Don't lecture me about letting emotions get in the way! This plant was showing a profit. You're only shutting it down because I wouldn't go work for you in Metropolis.
Lex, you may have felt that you found a home here, but you were mistaken! This was just your training ground. Well, your training is over! You're coming home, son.
We have a complicated relationship, Clark. My father wants me to believe it's built on trust, but it's not. It's built on lies and deceit. Any relationship with that foundation is destined to fail. Lucky we don't have that problem.
When Alexander the Great was dying, his generals asked who he would leave his empire to. If he would appoint a successor, it would keep the legacy intact... prevent generations of bloodshed! His answer was simple, 'I leave it to the strongest'.
He's not your son, you deluded hick! He's not even human! You can kill me if you want for saying this, but you know I'm right. You're just a small man whose son's destiny is too big for you to comprehend. Clark doesn't belong to you. He belongs to the world.
You can't blame yourself. You can't change who you are. As long as you live, people will try to exploit you. Your father and I have tried to shelter you as long as possible, but one day we won't be there for you. And you're gonna have to carry the burden of your gifts on your own.
Mr. Kent, since the beginning of time, people have been looking up at the stars and wondering "What's out there?" Clark is the answer that they have been waiting for.
The first time Clark used his abilities, he'd crawled under a big oak bed that my grandfather had made, and I crawled underneath it to try to get him out. All of a sudden the frame just came up in the air. He was a toddler lifting, I don't know, 500 pounds over his head.
We decided to take him to a doctor scientist, somebody more equipped to understand than we were. But when we got in front of the office, Martha, she said that if we left him there that they would want to keep him and we'd never see him again. So I took him home. Now, that may have been a mistake, but it was a mistake I'd gladly make again.
When the tornado came, I thought this was it. Fate had finally found me. Then I saw you in the truck and you put your arms around me and you told me that everything was going to be okay. I know, it sounds crazy, but I started to think of all the other times that you've been there to protect me. And I thought maybe there's more to Clark Kent than meets the eye.
Any good relationship relies on trust, but there has to be room to disagree. Like the way Jonathan and I disagreed about you. He couldn't see past the Luthor name, but I always thought you were truly trying to be a friend to Clark. Now I'm beginning to think Jonathan was right all along.