You Can't Take It with You Quotes

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff You're an idiot, Mr. Kirby.

Anthony P. Kirby What?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff A stupid idiot.

Anthony P. Kirby You can't talk to me like that.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Oh, yes I can. Scum, are we? What makes you think you're such a superior human being? Your money? If you do, you're a dull-witted fool, Mr. Kirby. And a poor one at that. You're poorer than any of these people you call scum, because I'll guarantee at least they've got some friends. While you with your jungle and your long claws, as you call em, you'll wind up your miserable existence without anything you can call friend. You may be a high mogul to yourself, Mr. Kirby, but to me you're a failure - failure as a man, failure as a human being, even a failure as a father. When your time comes, I doubt if a single tear will be shed over you. The world will probably cry, "Good riddance." That's a nice prospect, Mr. Kirby. I hope you'll enjoy it. I hope you'll get some comfort out of all this coin you've been sweating over then!

Tony Kirby There's a tiny little engine in the green of this grass and in the green of the trees that has the mysterious gift of being able to take energy from the rays of the sun and store it up. You see that that's how the heat and power in coal and oil and wood is stored up. Well, we thought if we could find the secret of all those millions of little engines in this green stuff, we could, we could make big ones! And then we could take all the power we could ever need, right from the sun's rays.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff How would you like to come over to our house and work on your gadgets?

Poppins Your house? Well I don't know, thank you.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Oh go on, you'll love it. Everybody at over at our place does just what he wants to do.

Poppins Really?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Mmm-hmmmm.

Poppins That must be wonderful. But how would I live?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff The same way we do.

Poppins The same way? Well who takes care of you?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff The same One that takes care of the lilies of the field, Mr. Poppins, except that we toil a little, spin a little, have a barrel of fun. If you want to, come on over and become a lily too.

Tony Kirby You're so beautiful. Like, sometimes you're so beautiful it just gags me. Maybe you're not real? Maybe you're a phantom or something? I-I keep expecting you to vanish.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Incidentally, what's his name?

Alice Sycamore Eh, Tony Kirby.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Not the son of - the Kirby?

Alice Sycamore Yes.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Pretty snooty outfit aren't they?

Alice Sycamore I resent what you said about your brain. I think it's beautiful.

Tony Kirby You do, huh?

Alice Sycamore Mmmhm

Tony Kirby I see. Yeah, that's probably the first thing you noticed about me that you liked - my colossal brain.

Alice Sycamore Well, no. No, it was the back of your head.

Tony Kirby The back of my head? I've got a big bump back there. Well, what happened when I turned around?

Alice Sycamore Well, I figured I'd just have to get used to that.

Tony Kirby Oh, you figured.

Alice Sycamore And, you know, it might not take very long, but I just figured I'd...

Tony Kirby ...you just figured you'd just... well, I'm glad you figured.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff What if all your deals fall through? It might be a good thing for you.

Anthony P. Kirby Man, you're crazy.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Well, maybe I am. I used to be just like you. Then, one morning when I was going up the elevator, it struck me I wasn't having any fun. So, I came right down and never went back. Yes sir. That was 35 years ago.

Anthony P. Kirby Admirable. You haven't done a thing since, huh?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Oh, yes, yes, yes. Just the things I wanted to do. I collected stamps. Went to the zoo when I got the notion. Took up the harmonica. And even found time to notice when Spring came around.

Alice Sycamore It's for you.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Why bless my soul, a new harmonica.

Alice Sycamore I got it for you for your birthday.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff How do you know when my birthday is? Even I don't know.

Alice Sycamore Anytime I get an impulse to get you something, that's your birthday.

IRS Agent Mr. Vanderhof, our records show that you've never paid an income tax.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff That's right!

IRS Agent Why not?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff I don't believe in it.

Tony Kirby Ha!

Tony Kirby I was just thinking about that family of yours. Living with them must be like living in a world of ], my good fellow. Everybody does just as he pleases, doesn't he?

Alice Sycamore Yes. Grandpa started it. He just suddenly left business one day. He started up in the elevator one day and he turned around and came right down. He never went back. He could have been a rich man; but, he said he wasn't having any fun.

Tony Kirby Oh, that's wonderful.

Alice Sycamore Then he started collecting stamps because that's what he likes best.

Tony Kirby Your family, boy, they knocked me for a loop. I don't know, it just seems like in their own way, they found what everybody's looking for. People spend their whole lives building castles in the air and then nothing ever comes of it. I wonder why that is? Well, it takes courage. Everybody's afraid to live.

Alice Sycamore You ought to hear Grandpa on that subject. He says most people nowadays are run by fear. Fear of what they eat, fear of what they drink, fear of their jobs, their future, fear of their health. They're scared to save money and scared to spend it. You know what his pet aversion is? The people who commercialize on fear, you know they scare you to death so they can sell you something you don't need. So, he kinda taught all of not to be afraid of anything, but do what we want to do. Well, its kinda fun, anyway.

IRS Agent Who's gonna pay for all those buildings down in ]? And interstate commerce? And ]?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff The Constitution's been paid for years ago. And as for interstate commerce, what is interstate commerce anyway?

IRS Agent There are 48 states. See. And if it weren't for interstate commerce nothing could go from one state to another. See?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Well, why not, have they got fences?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Penny, why don't you write a play about Ism-Mania?

Penny Sycamore Ism-Mania?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Yeah, sure, you know, Communism, Fascism, Voodooism, everybody's got an -ism these days.

Penny Sycamore Oh, I thought it was an itch or something.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff Well, it's just as catching. When things go a little bad nowadays, you go out, get yourself an -ism and you're in business.

Boris Kolenkhov I feel so good, life is running around inside of me like a squirrel!