Words of Wisdom From Movies

While I was growing up, I heard many many quotes (or was it the same quotes, over and over?) from movies such as VHF, Spaceballs and Dumb and Dumber. These were my dad's favorite movies of all time. "SUPPLIES!" Anyway, you can see why when I saw the title of this newspaper article in my email, I thought it was quite possibly going to be sarcastic. But it actually had some awesome quotes!


Chris Hicks
There's a line spoken by Steve Martin in the 1991 film "Grand Canyon" that has always amused me: "All of life's riddles are answered in the movies."
Well, I don't know about that. But there is occasional wisdom offered by movies that goes beyond the simplistic "Star Wars" and "Spider-Man" musings — you know, Yoda's "Do or do not; there is no try" and Uncle Ben's "With great power comes great responsibility."

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving (yes, it's next week, folks), when we traditionally become a bit more thoughtful as well as thankful, here are some of my favorite words of wisdom from the movies ... some of which are remarkably applicable to current world conditions.
"Never do nothing you wouldn't want printed on the front page of The New York Times." — Judy Holliday, "Born Yesterday" (1950)

"Everything our parents said was good is bad: sun, milk, red meat, college." — Woody Allen, "Annie Hall" (1977)

"She's television generation. ... The only reality she knows comes to her over the TV set." — William Holden, "Network" (1976)

"There's nothing tragic about being 50. Not unless you're trying to be 25." — Holden, "Sunset Blvd." (1950)

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. ... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it." — Gregory Peck, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962)

"I think once you quit hearing 'sir' and 'ma'am,' the rest is soon to foller." — Tommy Lee Jones, "No Country for Old Men" (2007)

"I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if behind them they didn't have a little bit of plain ordinary everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fellow, too." — James Stewart, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939)

"Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, we should tell them to plan to be surprised." — Steve Carell, "Dan in Real Life" (2007)


My favorites are probably the last two. Too true. And of course the classic line from To Kill a Mockingbird. Do you have any favorite lines from movies?