The Twilight Zone (1959) quotes

204 total quotes



All Seasons
 Season 1   Season 2   Season 3   Season 4  



Wordsworth: I am a librarian, sir. That is my occupation. That is my profession. If you people choose to call that obsolete...
Chancellor: A librarian. Having to do with books?
Wordsworth: Yes sir, books.
Chancellor: And since there are no more books, there are no more libraries. Therefore,it follows there would be little use for the services of a librarian. Case in point,a minister would say his profession is preaching the word of God. And,of course, since the state has proven that there is no God, that would make the function of a minister somewhat academic as well.
Wordsworth: There is a God!
Chancellor: You are in error, Mr. Wordsworth. There is no God. The state has proven that there is no God.
Wordsworth: You cannot erase God with an edict!
Chancellor: You are obsolete, Mr. Wordsworth.
Wordsworth: A lie. No man is obsolete
Chancellor: You have no function, Mr. Wordsworth. You're an anachronism. Like a ghost from another time.
Wordsworth: I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages.
Chancellor: You're a bug, Mr. Wordsworth. A crawling insect. An ugly misformed little creature who has no purpose here, no meaning.
Wordsworth: I am a human being!
Chancellor: You're a Librarian, Mr. Wordsworth. A dealer in Books and two cent fines and pamphlets and closed stacks and the musty insides of a language factory that spews out meaningless words on an assembly line. Words, Mr. Wordsworth, that have no substance and no dimension like air, like the wind,like a vacuum that you make believe has an existence by scribbling index numbers on little cards!
Wordsworth: I don't care. I tell you, I don't care! I am a human being! And if I speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after I've been shoveled into my grave!
Chancellor: Delusions, Mr. Wordsworth. Delusions that you inject into your veins with printer's ink. The narcotics that you call literature. The Bible, poetry, essays of all kind an opiate to make you think you have a strength when you have no strength at all! You have nothing but spindly limbs and a dream and the state has no use for your kind!
Season 3

Hayley: Didn't you go out on that bus?
Mr Ross: I did, indeed. That bridge wasn't safe. It collapsed. The state police car, the bus, kerplunk. Right into the river. It was a terrible scene. No one got out.
Hayley: Except you
Mr Ross: Except me. Lucky,I guess, huh?
Hayley: Very lucky but...
Mr Ross: But what?
Hayley: You're not even wet.
Mr Ross: Wet? What is wet?
Hayley: What do you mean what is wet? You fell in the river but you're clothes are all dry.
Mr Ross: An illusion, that's all. Like that jukebox playing in the corner, that's an illusion too. [The Jukebox stops playing] or that phone ringing. [A Phone starts ringing,then stops] That's an illusion. Just a parlor trick.
Hayley: What are you,some kind of magician?
Mr Ross: Oh hardly. [A third arm comes out of his jacket and lights a Cigarette] Now before you faint dead away,I think I should tell you my name isn't really Ross and I wasn't really going to Boston. No, I was sent as sort of an advance scout. You know, these cigarettes, do you call them? They taste wonderful. We haven't got a thing like this on Mars. That's incidentally where I come from. We're beginning to colonize. My friends will be arriving shortly. I think they're going to like it here. It's a lovely area. So remote and off the beaten track. Just the perfect place to set up a colony, don't you think? Now while we're waiting, how about some of what you call music.
...
Hayley: Oh I don't mind. You see, Mr Ross, my name isn't really Hayley. And I do agree with you, this is an extraordinary place to colonize. We folks on Venus had the same idea. We got it several years ago. And I think I should tell you now, your friends aren't coming. They've been intercepted. Oh, a colony is coming. But it's from Venus. And if you're still alive, I think you'll see how we differ. [We takes off his hat,revealing a third eye] And I agree with you about what they call music. Why don't you play some?

Craig: Whoever invented this stuff must have had stomach trouble; no compassion for his fellow man or his fellow man's bowels! Well, there may come a moment in time when I'll enjoy this.
Fletcher: There may come a moment in time when you'll lick your own foot, as if it were the drumstick of a Thanksgiving turkey! But until it does come to that, buddy, you'll eat what is prescribed to eat! And if you've got tears to shed, you save them for bedtime and weep them into your pillow; don't spray them all over me! It's a waste of time, and it's a waste of effort; it's also dull, and it's tough to live with! Is that clear, Craig?
Craig: Loud, and...
Fletcher: Then dwell on it! And while you're dwelling on it, you might count a few blessings. We don't have much food or water, that's a fact. But we landed in a place where there's oxygen, and we can survive. Plus, we walked away from that crash with hardly a bone out of place. Now, the standing order is as follows: you got any deep-rooted complaints, you jot them down in the ship's log; don't bother me with them! Now, is THAT clear?
Craig: Still loud and, COMMANDER.

Anthony: No kids came to play with me today, not a single one, and I wanted someone to play with!
Mr. Fremont: Well, Anthony, you remember what happened the last time some kids came over to play. The little Fredricks boy and his sister.
Anthony: I had a real good time.
Mr. Fremont: Oh, sure you did, you had a real good time, and it's good that you have a good time, it's real good. It's just that...
Anthony: Just that what?
Mr. Fremont: Well, Anthony, you uh... you wished them away into the cornfield, and their mommy and daddy were real upset.
Anthony: About what?

Bill Stockton: Grace...now, if it is a bomb, there's no assurance it'll land near us. And if it doesn't--
Grace Stockton: But if it does, Bill, New York is only forty miles away. And New York's going to get it. We know that. So we'll get it too. All of it. The poison, the radiation, the whole mess. We'll get it.
Bill Stockton: We'll be in a shelter, Grace, and with any luck at all, we'll survive. We've got food and water enough to last us for two weeks. Maybe even longer if we use it wisely.
Grace Stockton: Then what, Bill? Then what? We crawl out of here like gofers to tip-toe through all that rubble up above? The rubble and the ruin and the bodies of our friends? Bill, why is it so necessary to survive? What's the good of it? [begins to sob] Wouldn't it...just be...better and easier...just quicker if we...just...
Paulie Stockton: [calls from the other room] Got the tools, Pa. Anything else you need from out here?
Bill Stockton: Grace...that's why we have to survive. That's the reason. He may only inherit rubble now, but he's twelve years old. He's only twelve years old, Grace.

Harold Beldon: Mother, give me your hand. You see. No shock. No engulfment. No tearing asunder. What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper. What you thought was the end is the beginning.

Henry Bemis: Well, at least I still have my books. And the best thing is, there's time now... all the time I need.

Gunther Lutze: You are going to pronounce sentence? Is that what you have in mind now? You will pronounce sentence, and then you shall execute that sentence. Is that correct? Ha! HA! [Bursts out laughing, then smashes out a pane of glass] PIGS! FILTH! YOU WILL ALL ASSEMBLE IN THE SQUARE, THERE TO PASS SENTENCE ON CAPTAIN LUTZE! YOU WILL CRAWL OUT OF YOUR GRAVES TO SEE THAT JUSTICE IS DONE! [Laughs more, then suddenly turns to Becker] Where are they? Where's the judge? Where's the jury? Where's the executioner? I'll tell you where they are. They're in your mind. You've hatched them out of your hatred. You've planned the vengeance out of the crazy quilt of your imagination. So together with thin little threads of wishful thinking, why didn't I kill you when I had the chance?! Why didn't I- [Charges at Becker, then stops] Becker?... I did kill you. I killed you-
Becker: You killed me the night the Americans came close to the camp. You tried to burn it down, remember? You tried to kill everyone who was left. In my case, you succeeded. So, I think it would be a waste of time, Captain, wouldn't it? A waste of your precious time... of that little time you have left, to murder me again?
[Lutze screams furiously and charges, but Becker vanishes. Suddenly Lutze finds himself outside again]
Becker: Captain Lutze. Captain Lutze; you have been tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity. It is the judgement of this court that from this day forth you shall be rendered insane.

Craig: [Showing Fletcher the statue of him] The little people did that. They did it overnight.
Fletcher: What do you give them in return, Craig?
Craig: I won't tramp my feet down... on their town.

David Ellington: Honest men make unconvincing liars!

Janet: It's pretty bad, isn't it? I know it's pretty bad. Ever since I can remember... ever since I was a little girl...people have turned away from me. The very first thing I can remember is a little child screaming when she looked at me. I never wanted to be beautiful. I never wanted to look like a painting. I never even wanted to be loved. I just wanted... I just wanted people not to scream when they looked at me.

Jerry Harlowe: We could throw a nice big block party, just like old times! Anything to get back to normal! Right, Bill?
Bill Stockton: Normal? ...I don't know what normal is. I thought I did once; I don't anymore.
Jerry Harlowe: Oh, we'll pay for all the damages, Bill.
Bill Stockton: Damages? I wonder...if any of us has any idea what those "damages" really are. Maybe one of them was finding out what we're really like when we're "normal." The kind of people we are, just underneath the skin--and I mean all of us--a lot of naked, wild animals who put such a price on staying alive that they'll claw their own neighbors to death just for the privilege! We were spared a bomb tonight, but I wonder...if we weren't destroyed even without it.

Adam: Well, Jiggs, don't you think that all of this is just a little bit too much the way it should be?
Jiggs: I don't get you.
Adam: Well, I mean it's so pat. I got tried and sentenced the same day. It doesn't work like that! But you see, that's the way that I saw it in my mind, and so that's the way it is! Or you take this place here, you and Coley and his harmonica or Phillips and his mother. It's like a movie. Real death houses aren't like that, but you see I've never been in a real death house, so that's my impression of it!
Paul: Fifteen more minutes. That's another thing. Why does this always happen around midnight?
Henry: Because that's when it happens!
Paul: Yeah, but why?
Henry: You tell me why.
Paul: According to Grant, he doesn't know anything about these matters except what he sees in the movies, and in the movies it always happens at midnight.
Henry: Because movies are technically accurate.
Paul: Yeah, that's strange too when you come to think of it.

Jesse: [seeing the dead Fats Brown] It's impossible!
Fats: Nothing's impossible. Some things are less likely than others, that's all.

Charlie: Look! Look, I swear it isn't me! I swear it isn't! But I know who it is! I know who the monster is! I know who it is that doesn't belong among us! I swear I know who it is!
Don: Alright, Charlie, let's hear it.
Charlie: It's...it's...
Les: Well, what are you waiting for!
Don: Come on Charlie, come on!
Old Man: Who is it, Charlie? Tell us!
Charlie: It's the kid! It's Tommy! He's the one!