The Blacklist quotes

George Orwell wrote, "Those who abjure violence can do so only because others are committing violence on their behalf." What a visionary, but, Good Lord, his books are a downer.

If you think your beloved brother was just another faceless young man in that crowd you know nothing.

Samar Navabi

I will kill you.

Like Kian Nouri? The scientist you murdered last week in Dubai?

Samar Navabi

What do you know about my brother?

There's no country insisting you do your duty. If you kill me, it'll be cold-blooded murder. So, call the Mossad or the C.I.A. or whoever's coming and be done with it.

You violated our agreement.

No. I honored it. I got the others to hold off, but Milos Kirchhoff, Berlin, whatever the hell name he's using He chewed through the leash. I couldn't stop him.

Well, now your dog is tracking a new scent. Yours.

Do you have a wife, kids? That's what makes it the hardest. A wife and kids. I've been in the intelligence field a long time now. On my orders, 763 men and women have died in service to their country. And there wasn't a grieving wife or mother or husband I didn't either call or visit personally. Thank them for their sacrifice. That's what makes it the hardest. The families. You can't disarm it, can you?

Sir, I asked you to be as still as possible.

That's more than enough. I'm not gonna make it 764. What's your name?

Mike. My name's Mike.

Go home, Mike. You've done everything you can.

I remember the parades from when I was a young boy, standing by my father, seeing those trucks that went by with the rockets and cannons. Beautiful. And all those men marching as one, saluting at me as one. Our soldiers, our nation. Yuri Gargarin was the first man in space. We were so proud.

I want to speak to somebody with real authority.

Harold Cooper

This is Harold Cooper, Assistant Director for the FBI.

Hello, Harold Cooper. I'm pretty sure you see how this works. I get what I need, or somebody dies. From here on forward I am the warden.

Boy, things got nasty in Belgrade, didn't they? It's funny-- up until then, I was aimless, just an ordinary thief, but after Belgrade, I became known as the man who bested the great Ray Reddington.

You didn't best me, Luther. You butchered and clawed your way into my pockets, and innocent people died in the process.

You're such a snob, Red. Always considered yourself above the fray with your handmade suits and your fancy wine, your private jets. Do you even drive? You got everybody convinced you're so hard, Red, but I know better. You're soft.

You're not getting the Fulcrum.

And how you gonna stop me, Red? Bore me to death with Beethoven? Put me to sleep quoting Nietzsche? Come on. We both know that in order to stop me, you got to have balls. You got to run the gauntlet. And after Belgrade, well that's just not gonna happen. So, tell me-- how are you gonna stop me, Red?

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

Was that Nietzsche?

No. Bruce Lee.

Have you ever heard of Bruno Ashmanskis? The most skilled cat burglar I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Bruno mostly did jobs on commission, but he always wanted to do something for himself, something special, so he got it into his head that he was gonna break into the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to steal an imperial vase from the Qing Dynasty worth millions-- the single biggest trophy of his career.

Elizabeth Keen

What happened?

I never heard from him again. I'd always assumed he'd succeeded, that he was sipping some umbrella-clad cocktail on a beach in Tahiti, until five years later during a remodel of the Fitzwilliam, they removed a wall. There was poor Bruno-- what was left of him, anyway-- stuck inside a heating duct, still clutching that vase. I prefer to think of old Bruno on that beach in Tahiti.

In Mexico, there are these fish that have colonized the freshwater caves along Sierra del Abra. They were lost. They found themselves living in complete darkness. But they didn't die. Instead, they thrived. They adapted. They lost their pigmentation, their sight, eventually even their eyes. With survival, they became hideous. I've rarely thought about what I once was. But I wonder if a ray of light were to make it into the cave, would I be able to see it? Or feel it? Would I gravitate to its warmth? And if I did, would I become less hideous?

[to Braxton] Luther, I never thought I'd enjoy having anything in my mouth as much as Petty Officer Virginia Sherman, but this? My God! It tastes so good! I hesitate to swallow, and I certainly don't want to spit it out. Oh, what the hell. I told you so.

Good heavens, Earl. You've never had any feeling in your heart, but now it looks like there isn't much going on below the waist.

I do all right. The wheelchair is just a little memento of our time together in Bolivia.

No hard feelings, I trust.

Just a few. But this is only business, Red. Besides, you warned me. Pigs eat Hogs get slaughtered.

All you had to do was listen. But that's always been your problem-- all that money clogging your ears. I told you to come with me that night out on the Altiplano.

I had millions invested. I couldn't just walk away like you.

Poor choice of words given what those soldiers did to you. I'd hate to see you play the hog yet again, Earl.

No, no, Red. You taught me an invaluable lesson. Dispassion is the businessman's best friend. One mustn't get emotionally involved in business. You have to listen to the market. You hear that? That's the market telling me you are in demand. What kind of a commodity are you? A wealth of secrets and information? Or are you an impulse purchase for a buyer to settle a score? You scare people, Red. How much would you pay to be rid of your deepest fear?

I've always found fear to be my most valuable sense. But then again, you Kings demonstrate a propensity for having more dollars than sense.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, one of the most exciting items of the night, a mainstay on the FBI's most wanted list, this gentleman has been on the list longer than any other criminal! A former naval intelligence officer, he possesses a wealth of classified information and presides over one of the world's most prosperous extralegal empires. You may know him as the concierge of crime. I present Raymond Reddington!

Harold Cooper

[to a detainee] I don't think you quite understand the situation. You're assuming that you're a material witness in federal custody and are entitled to certain rights. And while these things are true, what you don't know is you don't know me. My doctors recently detected a mass within the left hemisphere of my brain-- an inoperable tumor. Within a matter of weeks, it will kill me. And this has clarified a number of priorities for me. Among those priorities, nothing is more important to me than the safety of my colleagues. I'm committed that no one under my command dies during the remainder of my watch. And I will do anything within my power to honor that commitment. And since I quite literally have nothing to lose I suggest you think long and hard before answering my question. Where is Elizabeth Keen?

What's in this for you?

You wouldn't understand. You're not a King.

Funny. Your father used to say that exact phrase as if it somehow excused him from the use of logic.

What's in it for me? Hmm. Legacy and the King family fortune.

If this is just about the money, that would be so banal. I bet your father would trade it all for one more walk in the park with a good friend.

Tell me. Where are all your good friends now, huh? If you think there's a soul in this world loyal to anything but your pocketbook, then you're the one who's excused himself from the use of logic.

You ever stop to think that the reason you have trouble relating to other people is because you're special? That it's not you, it's everyone else that's the problem?

That's not what social services says.

Good old social services. Bureaucrats trained in missing the point. We believe that your delinquent inclinations are exactly what makes you invaluable. It takes a certain kind of courage.

What are you talking about? A job, a school? What is all this stuff?

I told you, we have an opportunity, if you're willing to take it. If you're smart enough to take it. It's your choice, Jacob. You can get out and go back to the life you've always known, or you can take a ride with me, and I can tell you how to leave this life behind. I can help you become anything.