Lionel Barrymore Quotes

Marguerite I think I know my own heart better than you can, Monsieur, and I can trust it not to change.

Monsieur Duval No woman unprotected as you are can afford to give the best years of her life to a man who when he leaves her will leave her with nothing. And who is certain to leave her in the end.

Marguerite I don't suppose you can understand how any woman, unprotected as you say I am, can be lifted above self-interest by a sentiment so delicate and pure that she feels only humiliation when you speak of such things.

Monsieur Duval I realize now that you do love him unselfishly. But even so, I say it can't go on.

Marguerite But it will go on!

Monsieur Duval Armand is a young man with his way to make, with a career waiting for him. And in his case, he can't serve his best interest by being tied to a woman he can't present to his family or his friends.

Marguerite Armand is no different than other men.

Monsieur Duval Oh, come Mme. Be honest. Haven't you found him different? Haven't you found him more sensitive, more loyal? Or am I prejudiced because I'm his father?

Marguerite No. I know Armand was different.

Monsieur Duval So you see, as long as Armand loves you, he'll not enter rooms that you can't.

Marguerite But a man can go back. He can always go back. Monsieur, suppose I told you I have a feeling I shan't live very long.

Monsieur Duval Well then I scold you for being fanciful and a little foolish. What you probably feel is the melancholy of happiness, that mood that comes over all of us when we realize that even love can't remain at flood tide forever.

Marguerite Oh Armand, I'm doomed.

Monsieur Duval With him, you're both doomed. Without a profession of any sort, what can he do, unless he sinks so low, he's willing to let some other man foot the bills for his life with you.

Marguerite You don't know Armand. He wouldn't say that.

Monsieur Duval No one knows the man he might become if he loses his self-respect. But I think that's too high a price to pay even for love. I want Armand to enjoy life, not to be sacrificed to it. You see, my son is as dear to me as he can possibly be to you.

Marguerite Yes, but you have others who are dear to you. I have only Armand. You don't know how I've changed. And he taught me that love is not always selfish, nor goodness dull, nor men faithless. No, no, you can't expect me to give up such love as his.

James Temple Are you thieves or what? You want money, is this a robbery?

Toots Yeah, Pop, we're gonna steal all your towels.

Otto Kringelein Mr. Preysing, I am not taking orders from you here.

Preysing What is this insolence? Please go away.

Kringelein You think you have free license to be insulting? Believe me, you have not. You think you're superior, but you're quite an ordinary man. Even if you did marry money, and people like me have got to slave for you for 320 marks a month!

Preysing Will you go away, please! You are annoying!

Flaemmchen Mr. Preysing, please!

Kringelein You don't like to see me enjoying myself. When a man's working himself to death, that's what he's paid for. You don't care if a man can live on his wages or not.

Preysing You have a very regular scale of wages, and there's the sick fund for you.

Kringelein Oh, what a scale, and what a fund. When I was sick for four weeks, you wrote me a letter, telling me I'd be discharged if I was sick any longer. Did you write me that letter, or did you not?

Preysing I have no idea of the letters that I write, Mr. Kringelein. I know that you're here in the Grand Hotel, living like a lord. You are probably an embezzler.

Kringelein An embezzler?

Preysing Yes, an embezzler!

Kringelein You will take that back, right here in the presence of this young lady! Who do you think you're talking to? You think I'm dirt? Well, if I'm dirt, you're a lot dirtier, Mr. Industrial Magnate Preysing!

Preysing You're discharged! Get out!

Flaemmchen You can't do that to him...

Preysing Oh, I don't know the man. I don't know what he wants. I never saw him before.

Kringelein I know you! I've kept your books for you and I know all about you! If one of your employees was half as stupid in a small way as you are in a big way...

Preysing What do you mean? You're discharged! You're discharged, you hear?

Kringelein Wait! You can't discharge me. I am my own master for the first time in my life. You can't discharge me. I'm sick. I'm going to die, you understand? I'm going to die, and nobody can do anything to me anymore. Nothing can happen to me anymore. Before I can be discharged, I'll be dead!

Johnny Rocco Thousands of guys have got guns. There's only one Johnny Rocco.

James Temple How do you account for it?

Frank McCloud He knows what he wants. Don't you, Rocco?

Johnny Rocco Sure.

James Temple What's that?

Frank McCloud Tell him, Rocco.

Johnny Rocco Well, I want uh ...

Frank McCloud He wants more, don't you, Rocco?

Johnny Rocco Yeah. That's it. More. That's right! I want more!

James Temple Will you ever get enough?

Frank McCloud Will you, Rocco?

Johnny Rocco Well, I never have. No, I guess I won't. You, do you know what you want?

Frank McCloud Yes, I had hopes once, but I gave them up.

Johnny Rocco Hopes for what?

Frank McCloud A world in which there's no place for Johnny Rocco.

James Temple You’re right, you shouldn’t have been deported, you should have been exterminated.

Paul Lavond Look at me and see what seventeen years in the grave has done to me. No, Radin, without my hatred I never could have lived to exhume myself. What swine you three are!

Otto Kringelein To life! To the magnificent, dangerous, brief, brief, wonderful life...and the courage to live it! You know, Baron, I've only lived since last night, but that little while seems longer than all the time that's gone before.

Paul Lavond : Once you're in my shop, I'll wager you'll do anything I ask.

James Temple Make a big wave. Send it down on us. Destroy us all if need be, but punish HIM.

Mr. Potter George, I am an old man and most people hate me. But I don't like them either, so that makes it all even. You know just as well as I do that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it. Or kill it. But I haven't been able to do it. You have been stopping me. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. Now take during the depression, for instance. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. You saved the Building and Loan, I saved all the rest.

George Yes, well, most people say you stole all the rest.

Mr. Potter The envious ones say that, George. The suckers. Now, I have stated my side very frankly. Now let's look at your side. A young man, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, married, making, say, forty a week.

George Forty-five!

Mr. Potter Forty-five. Forty-five. Out of which, after supporting your mother and paying your bills, you're able to keep, say, ten, if you skimp. A child or two comes along and you won't even be able to save the ten. Now, if this young man of twenty-eight was a common, ordinary yokel, I'd say he was doing fine. But George Bailey is not a common, ordinary yokel. He is an intelligent, smart, ambitious, young man who hates his job, who hates the Building and Loan almost as much as I do. A young man who's been dying to get out on his own ever since he was born. A young man... the smartest one in the crowd, mind you... A young man who has to sit by and watch his friends go places because he's trapped. Yes, sir, trapped into frittering his life away, playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic eaters. Do I paint the correct picture or do I exaggerate?

George Oh, what's your point, Mr. Potter?

Mr. Potter My point? My point is, I want to hire you.

George Hire me?

Mr. Potter I want you to manage my affairs, run my properties. George, I'll start you out at twenty thousand dollars a year.

George Twenty thous...twenty thousand dollars a year?

Mr. Potter You wouldn't mind living in the nicest house in town, buying your wife a lot of fine clothes, a couple of business trips to New York a year, maybe once in a while Europe. You wouldn't mind that, would you, George?

George Would I? Y-You're not talking to somebody else around here, are you? You know, th-this is me, you remember me? George Bailey.

Mr. Potter Oh, yes, George Bailey. Whose ship has just come in, provided he has enough brains to climb aboard.

George Holy mackerel! Well, how about the Building and Loan?

Mr. Potter Oh, confound it, man! Are you afraid of success? I'm offering you a three-year contract at twenty thousand dollars a year, starting today. Is it a deal, or isn't it?

George Well, Mr. Potter, I...I...I know I ought to jump at the chance but I...I just, uh, I-I wonder if-if it would be possible for you to give me twenty-four hours to think it over?

Mr. Potter Sure, sure, sure. You go on home and talk about it to your wife.

George I'd like to do that.

Mr. Potter Yeah. In the meantime, I'll draw up the papers.

George All right, sir.

Mr. Potter Okay, George?

George Okay, Mr. Potter. No, no, no, no. Wait a minute here. Wait a minute. I don't need twenty-four hours. I, I don't have to talk to anybody. I know right now, and the answer is no! No! Doggone it! You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider! And... And that goes for you, too!

Paul Lavond I may not look it, madame, but I was once a very successful banker. Three men - my partners - lied and tricked me into prison. Well, three lives are going to pay for it.