Cigarette Smoking Man quotes from The X-Files

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Don't try and threaten me, Mulder. I've watched presidents die.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

The fiercest enemy is the man that has nothing left to lose.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

Life... is like a box of chocolates - A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So, you're stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. (sighs) Sure, once in a while, there's a.. peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast, and the taste is.. fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts - If you're desperate enough to eat those, all you've got left is a... is an empty box... filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

I could kill you whenever I please... But not today.

Cigarette Smoking Man

A man digs a hole, he risks falling into it.

Cigarette Smoking Man

Only yesterday you said you wouldn't be party to murder, and now, here you are.

Cigarette Smoking Man

I never underestimated Mulder. I still don't.

Cigarette Smoking Man

That which makes miracles, can also make great evil.

Cigarette Smoking Man

My name is Carl Gerhard Busch. But I've been known by many aliases during my long career with the U.S. government. It's been a humbling job, though I'm hardly known as a humble man. I've been a witness to history, much of it violent, much of it an abomination of the values Americans hold dear. I've had a privileged seat at the centers of power, held the reins of that power, making sacrifices few are capable of, of which even fewer are willing. If people knew the truth, they'd riot in the streets. Too much is made of the will to power, as if our will is free, our choices our own. Our destinies are forged in our bones, made real by a raging impulse to self-destruct. I'm not a bad man, more a practical man. I've taken certain gifts I was given and made good men great. It is my greatness. I'm a father to two men who have figured more in the future than they might ever know. Both would end up working for the FBI, both complex but dedicated men who sacrificed dearly, and in their dogged pursuits would end up paying a terrible price, searching for truths as I parceled them out, truths held only by the few who knew the levers of power and the invisible hand controlling them. Is there life out there? Good heavens. To doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination. It is a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity, the nascency of our science, the rudiment of our tools. We listen, we search. We hope for a sign, as if our eyes and ears are good enough, our brains large enough, our egos small enough. I'm an old man now. I will leave my own mark upon history, more than presidents or tyrants. I don't ask for loyalty and trust, the fleeting bonds of men. I ask only for the years to show my sons and their sons I was right. What their father did, had to be done.

Krycek

Scully's a problem. A much larger problem than you described.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Every problem has a solution.

Krycek

Reassigning them to other areas seems to have only strengthened their determination. Scully's a problem. A much larger problem than you described.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Every problem has a solution.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

We tell you only what you need to know.

Krycek

I think I have a right to know.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

You have no rights, only orders to be carried out. If you have a problem with that, we'll make other arrangements.

Krycek

If Mulder is such a threat, why not eliminate him?

The Cigarette Smoking Man

That's not our policy.

Krycek

It's not? After what you had me do?

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Kill Mulder and you risk turning one man's religion into a crusade.

Mulder

[holding a gun on the Cigarette Smoking Man/Cancerman] Why her?? Why her and not me?? ..ANSWER ME!

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

..I like you. I like her, too - That's why she was returned to you.

Mulder

[holds gun closer to CSM's head] You should be the one to die.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

Why? Look at me. No wife. No family. Some power. I'm in the game because I believe what I'm doing is right.

Mulder

Right? Who are you to decide what's right?

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

Who are you? ..If people were to know of things that I know.. It would all fall apart. I told Skinner you shot the man in the hospital, but I didn't really believe it. And here you are with a gun to my head. I have more respect for you, Mulder. You're becoming a player. You can kill me now, but you'll never know the truth.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

..And that's why I'll win. Don't worry - This will be our secret. We wouldn't others to.. start rumors.

Mulder

You can't protect the public by lying to them.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man

It's done every day.