My Favorite Quotes from Films
Here's a running list of some of my favorite movie quotes (alphabetical by movie title). Some I found poignant, some I found funny. It's obviously a work in progress as I continue to watch movies. And don't confuse this list with the American Film Institute's 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. For instance, you won't see "There's no place like home" on my list. As always, enjoy:
"It's better to destroy than to create what's unessential."
-Jean Rougeul as "Writer" in 8 1/2 (1963)
"Look, that's a real bullshit question, Woodward. That is a question straight out of Wichita, Kansas."
-Uncredited by IMDb.com, The character Kenneth Clawson in All the President's Men (1976)
"Sarcasm is anger's ugly cousin."
-Jack Nicholson as Dr. Buddy Rydell in Anger Management (2003)
"I can't feel my face. I mean I can touch it, but I can't feel it inside."
-Bobcat Goldthwait as Mr. T in Blow (2001)
"The final measure of bravery is to stand up to death."
-Marlon Brando as McCarthy in The Brave (1997)
"Baby, they were plenty smart when they made you beautiful."
-Bessie Love as Hank Mahoney in The Broadway Melody (1929)
"When ya got pain at least ya know you're alive."
-Burl Ives as Big Daddy Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
"Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can beat a real cool hand."
-Paul Newman as Luke in Cool Hand Luke (1967)
"Like most intellectuals he's intensely stupid."
-Glenn Close as Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
"Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the little emotions. In, you see, their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?"
-Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)
"Rome weren't built in a day, Cole. 'Course I wasn't overseein' that particular job, but..."
-Michael Wincott as Conway Twill in Dead Man (1995)
"When I was your age, they would say you could become cops or criminals. What I'm sayin' is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?"
-Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed (2006)
"You will find that pretty creatures do ugly things to people."
-Omar Sharif as Yuri in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
"I love you" can mean a lot of things... like ‘you'll do 'till someone better comes along,’ or ‘I can't describe how I really feel but I know that I'm supposed to say this,’ or ‘Shut up, I'm watching TV.’"
-James Duval as Jordan White in The Doom Generation (1995)
"The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him."
-Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing in Dracula (1931)
"Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
-Groucho Marx as Rufus Firefly in Duck Soup (1933)
"Chance is the fool's name for fate."
-Fred Astaire as Guy Holden in The Gay Divorcee (1934)
"I think only stupid people have good relationships."
-Thora Birch as Enid in Ghost World (2001)
"Yeah, we graduated high school. How. Totally. Amazing."
-Thora Birch as Enid in Ghost World (2001)
"If I'm wrong, nothing happens. We go to jail- peacefully, quietly. We'll enjoy it. But if I'm right, and we can stop this thing... Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters."
-Bill Murray as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984)
"Watch yourself when you're in Louisiana. It's a third world country."
-Jsu Garcia as Arlen in The Go-Getter (2007)
"Life is wasted on ... people."
-Ben Stiller as Roger Greenberg in Greenberg (2010)
“Oooh, doctor, I, I y-y-you know, years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be-’ she always called me Elwood, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
-James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey (1950)
“Now Dr. Chumley you brought this up you might as well learn something quickly. I took a course in art last winter. I learned the difference between a fine oil painting and a mechanical thing like a photograph. The photograph shows only the reality; the painting shows not only the reality but the dream behind it. It’s our dreams, doctor, that carry us on, they separate us from the beasts.”
-Josephine Hull as Veta Louise Simmons in Harvey (1950)
"I haven't seen a damn thing... just don't like the way it looks."
-Russ Tamblyn as Luke Sanderson in The Haunting (1963)
"Some men change. Well, they don't change. They reveal. They reveal themselves over time, you know?"
-Laura Dern as Nikki Grace in Inland Empire (2006)
"There's only one shame: failing a human being who needs you."
-Lew Ayres as Dr. Robert Richardson in Johnny Belinda (1948)
"When women cease to attract men they often turn to Reform as a second choice."
-Narration from Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
"Sometimes I get so lonely I forget what day it is, and how to spell my name."
-Patricia Clarkson as Dagmar in Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
"The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity."
-Tim Curry as Darkness in Legend (1985)
"My father used to say wishes are the dreams we dream when we're awake."
-Irene Dunne as Terry in Love Affair (1939)
"Only the dead are without fear."
-Pepe Hern as Tomas in The Magnificent Seven (1960)
"Ma, sooner or later there comes a point in a mans life when he’s gotta face all facts. And one fact I gotta face is that whatever it is that women like I ain’t got it.”
-Ernest Borgnine as Marty Piletti in Marty (1955)
"There is no greater sorrow than love."
-Kirsten Oleson as Medea in Medea (1988)
"The French don't care what they do actually, as long as they pronounce it properly."
-Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964)
"Is she a lady or a tramp? Insult her. If she's a tramp, she'll get angry. If a lady, she'll smile."
-Sady Rebbot as Raoul in My Life to Live (1962)
"Blame is for God and small children."
-Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega in Papillion (1973)
"The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do."
-Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
"Hey, didn't I see you on Cops?"
-Annaleigh Ashford as Quick Stop Cashier in Rachel Getting Married (2008)
"As a matter of fact, you sound like a very religious man who doesn't believe in God."
-Stanislaw Belski as Man at Bar in The Razor's Edge (1946)
"I was so lucky getting mono. That was like, the best diet ever."
-Mira Sorvino as Romy White in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997)
"This dress exacerbates the genetic betrayal that is my legacy."
-Janeane Garofalo as Heather Mooney in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997)
"Welcome to the human race. Every day somebody breaks somebody else's heart."
-William H. Macy as Father Brendan in The Sessions (2012)
"He's a nut-bag. Just because the f***er's got a library card doesn't make him Yoda."
-Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills in Se7en (1995)
"Speaking about suffering eases it away."
-Daisuke Kato as Shichiroji in Seven Samurai (1954)
"You know, Sydney, sometimes it's the part of a friend to criticize, too."
-Elizabeth Allan as Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
"Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles."
-Sean Penn Puppet in Team America: World Police (2004)
"He never grew up. The world grew up around him, that's all. And buried him."
-Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt in The Third Man (1949)
"Holly, I'd like to cut you in, old man. There's nobody left in Vienna I can really trust and we've always done everything together. When you make up your mind send me a message. I'll meet you any place, any time. And when we do meet, old man, it's you I want to see, not the police. Remember that, won't you? And don't be so gloomy. After all, it's not that awful. Remember what the fella said. 'In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had five-hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.' So long, Holly."
-Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949)
"It is widely held that too much wine will dull a man's desire. Indeed, it will - in a dull man."
-Michael MacLiammoir as the Narrator in Tom Jones (1963)
"Sir, it is as easy for a man not to have been at school and know something as it is for a man to have been at school and know nothing."
-Albert Finney as Tom Jones in Tom Jones (1963)
"I think I shall stay drunk, until I'm... not confused anymore."
-Dean Jagger as Maj. Harvey Stovall in Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
"I'm here for you, but just because you found a new family doesn't mean you throw the old one away."
-Kristen Wiig as Maggie Mayhem in Whip It (2009)
"When a fight gets too big, they don't bother with coffins."
-Atsushi Watanabe as The Cooper in Yojimbo (1961)
"It's better to destroy than to create what's unessential."
-Jean Rougeul as "Writer" in 8 1/2 (1963)
"Look, that's a real bullshit question, Woodward. That is a question straight out of Wichita, Kansas."
-Uncredited by IMDb.com, The character Kenneth Clawson in All the President's Men (1976)
"Sarcasm is anger's ugly cousin."
-Jack Nicholson as Dr. Buddy Rydell in Anger Management (2003)
"I can't feel my face. I mean I can touch it, but I can't feel it inside."
-Bobcat Goldthwait as Mr. T in Blow (2001)
"The final measure of bravery is to stand up to death."
-Marlon Brando as McCarthy in The Brave (1997)
"Baby, they were plenty smart when they made you beautiful."
-Bessie Love as Hank Mahoney in The Broadway Melody (1929)
"When ya got pain at least ya know you're alive."
-Burl Ives as Big Daddy Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
"Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can beat a real cool hand."
-Paul Newman as Luke in Cool Hand Luke (1967)
"Like most intellectuals he's intensely stupid."
-Glenn Close as Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
"Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the little emotions. In, you see, their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?"
-Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)
"Rome weren't built in a day, Cole. 'Course I wasn't overseein' that particular job, but..."
-Michael Wincott as Conway Twill in Dead Man (1995)
"When I was your age, they would say you could become cops or criminals. What I'm sayin' is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?"
-Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed (2006)
"You will find that pretty creatures do ugly things to people."
-Omar Sharif as Yuri in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
"I love you" can mean a lot of things... like ‘you'll do 'till someone better comes along,’ or ‘I can't describe how I really feel but I know that I'm supposed to say this,’ or ‘Shut up, I'm watching TV.’"
-James Duval as Jordan White in The Doom Generation (1995)
"The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him."
-Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing in Dracula (1931)
"Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
-Groucho Marx as Rufus Firefly in Duck Soup (1933)
"Chance is the fool's name for fate."
-Fred Astaire as Guy Holden in The Gay Divorcee (1934)
"I think only stupid people have good relationships."
-Thora Birch as Enid in Ghost World (2001)
"Yeah, we graduated high school. How. Totally. Amazing."
-Thora Birch as Enid in Ghost World (2001)
"If I'm wrong, nothing happens. We go to jail- peacefully, quietly. We'll enjoy it. But if I'm right, and we can stop this thing... Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters."
-Bill Murray as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984)
"Watch yourself when you're in Louisiana. It's a third world country."
-Jsu Garcia as Arlen in The Go-Getter (2007)
"Life is wasted on ... people."
-Ben Stiller as Roger Greenberg in Greenberg (2010)
“Oooh, doctor, I, I y-y-you know, years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be-’ she always called me Elwood, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
-James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey (1950)
“Now Dr. Chumley you brought this up you might as well learn something quickly. I took a course in art last winter. I learned the difference between a fine oil painting and a mechanical thing like a photograph. The photograph shows only the reality; the painting shows not only the reality but the dream behind it. It’s our dreams, doctor, that carry us on, they separate us from the beasts.”
-Josephine Hull as Veta Louise Simmons in Harvey (1950)
"I haven't seen a damn thing... just don't like the way it looks."
-Russ Tamblyn as Luke Sanderson in The Haunting (1963)
"Some men change. Well, they don't change. They reveal. They reveal themselves over time, you know?"
-Laura Dern as Nikki Grace in Inland Empire (2006)
"There's only one shame: failing a human being who needs you."
-Lew Ayres as Dr. Robert Richardson in Johnny Belinda (1948)
"When women cease to attract men they often turn to Reform as a second choice."
-Narration from Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
"Sometimes I get so lonely I forget what day it is, and how to spell my name."
-Patricia Clarkson as Dagmar in Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
"The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity."
-Tim Curry as Darkness in Legend (1985)
"My father used to say wishes are the dreams we dream when we're awake."
-Irene Dunne as Terry in Love Affair (1939)
"Only the dead are without fear."
-Pepe Hern as Tomas in The Magnificent Seven (1960)
"Ma, sooner or later there comes a point in a mans life when he’s gotta face all facts. And one fact I gotta face is that whatever it is that women like I ain’t got it.”
-Ernest Borgnine as Marty Piletti in Marty (1955)
"There is no greater sorrow than love."
-Kirsten Oleson as Medea in Medea (1988)
"The French don't care what they do actually, as long as they pronounce it properly."
-Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964)
"Is she a lady or a tramp? Insult her. If she's a tramp, she'll get angry. If a lady, she'll smile."
-Sady Rebbot as Raoul in My Life to Live (1962)
"Blame is for God and small children."
-Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega in Papillion (1973)
"The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do."
-Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
"Hey, didn't I see you on Cops?"
-Annaleigh Ashford as Quick Stop Cashier in Rachel Getting Married (2008)
"As a matter of fact, you sound like a very religious man who doesn't believe in God."
-Stanislaw Belski as Man at Bar in The Razor's Edge (1946)
"I was so lucky getting mono. That was like, the best diet ever."
-Mira Sorvino as Romy White in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997)
"This dress exacerbates the genetic betrayal that is my legacy."
-Janeane Garofalo as Heather Mooney in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997)
"Welcome to the human race. Every day somebody breaks somebody else's heart."
-William H. Macy as Father Brendan in The Sessions (2012)
"He's a nut-bag. Just because the f***er's got a library card doesn't make him Yoda."
-Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills in Se7en (1995)
"Speaking about suffering eases it away."
-Daisuke Kato as Shichiroji in Seven Samurai (1954)
"You know, Sydney, sometimes it's the part of a friend to criticize, too."
-Elizabeth Allan as Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
"Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles."
-Sean Penn Puppet in Team America: World Police (2004)
"He never grew up. The world grew up around him, that's all. And buried him."
-Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt in The Third Man (1949)
"Holly, I'd like to cut you in, old man. There's nobody left in Vienna I can really trust and we've always done everything together. When you make up your mind send me a message. I'll meet you any place, any time. And when we do meet, old man, it's you I want to see, not the police. Remember that, won't you? And don't be so gloomy. After all, it's not that awful. Remember what the fella said. 'In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had five-hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.' So long, Holly."
-Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949)
"It is widely held that too much wine will dull a man's desire. Indeed, it will - in a dull man."
-Michael MacLiammoir as the Narrator in Tom Jones (1963)
"Sir, it is as easy for a man not to have been at school and know something as it is for a man to have been at school and know nothing."
-Albert Finney as Tom Jones in Tom Jones (1963)
"I think I shall stay drunk, until I'm... not confused anymore."
-Dean Jagger as Maj. Harvey Stovall in Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
"I'm here for you, but just because you found a new family doesn't mean you throw the old one away."
-Kristen Wiig as Maggie Mayhem in Whip It (2009)
"When a fight gets too big, they don't bother with coffins."
-Atsushi Watanabe as The Cooper in Yojimbo (1961)