The Best Years of Our Lives quotes

View Quote Marie: What do you think I was doing all those years?
Fred: I don't know, babe, but I can guess.
Marie: Go ahead. Guess your head off. I could do some guessing myself. What were you up to in London and Paris and all those places? I've given you every chance to make something of yourself. I gave up my own job when you asked me. I gave up the best years of my life, and what have you done? You flopped! Couldn't even hold that job at the drugstore. So I'm going back to work for myself and that means I'm gonna live for myself too. And in case you don't understand English, I'm gonna get a divorce. What have you got to say to that?
Fred: Don't keep Cliff waiting.
Marie: What are you gonna do?
Fred: I'm going away.
Marie: Where?
Fred: As far away from Boone City as I can get.
Marie: That's a good idea. You'll get a good job someplace else. There are drugstores everywhere.

View Quote Fred: [about his military citations] They're just a lot of fancy words that don't mean anything. You can throw them away...Those things came in the packages of K-rations.
Pat Derry: Well, we'll treasure them, my boy. How do you know it will be different anyplace else? There's a need here for fellas like yourself that fought and won the war. I know you haven't had the best of breaks since you got back, but well, it seems like you ought to stick here and slug it out a while longer on your own home ground.
Fred: You're all right, Pop. But I know when it's time to bail out.

View Quote Foreman: Hey you, what are you doing in that airplane?
Fred: I used to work in one of those.
Foreman: Reviving old memories, huh?
Fred: Yeah, or maybe getting some of 'em out of my system.
Foreman: Well, you can take your last look at these crates. We're breakin' them up.
Fred: Yeah, I know. You're the junkman. You get everything sooner or later.
Foreman: This is no junk. We're using this material for building pre-fabricated houses.
Fred: You don't need any help, do ya?
Foreman: Out of a job?
Fred: That's it.
Foreman: I see. One of the fallen angels of the Air Force. Well, pardon me if I show no sympathy. While you glamour boys were up in the wild blue yonder, I was down in a tank.
Fred: Listen, chum. Sometime I'd be glad to hear the story of your war experiences. What I asked you for is a job? You got one?
Foreman: Do you know anything about building?
Fred: No, but there's one thing I do know. I know how to learn, same as I learned that job up there.

View Quote Homer: I was afraid you wouldn't be able to stand up for me.
Fred: I'd stand up for you, kid, 'til I drop.

View Quote Peggy: Well, what have you been doing with yourself lately?
Fred: Working.
Peggy: Yes, uh, Dad told me he heard you were in some kind of building work.
Fred: Well, that's a hopeful way of putting it. I'm really in the junk business - an occupation for which many people feel I'm well-qualified by temperament and training. It's fascinating work.