 |
 Greatest
Last Film Lines or Quotes  1950s |
(chronological, by film title) 1910s-1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s Return to Entire Quotes Index |
| 1950s |
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| - (sound of motorcycle cop siren) "License please. No,
not this license....Okay, forget it. My wedding present. But take it
easy, or you'll never make it." - "Oh, don't worry. We'll make it. It's a clear case of predestination." - "Pre--- what?" - "Look it up!" |
|
| (voice-over) "His words meant very little to me then, but as time passed, I came to know that the death of Sonseeahray put a seal on the peace. And from that day on, wherever I went - in the cities, among the Apaches, in the mountains, I always remembered my wife was with me." | |
- "Call the morgue. Johnson, you go to the Allison
Hotel, find Paula Gibson. Don't tell her anything. I'll break it to
her." |
|
"Nothing's really changed, has it? You know
what they say: 'My son's my son until he gets him a wife,
but my daughter's my daughter all of her life.' All of our life." |
|
(voice-over) "The long delayed but always expected
something that we live for." |
|
| - "I'm awful sorry, but there ain't no
more room, Mrs. Walsh. Ain't another seat left in the place." - "Is Mark inside?" - "Well, yes, ma'am. He's inside." - "Would you tell him Mrs. Ringo would like to see him?" - "Yes. Mrs. Jimmie Ringo?" - "Mrs. Jimmie Ringo." - "And his boy." - "Yes, Mrs. Ringo." - "Come on in, Peggy." |
|
"Well, thank you, Harvey. I prefer you, too." |
|
"I lived a few weeks while you loved
me. Goodbye, Dix." |
|
"No, I'm grateful to you. Thanks to
you, I think I can keep my faith in man." |
|
| "No, I can't go back. I can't. They are horrible. It was all horrible. They don't know what they're doing. I'm even worse. I'll save him. Oh, my innocent child. God, my God, help me! Give me the strength, the understanding, and the courage. (weeping) God, God, God, oh my God, merciful God. God, God, God!" | |
"…You see, this is my life. It always
will be! There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those
wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille,
I'm ready for my close-up." |
|
(aka The Big Carnival) |
"How'd you like to make yourself a thousand
dollars a day, Mr. Boot? I'm a thousand-dollar-a-day newspaperman.
You can have me for nothing." |
"By golly, I'm the richest man in six counties." |
|
"...I am leaving soon, and you will forgive
me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day, and
the threat of aggression by any group anywhere can no longer be tolerated.
There must be security for all, or no one is secure. Now, this does
not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly.
Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves,
and hired policemen to enforce them. We of the other planets have
long accepted this principle. We have an organization for the mutual
protection of all planets, and for the complete elimination of aggression.
The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force
that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots.
Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one,
and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them
absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first
sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The
penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result
is, we live in peace, without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge
that we are free from aggression and war, free to pursue more profitable
enterprises. Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection,
but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these
facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet. But
if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will
be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple. Join us
and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.
We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.
Gort! berengo." |
|
| (Narrator voice-over): "A man stays alive as long as he's remembered, and is killed only by forgetfulness. So long, Happy. Let your real name remain unknown, but let the memory of your sacrifice serve as a key to the meanings of treason. It was to me." | |
| (voice-over): "I went to his room and found my poor colleague unconscious on the floor. We carried him back to bed, whereupon he vomited up streams ofblood. But the hemorrhaging ended. While we waited for the doctor, our poor friend regained consciousness, but he didn't speak. Heavy beads of sweat covered his brow and cheeks, and his expression told of great anguish. His pulse was rapidly growing weak. He motioned that he wanted his rosary, which I found in his pants' pocket. From then on, he held it pressed against his chest. He seemed to recover some strength and in an almost inaudible voice asked for absolution. His face grew calm. He even smiled. Though neither humanity nor friendship would permit me to refuse, while discharging my duties, I explained to my unfortunate comrade my hesitation at granting his request. He didn't seem to hear me. But a few moments later, he laid his hands on mine while his eyes entreated me to draw closer to him. He then said, very distinctly, if extremely slowly, these exact words: 'What does it matter? All is grace.' I believe he died just then." | |
"Stanley Banks, my grandchild. My first grandchild." |
|
- "What's this? You're CO and I'm exec?" |
|
| "Quiet, Crosby!" | |
| (voice-over) "The crisis is over now. The news of Sidney's failure brought
relief to the world." - "I see." (voice-over) "It had been a hard and bitter experience for all of us. But we faced the future with confidence. We have seen the last of Sidney Stratton." - "I see." (voice-over) "At least, I hope we've seen the last of him." |
|
| - "It was right in this very spot that Peter and I turned
back to Rome. It was here the Lord spoke to us." - "It's a blessed spot." |
|
| (voice-over) "So it came to pass, that as he trudged from the place of blood and wrath, his soul changed. He had been to touch the great death and found that after all, it was but the great death. Scars faded as flowers and the youth saw that the world was a world for him. He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He turned now, with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks. An existence of soft and eternal peace." | |
| "They didn't have to go to all this trouble. A small wedding would've been all right." | |
(voice-over) "Scrooge was better than his word.
He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as
the good old city ever knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough,
in the good old world. And to Tiny Tim who lived and got well again,
he became a second father....And it was always said that he knew how
to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May
that be truly said of us, and all of us. And so, as Tiny Tim observed,
'God Bless Us - Everyone.'" |
|
| "I beg your pardon, but aren't you Guy Haines?" | |
- "Stella! Come on, Stella." |
|
"Everyone of you listening to my voice, tell
the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are. Watch the skies,
everywhere, keep looking. Keep watching the skies." |
|
- "And then, this is the sad part, Daddy. All of
a sudden, I saw Little Sheba. She was lyin' out in the middle of
the field, dead. I felt terrible, Doc. Nobody else paid any attention.
But I cried and cried. It made me feel awful. That, that sweet little
puppy. Her white fur all smeared with mud. And no one to stop and
take care of her." |
|
- "Don't waste your time in
the so-called real life. You belong to us, the actors, acrobats, mimes,
clowns, mountebanks. Your only way to find happiness is on any stage,
any platform, any public place, during those two little hours when
you become another person - your true self." |
|
"That's all, ladies and gentlemen, that's
all. Come again to the greatest show on Earth. Bring the children.
Bring the old folks. You can shake the sawdust off your feet but
you can't shake it out of your heart. Come again, folks. The greatest
show on Earth. Come again." |
|
- "What would happen if I ever dropped you?" |
|
"No patty fingers, if you please. The proprieties
at all times. Hold on to your hats." |
|
"Ladies and Gentlemen. Stop that girl. That
girl running up the aisle - stop her. That's the girl whose voice
you heard and loved tonight. She's the real star of the picture.
Kathy Selden." |
|
| "The man's dead. The girl's dead too." | |
- "They can't kill him." |
|
- "The show's a hit, but we all feel no matter
what might've happened to it, it was wonderful knowing you, working
with you. Maybe some of us didn't see eye to eye with you at the
beginning. Maybe we thought we wouldn't work out together, but
we have. Yes, there were obstacles between us, but we've kissed
them good-bye. We've come to love you, Tony. We belong together.
The show's going to run a long time. And as far as I'm concerned,
it's going to run forever." (They kiss) |
|
| (voice-over): "Oh, this is the end, the end!" | |
- (answering phone) "Homicide, Bannion. Got it.
They have a hit-and-run over on South Street. Keep the coffee hot,
Hugo." |
|
"Robert E. Lee Prewitt. Isn't that a silly
old name?" |
|
"Remember,
honey, on your wedding day, it's all right to say 'yes'." |
|
- "General Crook'll be here within a month
with a large force." |
|
- "I could probably dig up a couple million cash if
I had to." |
|
| "It wasn't the right time for us to meet. But there will be other nights, other stars for us to watch. They'll be back." | |
"This was the noblest Roman of them all. All
the conspirators, save only he, did what they did in envy of great
Caesar. He only, in a general honest thought, and common good to
all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed
in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world: 'This
was a man.'" |
|
| "Take good care of her...I said, take good care of her!" | |
"Pa's got things for you to do, and Mother
wants you. (echo) I know she does. (echo) Shane.
Shane! (echos) Come
back!" |
|
- "AII right, men. Everybody back in their bunks
Iike nothing happened." |
|
(off-screen voice-over) "Thus, on April the
15th, 1912, at 0220 hours, as the passengers and crew sang a Welsh
hymn, R.M.S.
Titanic passed
from the British Registry. 712 people in 19 lifeboats survived." |
|
- "We were all praying for a miracle." (church
bells) |
|
- "What's the matter? You been hit over
the head so often, you don't know when you're getting a break? At
least say thank you." |
|
| (narrated voice-over): "To the animals, it now seemed that their world, which may or may not some day become a happy place to live in, was worse than ever for ordinary creatures, and another moment had come when they must do something about it..." | |
"You shouldna be too surprised. I told ya,
if you love someone deeply enough, anything is possible. Even - miracles?" |
|
- "You went and got yourself hurt again." |
|
(radio announcer) "As some of you might know,
Major Glenn Miller is not with us today. But in his absence we shall
do this program exactly as he had planned it. Our first number therefore
will be a new arrangement which Major Miller himself made especially
for this performance. This tune should be a familiar one, especially
to the members of Major Miller's family across the ocean who are
listening." |
|
| - "Oh, I don't want to lose you." - "Katherine, what's wrong with us? Why do we torture one another?" - "When you say things that hurt me, I try to hurt you back. Don't you see? But I can't - I can't any longer, because I love you." - "Perhaps we get hurt too easily." - "Tell me that you love me." - "Well, if I do, will you promise not to take advantage of me?" - "Yes, but tell me. I want to hear you say it." - "Alright, I love you." |
|
- "All right, let's go to work!" |
|
| "And thus, I left the island after I had been upon it eight and twenty years, two months and nineteen days." | |
| (voice-over): "Then I knew we had won something they could never take away -- something I could leave to my children -- and they, the salt of the earth, would inherit it." | |
| - "It's just you and I. We're
all alone now. I could have come for you as a governor, but
I gave up my title in order to follow Father's teachings. Please, Mother,
forgive me!" - "What nonsense do you speak of? I don't know what you have done, but I know that you followed your Father's teachings. And that is why we have been able to meet again." |
|
- "Do you Alice, Ruth,
Martha, Liza, Sarah, Dorcas, take these men to be your lawfully-wedded
husbands?" |
|
- "Once more we survive. In the end, we lost
this battle too." |
|
| - "Fred McCarty wanted.
Murder and Rustling. US Marshal on way to Silver Lode." - "Hallelujah!" |
|
"Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman
Maine." |
|
"When Man entered the Atomic Age, he opened
a door into a new world. What we'll eventually find in that new world,
nobody can predict." |
|
| (echoing voice-over): "There is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass, in God's good time." | |
- "Who's there? |
|
- "Thanks, Mr. Macreedy. Thanks for everything." |
|
- "There's talk you're quittin' this school, goin'
someplace where there's nice, little obedient boys and girls." |
|
| "Charlie! Charlie! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!" | |
- "Your Majesty..." |
|
- "You're impossible. You know that she's dead.
Her body was taken away today." |
|
| "Then under the authority granted me by the state of New York, County of New York, City of New York, I hereby pronounce you men and wives." | |
(partly voice-over) "For the first time, our
principal subject knows that 'This is Her Life'. And we have her
unqualified permission to tell the whole truth. It's a story of degradation
and shame, but when you hear the facts, you'll realize how much courage
it took for her to come here tonight. You'll
also realize that it's a story full of hope, hope for many who are
living and suffering in a half-world of addiction to alcohol, hope
for all people wherever and whoever they are. So this is your life,
Lillian Roth." |
|
- "It's a lie. I won't believe it." |
|
- "Hey Marty, what's the matter with you?" |
|
"Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just
threw your stinking palm tree overboard. Now, what's all this crud
about no movie tonight?" |
|
"They abide and they endure." |
|
| - "The child - is it alive?" - "Yes, Inger. It lives at home with God." - "With God?" - "Yes, Inger, I have found your faith. Now life begins for us." - "Life, yes, Life." - "Yes." - "Life." |
|
| "The people of Alabama elected me attorney general in my father's place with two sacred duties to perform: To seek out and bring to justice the murderers of my father, and to keep the gambling hells of Phenix City firmly closed forever. With God's help, I shall not fail." | |
"So this is where you live. Oh, Mother will
love it up here." |
|
| - "I'm so far away from you. Come closer. Closer. Closer." - "Ed, you'll have us both in bed." - "That's what I mean. Closer. Closer." |
|
| "The soil of Burma is red, and so are its rocks." | |
- "I-I can't tell you any sure way
to happiness. I only know that you've gotta go out and find it for
yourselves. You can't lean on the success of your parents. That's
their success. And don't be held back by their failures." |
|
| "Yes, Alta, your father, my shipmates, all the stored knowledge of the Krell. Five seconds, four, three, two, one. Alta, about a million years from now, the human race will have crawled up to where the Krell stood in their great moment of triumph and tragedy. And your father's name will shine again like a beacon in the galaxy. It's true, it will remind us that we are, after all, not God." | |
- "When you tumbled rearward and landed crashing
into that pile of dirty dishes, you were at last my hero. That's
what you always wanted to be." |
|
"End of story." |
|
"Look, you fools. You're in danger. Can't you
see? They're after you. They're after all of us. Our wives, our children,
everyone. They're here already. YOU'RE NEXT!..." (End
of original film before addition of epilogue) |
|
"He learned almost too late that man is a feeling
creature, and because of it the greatest in the universe. He learned
too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make
their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside
ourselves. And when men seek such perfection, they find only death,
fire, loss, disillusionment and the end of everything that's gone
forward. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery but
it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has
to come from inside, from Man himself." |
|
| - "Johnny, you've got to
run!" - "Nah, what's the difference?" |
|
"I'm sorry we were gone so long, but we had
to go over and pick up Hank." |
|
(voice-over) "The coffin. Drowned Queequeg's
coffin was my life buoy. For one whole day and night. it sustained
me on that soft and dirge-like main. Then a sail appeared. It was
the Rachel. The Rachel, who in her long melancholy search for her
missing children found another orphan. The drama's done. All are
departed away. The great shroud of the sea rolls over the Pequod,
her crew, and Moby Dick. I only am escaped, alone, to tell thee." |
|
"Rain!" |
|
"Let's go home, Debbie." |
|
(voice-over, contents of letter) "These are
terrible things to write to you, Tom, about guilt and right and wrong.
But you are old enough now to know that when you drop a pebble in
the water, there are ever-widening circles of ripples. There are
always consequences. Anyway, Tom, I've often wondered if I didn't
show a lack of faith in you in your ability to meet a crisis by yourself
and come through it alone. They say about dreadful experiences, if
they don't kill us, they make us strong. I was just afraid that that
one would kill you. Dear Tom, I was so pleased to read that you are
married. Have a good life, a full life, an understanding life. Write
good stories, true stories. About one thing you were correct. The
wife did always keep her affection for the boy, somewhere in her
heart." |
|
"Little story now concluded. But history of world unfinished. Lovely ladies, kind gentlemen, go home to ponder. What was true at beginning remains true. Pain make man think, thought make man wise, and wisdom make life endurable. So, may August moon bring gentle sleep. Sayonara." |
|
"...Joshua, I charge you and strengthen you,
for you shall go over Jordan to lead the people. As for me and my
house, we shall serve the Lord. Mered, give me the books. Eleazar,
set these five books in the Ark of the Covenant, by the tablets of
the Ten Commandments, which the Lord restored unto us. Go. Proclaim
liberty throughout all the lands, unto all the inhabitants thereof." |
|
| "He was sad -- the saddest of us all. He needed so much and had so little." | |
(announcer narration) "The story which you have just seen is a true one. In real life Captain Alexander Holmes was brought to trial on a charge of murder. He was convicted and given the minimum sentence of six months because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the incident. If you had been a member of the jury, how would you have voted? Guilty or innocent?" |
|
- "Darling, don't look at me like that." |
|
"Madness. Madness." |
|
| "Griff! Griff! Mr. Bonell! Griff! Griff! Griff! Mr. Bonell!" | |
"The lobsters are back!" |
|
"I was continuing to shrink, to
become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being?
Or was I the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation,
other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings
follow me into this vast new world? So close - the infinitesimal
and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends
of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably
vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked
up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds
beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And
in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite.
I had thought in terms of Man's own limited dimension. I had presumed
upon nature that existence begins and ends is man's conception, not
nature's. And I felt my body dwindling,
melting, becoming nothing. My fears locked away and in their place
came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean
something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the
smallest, I meant something, too. To God there is no zero. I STILL
EXIST!" |
|
| - "Maybe it's better not to know." - "The train must have hit him and dragged him." - "I thought he was on the other side, sir." - "Don't be ridiculous, Simmons. Look at him. The train must have hit him." - "You're right. Maybe it's better not to know." |
|
- "Sir." |
|
(voice-over) "We finally discovered
that season of love. It is only found in someone else's heart. Right
now, someone you know is looking everywhere for it - and it's in
you." |
|
- "lt is very difficult for Japanese
woman to speak in public. l have never done so. But perhaps, now
it is the time. Maj. Gruver has asked me to be his, his wife. He
knows there are many people in his country who will be disturbed
by this. l know my people will be shocked, too. But l hope they will
learn to understand and someday approve. We are not afraid, because
we know this is right. l hope l can continue as a dancer. And l hope
when l`m old, l will be able to teach children to dance. My own
children." |
|
- "...They dance away from the dawn and it's
a solemn dance towards the dark lands, while the rain washes their
faces and cleans the salt of the tears from their cheeks." |
|
- "You know, the awful thing is, it could have been
so simple. Because you're the only man I could ever love, Jake." |
|
- "Where do you think you're going?" |
|
(voice-overs) - "On September the 17th
1955, Dr. Luther received a special-delivery airmail letter from
Richmond, Virginia." |
|
- "Hey, what's your name?" |
|
"Why is it always, always so costly for Man
to move from the present to the future?" |
|
"Sir Wilfrid - you've forgotten
your brandy." |
|
- "I shouldn't even bring up the possibility
of Michael's going to India with me." |
|
- "How did it happen?" |
|
- "What are they gonna do with that thing, Dave?" |
|
- "What course?" |
|
- "Mummy told me about Daddy. Something she
said to ask you. Why did he die?" |
|
"Thank heaven..." |
|
- "What are you crying about?" |
|
(voice-over) "Dear Mr. Montgomery: There isn't much I can say with words; they always fail me when most needed. But please know that with all my heart I appreciate everything you've done for me. Sincerely, Barbara." |
|
"Like hell I would." |
|
| - "He went for an empty holster. I couldn't
see." - "You come home now." |
|
| - "Tell them no, nothing. Everything that was humanly possible has been done." | |
(voice-over) "That afternoon there
was a party of tourists from Havana at a café. One of them
looked down at the water, and among the empty beer cans and dead
barracuda, she saw the long backbone of the great fish that was now
just garbage waiting to go out with the tide. 'What's
that?' she asked the waiter. 'Tiburón,'
the waiter said. 'A shark.' He was
trying to explain what had happened to the marlin.
'I didn't know sharks had such handsome, beautifully formed tails,'
the woman said. 'I didn't either,' her
male companion answered. Up the road in his shack, the
old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face, and
the boy was sitting by him, watching him. The old man was dreaming
about the lions." |
|
- "And I'll never forget our little friend
Barani...His one wish was to sail the seas with you." |
|
"Mountain people. Wild-blooded, death-foolish.
Yeah, that was Doolin, alright. He was a real stampeder." |
|
- "He was some kind of a man. What
does it matter what you say about people?" |
|
- "No, no." |
|
- "Odin!" |
|
"And I felt His voice take the
sword out of my hand." |
|
- (voice-over) "In
spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at
heart." |
|
- "Moondoggie." |
|
(voice-over) "You do not believe
in anything, do you? Why do you kill me in your mind? Why do you
bury me in your heart? It is called the Hata flower. It blooms for
the space of the moon and then disappears, yet it never dies. At
that very moment, it blooms again in another place in another part
of the forest. If you look in this place tomorrow, and it is gone,
you must not be sad, because you know it still exists, not very far
away." |
|
"Now they're nine. There'll be more, many more. They're
coming for me now, and then they'll come for you!" |
|
- "Reach, now." |
|
| - "Go through here to Room 12. Everything is ready. Press the button when you are finished and I will open." | |
"God, God
forgive us. Peter? I think I'll have that cup of tea now." |
|
"Oh, Jeanne, to reach you at last, what a strange path I had to take." |
|
"My friend. You have seen this incident based
on sworn testimony. Can you prove that it didn't happen? Perhaps
on your way home, someone will pass you in the dark, and you will
never know it, for they will be from outer space. Many scientists
believe that another world is watching us this moment. We once laughed
at the horseless carriage, the aeroplane, the telephone, the electric
light, vitamins, radio, and even television! And now some of us laugh
at outer space. God help us in the future." |
|
| "Well, that figures." | |
| - "Do you think I'll ever get to be a sheriff?" - "Not unless you mind your own business." |
|
"Wasn't it absolutely the most
wonderful wedding? Now we really belong to each other 'til death
us do part'. Darling, you're crying. I believe you really are sentimental
after all." |
|
- "That we must part is our atonement." |
|
- "But you don't understand, Osgood!
Ohh... I'm a man." |
|
- "There's every possibility that the
girl's story is true." |
|
- "We live in a glass house. We're not
throwing any stones. Thanks for wanting us." |
|
"Ladies and gentlemen, just a word of warning.
If any of you are not convinced that you have a tingler of your own,
the next time you're frightened in the dark, don't scream." |
|
