t mean we won’t kill you.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “We won’t get weak, that’s not in us anymore. We’ll make it work. And if they can’t make it then we’ll just take this place.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “If you don’t fight, you die”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “You keep the windows intact, you keep society intact”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “People are the real threat now”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “But I know why they’re all dead. They’re dead so m family, all those people out there, can be alive. So I could be alive for them.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “We’re here now”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “Eyes in every direction! They’re coming for us.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
- “We do what we need to do, and then we live.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 5
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 6 of the Walking Dead
- “I don’t take chances anymore”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “Everything we’ve done, we’ve done together. We got here together, and we’re still here. 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 Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “When they come for us, we’ll end it. The whole thing.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “We’re going to have to fight”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- Confrontation’s never been something we’ve had trouble with”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “Either way, the wall’s gonna hold together. Can you?”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “This is the only way to be sure, as sure as we can get, that we win. And we have to win. We do this for Hilltop, it’s how we keep this place. It’s how we feed this place. This needs to be a group decision. If anybody objects, here’s your chance to say your peace.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “I’m out here ’cause she’s my family.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “You’re gonna be okay. The baby’s gonna be okay. This isn’t it, this isn’t it. There’s more. There’s gonna be more.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
- “I know this sounds insane. But this is an insane world.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 6
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 7 of the Walking Dead
- “Join us in fighting the Saviors. Fighting for freedom for all of us.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 7
- “Not today, not tomorrow, but I’m gonna kill you.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 7
Best Rick Grimes Quotes in Season 8 of the Walking Dead
- “We’re not gonna kill you, we’re not gonna hurt you. you’re gonna rot in a cell.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 8
- “Have mercy prevail over my wrath”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 8
- “Carl’s dead, he wrote letters. he wrote one for you, he asked you to stop, he asked me to stop. He asked us for peace. But it’s too late for that. Even if we wanted a deal now it doesn’t matter.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 8
- “I’m gonna make it real. Carl, I promise–I’m gonna make it real.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 8
- “I can’t be who I was. It’s different now.”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 8
- “If we start tomorrow right now, everything we’ve beaten, everything we’ve endured, everything we’ve risen above, everything we’ve become…if we start tomorrow right now, no matter what comes next, we’ve won… we’ve already won!”
-Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, Season 8
It is not clear whether Rick will return in the coming season. He was last seen riding a helicopter to an unknown place with Jadis. It was shown that Jadis was transporting Rick to a place with a medical facility, implying that Rick will probably return soon. Although Andrew Lincoln, the man who excellently portrayed Rick, has formally left the series, it is said that he plans on making his directorial debut the coming season. Not only this, in the comics, Rick was hinted to be staying in a new settlement: the Commonwealth, which is a large city-state where thousands of people live. This entirely new setting could pose as a way for Rick’s storyline to progress as he looks once more for his family. Despite his return not being certain yet, one thing is for sure: it will be a start of a new adventure and he will never stop fighting. And as he did say in season 5, “I know we will be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we are the walking dead.”
