The greatest movie quotes of all time (AFI top 50)
The top 3 according to 34 votes from people: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. · Here's looking at you, kid. · Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.. (Updated Sep 5, 2024.)
The first 50 lines of the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, chosen in 2005 by a jury of 1,500 film artists, critics and historians. In AFI's order; vote to reorder them.
Top 25
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1
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), Gone with the Wind (1939). AFI #1.
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2
Here's looking at you, kid.
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca (1942). AFI #5.
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3
Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.
Margo Channing (Bette Davis), All About Eve (1950). AFI #9.
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4
Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Cody Jarrett (James Cagney), White Heat (1949). AFI #18.
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5
After all, tomorrow is another day!
Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), Gone with the Wind (1939). AFI #31.
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6
Round up the usual suspects.
Captain Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca (1942). AFI #32.
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7
They call me Mister Tibbs!
Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), In the Heat of the Night (1967). AFI #16.
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8
I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.
Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), On the Waterfront (1954). AFI #3.
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9
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), The Wizard of Oz (1939). AFI #4.
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10
May the Force be with you.
Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Star Wars (1977). AFI #8.
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11
What we've got here is failure to communicate.
The Captain (Strother Martin), Cool Hand Luke (1967). AFI #11.
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12
The stuff that dreams are made of.
Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), The Maltese Falcon (1941), echoing Shakespeare's The Tempest. AFI #14.
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13
I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!
Howard Beale (Peter Finch), Network (1976). AFI #19.
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14
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca (1942). AFI #20.
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15
A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), The Silence of the Lambs (1991). AFI #21.
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16
Bond. James Bond.
James Bond (Sean Connery), Dr. No (1962). AFI #22.
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17
There's no place like home.
Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), The Wizard of Oz (1939). AFI #23.
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18
I am big! It's the pictures that got small.
Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), Sunset Boulevard (1950). AFI #24.
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19
Why don't you come up sometime and see me?
Lady Lou (Mae West), She Done Him Wrong (1933). AFI #26.
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20
You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.
Slim (Lauren Bacall), To Have and Have Not (1944). AFI #34.
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21
My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), Forrest Gump (1994). AFI #40.
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22
Plastics.
Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke), The Graduate (1967). AFI #42.
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23
Shane. Shane. Come back!
Joey Starrett (Brandon deWilde), Shane (1953). AFI #47.
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24
I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), The Godfather (1972). AFI #2.
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25
Go ahead, make my day.
Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), Sudden Impact (1983). AFI #6.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 25… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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26
All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), Sunset Boulevard (1950). AFI #7.
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27
You talkin' to me?
Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), Taxi Driver (1976). AFI #10.
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28
Love means never having to say you're sorry.
Jennifer Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), Love Story (1970). AFI #13.
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29
E.T. phone home.
E.T., E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). AFI #15.
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30
Show me the money!
Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Jerry Maguire (1996). AFI #25.
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31
Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'
Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), Casablanca (1942); often misquoted as 'Play it again, Sam'. AFI #28.
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32
You can't handle the truth!
Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson), A Few Good Men (1992). AFI #29.
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33
I want to be alone.
Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), Grand Hotel (1932). AFI #30.
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34
I'll have what she's having.
Customer (Estelle Reiner), When Harry Met Sally... (1989). AFI #33.
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35
You're gonna need a bigger boat.
Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), Jaws (1975). AFI #35.
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36
Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!
Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). AFI #36.
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37
I'll be back.
The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), The Terminator (1984). AFI #37.
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38
Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper), The Pride of the Yankees (1942). AFI #38.
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39
If you build it, he will come.
Shoeless Joe Jackson (voice of Ray Liotta), Field of Dreams (1989). AFI #39.
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40
We rob banks.
Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty), Bonnie and Clyde (1967). AFI #41.
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41
We'll always have Paris.
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca (1942). AFI #43.
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42
I see dead people.
Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), The Sixth Sense (1999). AFI #44.
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43
Stella! Hey, Stella!
Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). AFI #45.
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44
Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars.
Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), Now, Voyager (1942). AFI #46.
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45
Well, nobody's perfect.
Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), Some Like It Hot (1959). AFI #48.
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46
It's alive! It's alive!
Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), Frankenstein (1931). AFI #49.
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47
Houston, we have a problem.
Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Apollo 13 (1995). AFI #50.
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48
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
Lt. Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), Apocalypse Now (1979). AFI #12.
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49
Rosebud.
Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), Citizen Kane (1941). AFI #17.
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50
I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!
Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), Midnight Cowboy (1969). AFI #27.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (4)
The AFI list is a great way to discover classic films.
Fun to see how many of these I knew without having seen the films.
'Here's looking at you, kid' is my favorite, Casablanca has like six quotes on the full list.
'Frankly, my dear' at #1 has stood for decades, hard to argue.