Touched by an Angel quotes

Tess

Why you got that look on your face? You just been promoted, baby.

Monica

I just thought casework would be more than baby-sitting.

Tess

Oh, you'll be surprised. There always seems to be more to it. People are complicated things.

Monica

I know. That's what I love about them. How do they do it, Tess? They get up every morning and start all over again. Takes a lot of courage to do that. And they don't even know what we know.

Tess

God help 'em.

Tess

[parting advice for Monica's first experience in human form] Don't start eating everything you see. Now I spend my first assignment as a food tester for one of the Caesars. Look at me. It takes a century to take it off.

Tess

Did I tell you to think north? No, I distinctly remember telling you to get on the bus and go north. Go north. Now, you get your little angel butt back to the city, and take care of business.

Monica

But I am. I'm helping David.

Tess

You were told to stay close to David. That's what he needs.

Monica

What David needs is his mother, and all of a sudden my instincts were kicking in, and...

Tess

Wait just a minute. Let me see if I understand you correctly. You want me to go back to the Creator of the Universe, the Alpha, the Omega, the Great I Am and explain that the words of the Almighty were disobeyed because Monica's instincts kicked in?

[when asked to accompany Monica to the Dead Dog Saloon] I hate those places. All the noise, the smoke, the crowds. And that's just in the ladies room.

There isn't a single night that I don't lie in bed and ask myself: Did Katie cry and I didn't hear? Did I turn the television up too loud? Why didn't I just walk into the room and kiss her goodnight again?

Monica

It's time to forgive yourself.

I can't.

Monica

I'll help you. I'm an angel. [Christine refuses and wants to drive away only to find that there is no car] I'll give it back, I promise. Really, I am an angel.

You're an angel?! You're an angel, so what?! What are you doing here now? Where the hell were you a year ago? Where was the angel when my baby died alone in her crib? Why didn't an angel come down and take me out of my bed and drag me into that nursery? Why didn't an angel dial 9-101 for me? Where the hell was the damn angel then?!! [breaks down in tears] Oh, God, why did you send an angel?

Monica

[embraces her] Christine, there was an angel with your baby that night. That's what she was there for. And it's the same angel who's with her right now and forever. God loves you, Christine. So much you can't even imagine. And so do I.

Monica

(praying, depressed) What I want to know is....Why did You give me a heart if You didn't want me to follow it? (Drops to her knees as she's crying) Love doesn't hide, that's what You said. It hopes all things, it endures all things, it never fails, it stays and it fights. That's what I'm fighting with now. I love that little boy. Please, if I messed things up, please help me to put them back on track. Don't let that child spend one more minute without his mother and don't let his father spend one more lonely night. Please. Please help me. Please.

Monica

It worked. Thank God it worked.

Tess

What'd you do?

Monica

I did something really radical, Tess. I prayed.

Tess

Now you know that's dangerous. But if you think that gets you out of that little mess of yours, you got another thing coming.

Monica

Oh, c'mon! Admit it. I pulled it off.

Tess

You and who else?

Monica

[while practicing baseball] Are you sure this is how it's done?

Tess

You are speaking to the angel who told the Babe which way to point. And you know who kept Kirk Gibson in that locker room 'til he was ready to hit that home run?

Tess

He's got a temper the size of Montana, this coach. But the wind is changing. A mighty storm is rising. And the rains are about to fall hard on that man. And he's going to need an angel to hold the umbrella.

Monica

Me.

Monica

It seems to me that encouragement goes a lot farther with a person than yelling.

Coach Earl

Losers get encouragement. Winners get coached. [To his team] C'mon, guys.

Monica

That's funny. I thought you caught a lot more fleas with honey.

Tess

[whispers] Flies.

Monica

Flies.

Earl

You gotta drink what you toast or it doesn't work.

Monica

[Holding a bottle of Tabasco sauce] Coach, don't tell me you're superstitious.

Tess

Malicious is more like it.

Earl

They let down their guard for one minute or they got sloppy for an instant, that's the opening the enemy is waiting for and bingo! They're dead.

Monica

But this is baseball. These are kids playing against kids, not the enemy.

Earl

No difference. Today it's baseball. Someday it'll be something else. Kids gotta learn to fight to win in a job or..

Monica

Or in a war?.... So that's how it happened. In a war. You got sloppy and you got hurt. Are you really trying to save these kids from the same thing? Or do you just need someone to pay for it?

Monica

Sometimes we have to stand up and fight for what we believe in. And sometimes, it takes even more courage to stay put. To hold your ground and refuse to be bullied.

It doesn't always stop it.

Monica

No. It doesn't change the bully. But it changes you.

Tess

I told you he needed an umbrella but I didn't tell you to hit him on the head with it.

Monica

I know. I got angry.

Tess

Well, anger's not so bad. You just gotta be careful where you put it. So now you're sitting out here contemplating the infinite, huh?

Monica

And what it takes to run it. [sigh] I can't see the plan, Tess. I know I'm supposed to be doing something but I don't know what. He said so many awful things.

Tess

You see, that anger's clouding his brain. Forget what he said. What did you hear?

Monica

I heard fear. Fear that his life has been a waste. He knows that he's dying. And he knows that he's dying by himself.

Tess

Oh, honey, we all die by ourselves. It's living by ourselves that hurts. What is he leaving behind that will last?

Monica

I don't know.

Tess

Some of our best living is done by the people we leave behind.

Monica

[the day of the big game] Tess, any last minute pointers?

Tess

Well, same thing I told the Babe. Hit far and run fast.

Monica

That's it?

Tess

Well, I never got any complaints outta him.