BOOK OF QUOTATIONS Illustrated

All real Americans love the sting of battle.
-PATTON



Greed is good. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
---OLIVER STONE



Of course I'm happy. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
---Bob Dylan

It has served us well, this myth of Christ
---Pope Leo x (Giovanni de' Medici)

Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious... and don't call me Shirley
---AIRPLANE

I must pause for one fast second and say a fast word about oral contraception. I was involved in an extremely good example of oral contraception two weeks ago. I asked a girl to go to bed with me, and she said "No".
---Woody Allen





Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged. But keep your day job.
---Thomas A. Edison



If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.
— "A Nation at Risk" (1983)





Never marry a man who has no friends. I am always amazed at the number of men I have counseled who have no friends.
---Father Pat Connor



In the second year of the great civil war, when the Irish brigades marched through the streets, New york was a city full of tribes. War chiefs, rich and poor. It wasn't a city really, It was more a furnace where cities someday might be forged.
---GANGS OF NEW YORK


For conservatives, seeing is believing; for liberals, believing is seeing.
---George F. Will




Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
-DEVO





Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.


Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind.
---WALLSTREET

And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
From the Oliver Stone film Wall Street 1980
Read by Michael Douglas


Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. You not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.
---C. S. Lewis Grief


San Francisco in 1966 was what the whole young and popular world would be doing Saturday nights if the Nazis had won the war. It was the Sixth Reich.
---FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS


Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
---Thomas Jefferson

... These guys are proud of what they did. They did Dealey Plaza! They took out the President of the United States! That's entertainment!

FERRIE Oh man, why don't you stop. This is too fuckin' big for you! Who did Kennedy? It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. Even the shooters don't fuckin' know! Don't you get it yet? I can't be talking like this. They're gonna kill me. I'm gonna die! (he sits down, cracking, sobbing) I don't know what happened. All I wanted in the world was to be a Catholic priest - live in a monastery, study ancient Latin manuscripts, pray, serve God. But I had this one terrible, fatal weakness. They defrocked me. And then I started to lose everything.
---JFK

JIM GARRISON ... some story ... the whole thing. It's like it never happened.
DONALD SOUTHERN It never did.

---JFK




Kilgore (Robert Duval) stands there, hands on hips, looking at the burning jungle in the distance.

KILGORE
You smell that? Do you smell that?

LANCE
What?

KILGORE
(pointing to trees)
Napalm, son. Nothing else in the
world smells like that.
(crouches down)
I love the smell of napalm in the
morning. You know, one time we
had a hill bombed for twelve
hours...and when it was all over,
I walked up. We didn't find one
of them, not one stinking dink
body. The smell, you know that
gasoline smell? The whole hill-
smelled like-victory.

He looks of nostalgically. A shell comes in and HITS in the background. Willard and the soldiers react; Kilgore ignores it.

KILGORE
Someday this war's gonna end.

---APOCALYPSE NOW

It is a matter of life and death, a road either
to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry
which can on no account be neglected.
---SUN TZU, ON THE ART OF WAR



This strange disease of modern life, with its sick hurry, its divided aims.
---Matthew Arnold


For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.
---John Maynard Keynes





A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
---H. L. Mencken


EISENHOWER
The conjunction of an immense military
establishment and a large arms industry is new
in the American experience. The total influence
- economic, political, even spiritual - is felt
in every city, every statehouse, every office of
the Federal Government ... In the councils of
government we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist ... We
must never let the weight of this combination
endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
We should take nothing for granted ...

Badges? We ain't got no badges.
We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges.


But, I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you?
---GOODFELLAS


Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country

My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.. .
Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him,
that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.


Butch: What're you looking at, friend?
Vincent: I ain't your friend, palooka.
Butch: What did you say?
Vincent: I think you heard me just fine, punchy.

What we got here is failure to communicate
--COOL HAND LUKE


I'm so rich, I wish I had a dime for every dime I had.
---ARTHUR

Butch: What're you looking at, friend?
Vincent: I ain't your friend, palooka.
Butch: What did you say?
Vincent: I think you heard me just fine punchy.
---PULP FICTION


Badges? We ain't got no badges.
We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges.
---THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE 1948

It's his ship now, his command. He's in charge, the boss, the head man, top dog, big cheese, head honcho, number one
---AIRPLANE

The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly.
The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield
---DRACULA 1931

But, I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you?
---GOODFELLAS

It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.

Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter... 's wedding... on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope their first child will be a masculine child.

Someday, and that day may never come,
I'll call upon you to do a service for me.

Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country

My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.. .
Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him,
that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.
I'm so rich, I wish I had a dime for every dime I had.

---THE GODFATHER




Paternalism is the restriction of freedom for the good of the person restricted.
---George F will


Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.
---PATTON (GEORGE C. SCOTT)


Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast
---PULP FICTION


The world is full of complainers.
But the fact is, nothing comes with
a guarantee. I don't care if you're
the Pope of Rome, President of the
United States, or even Man of the
Year--something can always go wrong.
And go ahead, complain, tell your
problems to your neighbor, ask for
help--watch him fly. Now in Russia,
they got it mapped out so that
everyone pulls for everyone else--
that's the theory, anyway. But what
I know about is Texas..and down here
you're on your own.

---BLOOD SIMPLE

There's an old Italian saying: you fuck up once, you lose two teeth.
----THE SOPRANOS

I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.

---SCARFACE



"You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own God.."

---DEVIL'S ADVOCATE



you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
---TOM WAITS



"Extraordinary! On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God." -AMADEUS, THE VOICE OF GOD




MOVIE QUOTES
Lt. Col. Kilgore's (Robert Duvall) beachside monologue during a raid: ("You smell that? Do you smell that? ... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like ... victory. Someday this war's gonna end

Gunnery Sgt. Hartman's (R. Lee Ermy) degrading, intimidating introductory speech to new inducted recruits at Parris Island: ("If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human, fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian s--t. Because I am hard you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard, but I am fair! There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?")

Gunnery Sgt. Hartman's (R. Lee Ermy) taunting of Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio): ("...Do you think I'm cute Private Pyle?; do you think I'm funny?... Then wipe that disgusting grin off your face... Well, any f--king time, sweetheart!... Private Pyle, I'm gonna give you three seconds; exactly three-f--king seconds to wipe that stupid-looking grin off your face or I will gouge out your eyeballs and skull-f--k you!")

Gordon Gecko's (Michael Douglas) financial advice to the annual stockholder's meeting of Teldar Paper: ("The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that greed - for lack of a better word - is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.")

The opening, philosophical lecture to a class by theoretical quantum physicist Prof. Howard Birack (Victor Wong) on the nature of reality: ("We believe nature is solid, and time a constant. Matter has substance and time a direction. There is truth in flesh and the solid ground. The wind may be invisible, but it's real. Smoke, fire, water, light -- they're different! Not as to stone or steel, but they're tangible. And we assume time is narrow because it is as a clock -- one second is one second for everyone! Cause precedes effect -- fruit rots, water flows downstream. We're born, we age, we die. The reverse NEVER happens... None of this is true! Say goodbye to classical reality!")

...")Austrian court composer Antonio Salieri's (F. Murray Abraham) blissful, amazed narration while examining Mozart's sheet music for Serenade for Thirteen Wind Instruments: ("Extraordinary! On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God.")

The infamous "insect politics" speech made by a decaying -- both physically and mentally -- Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) to girlfriend Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis): ("You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh... I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake... I'm saying: 'I'll hurt you if you stay'")



WHAT MOVIE YOU CREEP?!The famous "drug bust" sequence in which Henry narrates a paranoid, hyperactive monologue while heavily intoxicated with drugs as he has to sell guns and ammunition, plan a drug courier trip with his kids' babysitter Lois (Welker White), and prepare a large Italian dinner for his family while being surveyed overhead by an FBI helicopter in the space of a caption-timed 16 frantic hours: ("...I had to start braising the beef, pork butt and veal shanks for the tomato sauce. It was Michael's favorite. I was making ziti with the meat gravy and I'm planning to roast some peppers over the flames and I was gonna put on some string beans with some olive oil and garlic, and I had some beautiful cutlets that were cut just right, that I was going to fry up before dinner just as an appetizer. So I was home for about an hour. Now my plan was to start the dinner early so Karen and I could unload the guns that Jimmy didn't want, and then get the package for Lois to take to Atlanta for her trip later that night..."); the monologue ends when Henry is busted by the DEA, and he coolly says with relief: ("For a second, I thought I was dead, but when I heard all the noise I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead.")

Hannibal Lecter's (Anthony Hopkins) mocking assessment of Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), after she gives him a questionnaire to answer: ("You're so-o ambitious, aren't you? You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube, with a little taste. Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed - pure West Virginia. What does your father do? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you. All those tedious, sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars, while you could only dream of getting out. Getting anywhere, getting all the way to the F...B...I"); and then after Clarice retorts, he adds his famous line of dialogue: ("A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti. You fly back to school now, little Starling. Fly, fly, fly. Fly, fly, fly.")Hitman Jules Winnfield's (Samuel L. Jackson) Bible quote: ("The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.")Larry Flynt's (Woody Harrelson) powerful speech in court (when sued by Jerry Falwell (Richard Paul) for a satirical mocking ad in his magazine Hustler), asking why photographing sex and nudity is criminally pornographic, but violence and murder is not, and illustrating his point with famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photos of extreme violence and gore, and offering his thoughts on the Bill of Rights: ("...If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, then it'll protect all of you -- 'cause I'm the worst...")Sam "Ace" Rothstein's (Robert De Niro) wistful, disdainful eulogy for Las VegaOutlaw horde leader"

Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer..

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms."


.“That's what makes us tough. Rich fellas come up an' they die an' their kids ain't no good, an' they die out. But we keep a-comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out. They can't lick us. And we'll go on forever, Pa... 'cause... we're the people.”The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

”"There's an old joke: Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly."Annie Hall (1977)

Greetings, my friends! We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friends; future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable; that is why you are here. And now for the first time we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that faithful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friends, we can not keep this a secret any longer; let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My friends, can your heart stand the shocking facts about the grave robbers from outer space?"

In a powerful speech spoken directly into the camera on his television show See It Now, legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) attacked Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's (Himself) methods: ("...We must not confuse dissent from disloyalty. We must remember always, that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another, we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. If we dig deep into our history and our doctrine, we will remember we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who dared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular...The actions of the Junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And who's fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear -- he merely exploited it, and rather successfully. Cassius was right: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Good night, and good luck")

The closing monologue in which Amsterdam eulogizes the dead and fallen of New York: ("In the end, they put candles on the bodies, so's their friends -- if they had any -- could know them in the dark. The city did this free of charge. It was four days and nights before the worst of the mob was finally put down. We never knew how many New Yorkers died that week before the city was finally delivered. My father once told me we was all born of blood and tribulation; so then, too, was our great city. But for those of us who had lived and died in them furious days... it was like everything we knew was mightily swept away. And no matter what they did to build this city back up again -- for the rest of time -- it would be like nobody even knew we was ever here"), followed by the astonishing "time passage" sequence which shows the development of Lower Manhattan from 1863 through to pre-9/11 while U2's Hands That Built America plays.
The chilling scene in which Bill Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) shows young Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) how to knife-fight, using a butchered pig as a proxy for a man, before stabbing the pig repeatedly in demonstration: ("You get to know a lot butchering meat. We're made up of the same things - flesh and blood, tissue, organs. I love to work with pigs. The nearest thing in nature to the flesh of a man is the flesh of a pig...This is the liver. The kidneys. The heart. This is a wound -- the stomach will bleed and bleed. This is a kill. This is a kill. Main artery. This is a kill")


100 Great Movie Lines We Can't Live Without



Famous quotes and great lines of dialogue from 75 years of sound films come from speeches, one-liners, quips, punchlines, statements and insults. Here are some more examples of the most memorable movie quotes and lines of dialogue.

See also, "Greatest Last Film Lines and Quotes" with some of the greatest curtain-call lines ever.





100 GREAT MOVIE LINES WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT
Selected by Premiere Magazine (in their August 2000 issue)

Hint: Move your mouse pointer over the yellow star next to each quote to identify the source of the film quote (some of the stars are linked to the film's identification and a detailed description of the film).

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."
AND
"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces."
AND
"All right, Mr. De Mille. I'm ready for my closeup."

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

"I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."

"I just want to say one word to you - just one word.... 'plastics.'"

"E.T. phone home."

"Fiddle-dee-dee."

"Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine."

"Michael...we're bigger than U.S. Steel."

- "Why would a guy wanna marry a guy?"
- "Security."

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms."

"Miss Casswell is an actress, a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art."

"Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably more than she ever did."

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again - no, nor any of my folks! If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill! As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."

"...I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

(NOT "...I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!")
"Go ahead, make my day."

Gort. Klaatu Barada Nikto. It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.
It's his ship now, his command. He's in charge, the boss, the head man,
top dog, big cheese, head honcho, number..
I lost it at the movies. ( title of book by New Yorker critic Pauline Kael)

Don't forget the cannoli.

How's Paully?
Oh Paully... won't see him no more. .
Someday, and that day may never come,
I'll call upon you to do a service for me.

"You owe me money!"Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country

Arthur I'm so rich, I wish I had a dime for every dime I had.

Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to
your daughter... 's wedding... on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope their first child
be a masculine child.

But, I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you?

Badges? We ain't got no badges.We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges.
My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.. .
Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him,
that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.

Now I know we're not in Kansas anymore.



"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"

"Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

"You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle."

"If they move, kill 'em."

"Well, nobody's perfect."

- "Tell me, how did you find America?"
- "Turn left at Greenland."
AND
"The older generation are leading this country to galloping ruin!"

"You don't understand! I could've had class. I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am. Let's face it......It was you, Charley."

"I'll be back."

"Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous plot we have ever had to face."

" I'll have what she's having."

"If you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, do you know what's gonna happen to you?...You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company."

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

"Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

"I stick my neck out for nobody."

"Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?"

"All of a sudden, she's playing Hamlet's mother!"
AND
- "I'm afraid Mr. De Witt would find me boring before too long."
- "You won't bore him, honey. You won't even get a chance to talk."

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."

"Mother of Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?"

"Use the Force, Luke."

"They call me Mister Tibbs."

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

"R-o-s-e-b-u-d."
AND
"I've got his trunk all packed. I've had it packed for a week now."
AND
"Old age, it's the only disease...that you don't look forward to being cured of."
AND
"Everything was his idea...except my leaving him."
AND
"Five years ago, he wrote from that place down there in the South, uh, what's it called? Shangri-La? El Dorado? Sloppy Joe's?"

"Mmmm-hmmm! This is a tasty burger!"

"Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."

"So I got that going for me, which is nice."

"Show me the money!"

- "Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you."
- "Shut up and deal!"

"You're tearing me apart!"

"Then close your eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself, 'There's no place like home'."

"Here's looking at you, kid."

"That is one nutty hospital."

"...Bond. James Bond."

"You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together - and blow."

(NOT "If you want me, just whistle.")
"He-e-e-e-re's Johnnie!"

"Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!"

"We find the defendants incredibly guilty."

"I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen."

- "You want answers?"
- "I want the truth!"
- "You can't handle the truth!"

"Made it Ma! Top of the world!"

"Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."

"You talkin' to me?"

"Licorice, mmmm. If there's anything I'm a sucker for, it's licorice."

"Pa's got things for you to do, and Mother wants you. I know she does. Shane. Shane. Come back. 'Bye, Shane."

"I am Spartacus."

"Yeah, I was in the s--t."

"What do you mean, I'm funny?...You mean the way I talk? What?...Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?...But I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to f--kin' amuse you? What do you mean, funny? Funny how? How'm I funny??...How the f--k am I funny? What the f--k is so funny about me? Tell me? Tell me what's funny!..."

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops, that is, depending on the breaks."

"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."

"The horror...the horror."

"We belong dead."

"You shouldn't ask me for advice...When it comes to relationships with women, I'm the winner of the August Strindberg award."

"Hey, don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love."

"Get away from her, you bitch!"

"We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."
AND
"Last night I saw a flying object that couldn't have possibly been from this planet...But I can't say a word! I'm muzzled by army brass!"
AND
"All you of Earth - are idiots!"

- "He was from my village. He was the village idiot!"
- "Yeah, what'd you do, place?"

"Don't you f--kin' look at me!"

"No wire hangers!"

"Oh, no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning...smells like...victory."

"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? Stop, Dave. I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it."

"I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies."

"I'm the king of the world!"

"Lovely...lovely."

"Yippie kay-yay, mother@#!%er."

- "Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules."
- "You want me to hold the chicken, huh?"
- "I want you to hold it between your knees."

"Frankly, my dear. I don't give a damn."

"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain't heard nothin' yet. Wait a minute, I tell ya, you ain't heard nothin'! Do you wanna hear 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie!'?"

"Round up the usual suspects."
AND
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Go, get the butter."

Lo's (Chen Chang) mystical legend about a cliff to lover Jen Yu (Ziyi Zhang), before she reluctantly returns to her family: ("You must decide. You might get tired of this life. You might begin to miss your family. If it were our daughter, we'd look for her too. She would miss us. Jen... I want you to be mine forever. I will make my mark on the world. I will earn your parents' respect. We have a legend. Anyone who dares to jump from the mountain, God will grant his wish. Long ago, a young man's parents were ill, so he jumped. He didn't die. He wasn't even hurt. He floated away, far away, never to return. He knew his wish had come true. If you believe, it will happen. The elders say, 'A faithful heart makes wishes come true.'")

s casino life during a closing montage: ("The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today, it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior's college money on the poker slots. In the old days, dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played. Today, it's like checkin' into an airport. And if you order room service, you're lucky if you get it by Thursday. Today, it's all gone. You get a whale show up with four million in a suitcase, and some twenty-five-year-old hotel school kid is gonna want his Social Security Number. After the Teamsters got knocked out of the box, the corporations tore down practically every one of the old casinos. And where did the money come from to rebuild the pyramids? Junk bonds. But in the end, I wound up right back where I started. I could still pick winners, and I could still make money for all kinds of people back home. And why mess up a good thing?")

A FEW GOOD MEN. (WHY DOESN'T THIS SNOB INCLUDE THE TITLE)Col. Nathan R. Jessup's (Jack Nicholson) courtroom tirade: ("You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall. We use words like "honor," "code," "loyalty." We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to!")



Greatest Last Lines and Final Film Quotes



These are many of the best-known curtain call lines, fade-outs, and final words of dialogue in cinematic history - the last lingering words heard before the title “The End.” In quite a few cases, the memorable final lines are also some of the greatest lines in film history. They often reveal a vital truth about the film, cap off a comedy with a punchline, or help to define what the film was all about in just a few words. The last phrases or words often help to set a mood or tone as the film concludes, or they can be great one-liners.

Index to Greatest Last Film Lines
(chronological)
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Part 1




Larry the Liquidator's response to Andrew's attack: ("This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers... You know, at one time, there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best g--damn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future.")

During a secret rendezvous, "X"'s (Donald Sutherland) spellbinding, 15-minute long paranoic monologue about a conspiracy encourages New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) to investigate Kennedy's assassination, intercut with photographs, footage, reconstructed behind closed doors meetings, etc. as he talks: ("Now I can give you the background, but you have to find the foreground, the little things. Keep digging. Remember, you're the only person to bring a trial in the murder of John Kennedy. That's important, it's historic...You don't have a choice anymore. You've become a significant threat to the national security structure. They would have killed you already but you got a lot of light on you. Instead, they're trying to destroy your credibility. They already have in many circles in this town. Be honest, your only chance is to come up with a case. Something, anything. Make arrests, stir the s--t storm, hope to reach a point of critical mass that'll start a chain reaction of people coming forward, then the government will crack.")

Gangster Henry Hill's (Ray Liotta) "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster" monologue in the opening: ("As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States...Even before I first wandered into the cabstand for an after-school job, I knew I wanted to be a part of them. It was there that I knew that I belonged. To me, it meant being somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies. They weren't like anybody else. I mean, they did whatever they wanted. They double-parked in front of a hydrant and nobody ever gave them a ticket. In the summer when they played cards all night, nobody ever called the cops")

Col. Kurtz' (Marlon Brando) 'horror' speech about hacked-off arms of inoculated children: ("I've seen the horror. Horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me... It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies...")




Jack Torrance's (Jack Nicholson) foul-mouthed, annoyed reaction to wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) invading his personal space while writing on his typewriter: ("Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. Understand?...I'm gonna make a new rule. Whenever I'm in here, and you hear me typing, whether you don't hear me typing, whatever the f--k you hear me doing in here, when I'm in here, that means that I am working. That means don't come in. Now do you think you can handle that?...Why don't you start right now and get the f--k out of here?")
Roy Batty's (Rutger Hauer) closing thoughts before dying: ("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die")