Julian Osborne: I shouldn't drink, you know. I inevitably say something brilliant.

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)

Julian Osborne: The trouble with you is you want a simple answer. There isn't any. The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained - - by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn't possibly use - - without committing suicide. Everybody had an atomic bomb, and counter-bombs, and counter-counter bombs. The devices outgrew us; we couldn't control them. I know, I helped build them. Somewhere, some poor bloke probably looked at a radar screen and thought he saw something. He knew that if he hesitated for a second that his own country would be wiped off the map. So he pushed a button and the world went crazy.

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)

Julian Osborne: The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn't possibly use without committing suicide.

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)

Julian Osborne: There was a choice. It was build the bombs, and use them - or risk the United States, the Soviet Union, and the rest of us, would find some way... to go on living.
Morgan: [scoffs] That's wishful thinking if ever I heard it.
Julian Osborne: [softly] I'm not against wishful thinking. Not now.

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)

Julian Osborne: We're all doomed, you know. The whole, silly, drunken, pathetic lot of us. Doomed by the air we're about to breathe.

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)

Julian Osborne: Who would ever have believed that human beings would be stupid enough to blow themselves off the face of the Earth?

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)

Moira Davidson: Dwight... even if you don't like me, would you please hold on to me just for a moment longer?

- Ava Gardner (as Moira Davidson) in On the Beach (1959)

Moira Davidson: I wouldn't really mind... if you could forget entirely who I am... I don't like myself very much anyway.

- Ava Gardner (as Moira Davidson) in On the Beach (1959)

Moira Davidson: There isn't time. No time to love... nothing to remember... nothing worth remembering.

- Ava Gardner (as Moira Davidson) in On the Beach (1959)

Morgan: They pushed us too far! They didn't think we'd fight, no matter what they did!
Julian Osborne: And they were wrong. We fought. We expunged them. And we didn't do such a bad job on ourselves.

- Fred Astaire (as Julian Osborne) in On the Beach (1959)