Film Quotes by Fredric March

General James Mattoon Scott: And if you want to talk about your oath of office, I'm here to tell you face to face, President Lyman, that you violated that oath when you stripped this country of its muscles - when you deliberately played upon the fear and fatigue of the people and told them they could remove that fear by the stroke of a pen. And then when this nation rejected you, lost faith in you, and began militantly to oppose you, you violated that oath by not resigning from office and turning the country over to someone who could represent the people of the United States.
President Jordan Lyman: And that would be General James Mattoon Scott, would it? I don't know whether to laugh at that kind of megalomania, or simply cry.
General James Mattoon Scott: James Mattoon Scott, as you put it, hasn't the slightest interest in his own glorification. But he does have an abiding interest in the survival of this country.
President Jordan Lyman: Then, by God, run for office. You have such a fervent, passionate, evangelical faith in this country - why in the name of God don't you have any faith in the system of government you're so hell-bent to protect?

Senator Raymond Clark: Ah, don't get your nanny up; you knew there'd be some dislocations. You can't gear a country's economy for war for 20 years, then suddenly slam on the brakes and expect the whole transition to go like grease through a goose. Hmph. Doesn't work out like that. And think how the whole psychology of the thing's been screwed up from the outset. We've been hating the Russians for a quarter of a century. Suddenly we sign a treaty that says in two months they're to dismantle their bombs, we're to dismantle ours, and we all ride to a peaceful glory. This country will probably live as if peace were just as big a threat as war.
President Jordan Lyman: Dammit, Ray, we could've had our paradise. Yes, by God, we could've had full employment, whopping Gross National Product, nice cushy feeling that we've got a bomb for every one of theirs. But just as sure as God made the state of Georgia, there'd've come one day when they'd've blown us up, or we'd've blown them up. My doctor worries about my blood pressure. You know who that gentleman is down there with the black box. There are five of them... you know that one of them sits outside my bedroom at night? You know what he carries in that box: the codes. The codes by which I, Jordan Lyman, can give the orders sending us into a nuclear war. Instead of my blood pressure, Horace should worry about my sanity.

Glenn Griffin: [when Hilliard threatens him with a gun] You haven't got it in you, Pop.
Dan Hilliard: I've got it in me, all right. *You* put it there.

Glenn Griffin: You don't have it in ya, Pop.
Dan Hilliard: Yes I do. You put it there.

Henry Drummond: The Gospel according to Brady! God speaks to Brady, and Brady tells the world! Brady, Brady, Brady, Almighty!
Matthew Harrison Brady: All of you know what I stand for - what I believe! I believe in the truth of the Book of Genesis! Exodus! Leviticus! Numbers! Deuteronomy! Joshua! Judges! Ruth! First Samuel! Second Samuel! First Kings! Second Kings! Isaiah! Jeremiah! Lamentations! Ezekiel!...

Susan Trexel: You realize what you're doing? What you're promising?
Barrie Trexel: I'm promising to give you up for ever, if I slip.
Susan Trexel: Even if it's only...
Barrie Trexel: Even if I only last a day, or an hour. You win. I lose.

Fred Derry: You gotta hand it to the Navy; they sure trained that kid how to use those hooks.
Al Stephenson: They couldn't train him to put his arms around his girl, or to stroke her hair.

Sam: We all voted for you three times.
Matthew Harrison Brady: I trust it was in three separate elections! I just wish one thing, that you'd not given us quite so WARM a welcome.

Father Perez: I see you're a scholar, my son, as well as a traveler.
Christopher Columbus: Certainly a traveler, Father. I've sailed as far north as Iceland, as far south as Guinea, and eastward to the Golden Horn.
Father Perez: But that is to have reached the limits of the World.
Christopher Columbus: Of the known world? Yes, Father, but the actual world... not by a thousand leagues.
Father Perez: How can you say that - never having seen it?
Christopher Columbus: Have you ever seen Heaven or Hell?
Father Perez: We have sound reasons for believing they exist.
Christopher Columbus: I have sound reasons too.
Father Perez: What are they?
Christopher Columbus: The same as yours, Father, and revelations to which I can add cosmography and mathematics.

Al Stephenson: I think that, uh, little story has considerable significance; but I've, uh, I've forgotten what it is.