There have been hundreds - maybe thousands - of movies made in the history of cinema. And yet, only a fraction of those movies have memorable dialogue - lines that inspire us or make us laugh - lines with insights that grab our attention and make us say “wow.” These are the quotes that linger with us long after we leave the movie theater and the name of the movie fades in our minds.

1. “Frankly, My Dear, I Don’t Give a Damn“- Gone With the Wind- 1939- This probably one of the most recognized quotes in all of movie history. The famous last words between Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara. Being an Atlanta native, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for this movie.

2. “Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That’s the first thing they teach you.”- Robert DeNiro, “Ronin” DeNiro and company are going to meet up with some weapons dealers. It’s nighttime, they’re meeting under a bridge, and DeNiro smells a setup. After everything goes down and they barely make it away, Jean Reno asks him how he knew it was a setup.

3. “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” - Brad Pitt, “Fight Club”
Project Mayhem is building up steam and all of Tyler Durden’s disciples are growing crops and doing what they have to in order to achieve the goal of his Master Plan. He shouts out the preceding quote to his loyal followers.

4. “Good work, get some sleep, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.”
From “The Princess Bride” movie, this was told to Wesley the farm boy every night before he went to bed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Said in such an offhand way, it makes me chuckle every time I think it. This movie quote runs through my head every time I tell someone they did a good job.

5. “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” - This line by Claire Belcher (Olympia Dukakis) from Steel Magnolias (1989) has been presented many ways.

6. “Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.” - Harrison Ford, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”
Indiana Jones’s sidekick Short Round was indirectly asking about the reason for their next adventure.

7. Jeff Spiccoli (Sean Penn) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He says “All I need are some cool waves…” He was basically living a life of simplicity. Jeff Spiccoli was the typical goof-off highschool student, worried only about women and partying, and not giving one thought to his future.

8. “May the Force Be With You” - Star Wars 1978- Pretty much everyone in modern culture has used this quote at some point. We generally use it to mean “Good Luck” to someone on a tough task . It’s telling that the first time this iconic quote is uttered is by Han Solo as he watches Luke board his fighter for the climatic mission to the death star. Han was the most resistant to the idea of the force, yet becomes one of the first to completely acknowledge just how powerful The Force actually is.

9. Katherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond, saying, “That’s my husband” as she slaps her daughter, played by Jane Fonda. She is talking about Henry Fonda.
The scene is that Jane Fonda is talking to her mother about her father, stating that he never really liked her or engaged with her during her childhood. She started to talk bad about him, and Katherine Hepburn wasn’t having it. It’s her husband, for crying out loud! Even though she may have agreed with her daughter about what was being said, she couldn’t allow her to talk ill of her true love.

10. “I haven’t met that many happy people. How do they act?” This is one of the great lines from The Big Chill (1983) and is part of the entire introspective theme of the movie.

11. Apollo 13, the movie, the quote of Ed Harris saying “Failure is not an option.” This quote was said to the troubleshooters trying to come up with a way to save the crew on the mission, when it seemed about impossible for them to be able to return to earth safely given the technical problems they were having.

12. The Shawshank Redemption Movie Quote - Morgan Freeman, “I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. I guess I just miss my friend.”

13. “You Jump, I Jump“- Titanic 1997- One of the biggest grossing films of all time.. In 1997, it was pure gold. This quote is first said by Jack as tries to talk Rose out of marrying Cal. He is referring to their first meeting when she was attempting to throw herself off the back of Titanic and he told her that he was too involved and that if she jumped he would have to jump in after her.

14. “Happiness only real when shared.” - Emile Hirsch, “Into the Wild”
As much as I feel that happiness is fleeting, I think this is the real truth of what it is.

15. “The universe is a pretty big place; it’s bigger than anyone has ever dreamed of before. So it just seems like an awful waste of space.” Contact (1997) is a movie with a theme and a message that absolutely riveted me the first time I saw the movie.

16. “You keep thinkin’, Butch.”. This is such a great quote from Robert Redford in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”

17. “Say hello to my little friend!”
Screamed by Al Pacino in the movie “Scarface”

18. “I’m not against technology, Doctor; I’m against the men who deify it at the expense of human truth.” I was impressed by this insightful quote by Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey) to S. R. Hadden (John Hurt) in Contact.

19. “Run Forest!”
This is just a great line from the movie “Forest Gump”. Though everyone in the movie said it except Tom Hanks, he will always be remembered for it.

20. In the movie Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts says, “I want the fairytale.” Richard Gere has just offered to put her up in a condo and get her off the streets, but she claims that that is just geography. Just because she wouldn’t be hooking each day, she would still amount to what is his personal hooker. She wants more out of life, so makes this statement.

21. Lord of the Rings, Gandolf: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” This is an obvious lesson.

22. “Dancing’s just a conversation. Talk to me.”
Why couldn’t I come up with a great line like this one by Justin Matisse (Harry Connick, Jr.) to Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock) in the romantic comedy Hope Floats (1998)?. Dancing is an opportunity for people to meet - to talk - and when two people dance together for the first time, there is a conversation going on, even if they don’t say a word, because body language is talking for them.

23. “You get what you settle for.”
This one line by Thelma (Susan Sarandon) in Thelma & Louise (1991) speaks loud and clear to the frustration the two main characters, Thelma and Louise, feel about the desperation in their lives. It also speaks just as loudly and clearly to the outcomes we choose to accept in our lives and when the fact is that we have the power to accept or reject the majority of those outcomes and to craft better options.

24. The Usual Suspects Movie Quote - Kevin Spacey, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.“

25. “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” This is a powerful statement that I think politicians and citizens both need to clearly understand. The statement is made by V (Hugo Weaving) in one of the more important movies of our time, V for Vendetta (2003).

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