Schindler's List quotes

View Quote Stern: I somehow left my work card at home. I tried to explain them it was a mistake, but...I'm sorry, it was stupid.
Schindler: What if I got here five minutes later? Then where would I be?

View Quote Reiter: The entire foundation has to be torn down and repoured. If not, there will be at least a subsidence at the southern end of the barracks. Subsidence, and then collapse.
Goeth: And you are an engineer?
Reiter: Yes. My name is Diana Reiter. I'm a graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Milan.
Goeth: Ah, an educated Jew... like Karl Marx himself. Unterscharfuehrer!
Hujar: Jawohl?
Goeth: Shoot her.
Reiter: Herr Kommandant! I'm only trying to do my job!
Goeth: Ja, I'm doing mine.
Hujar: Sir, she's foreman of construction.
Goeth: I'm not going to have arguments with these people.
[Hujar starts to drag Reiter away; Goeth stops him]
Goeth: No. Shoot her here, on my authority.
Reiter: It will take more than that...
Goeth: I'm sure you're right.
[Reiter is shot]
Goeth: Take it down, repour it, rebuild it, like she said.

View Quote Pfefferberg: I respectfully report I've been given orders to clear the bundles from the road so there will be no obstructions to the thoroughfare.
Goeth: [laughing] Finish and join the lines, little Polish clicking soldier.

View Quote Schindler: I go to work the other day. Nobody's there. Nobody tells me about this. I have to find out, I have to go in. Everybody's gone.
Goeth: They're not gone. They're here.
Schindler: They're mine! Every day that goes by, I'm losing money. Every worker that is shot costs me money. I have to find somebody else. I have to train them.
Goeth: We're going to be making so much money, none of this is going to matter.
Schindler: It's bad business.
Goeth: Scherner told me something else about you.
Schindler: Yeah, what's that?
Goeth: That you know the meaning of the word 'gratitude.' That it's not some vague thing with you like it is with others. You want to stay where you are. You've got things going on the side, things are good. You don't want anybody telling you what to do. I can understand all that. You know, I know you. What you want is your own sub-camp. Do you have any idea what's involved? The paperwork alone? Forget you got to build the ****ing thing, getting the ****ing permits is enough to drive you crazy. Then the engineers show up. They stand around, they argue about drainage, foundations, codes, exact specifications, parallel fences four kilometers long, twelve hundred kilograms of barbed wire, six thousand kilograms of electrified fences...I'm telling you, you'll want to shoot somebody. I've been through it, you know, I know.
Schindler: Well, you know, you've been through it. You could make things easier for me. [Goeth shrugs] I'd be grateful.

View Quote Schindler: People die, it's a fact of life. He wants to kill everybody? Great, what am I supposed to do about it? Bring everybody over? Is that what you think? Send them over to Schindler, send them all. His place is a 'haven,' didn't you know? It's not a factory, it's not an enterprise of any kind, it's a haven for rabbis and orphans and people with no skills whatsoever. You think I don't know what you're doing? You're so quiet all the time. I know. I know.
Stern: Are you losing money?
Schindler: No, I'm not losing money, that's not the point.
Stern: What other point is -
Schindler: It's dangerous! It's dangerous to me. You have to understand, Goeth is under enormous pressure. You have to think of it in his situation. He's got this whole place to run, he's responsible for everything that goes on here, all these people - he's got a lot of things to worry about. And he's got the war. Which brings out the worst in people. Never the good, always the bad. Always the bad. But in normal cir****stances, he wouldn't be like this. He'd be all right. There'd just be the good aspects of him - which - he's a wonderful crook. A man who loves good food, good wine, the ladies, making money -
Stern: - killing -
Schindler: He can't enjoy it....What do you want me to do about it?
Stern: Nothing, nothing. We're just talking.
Schindler: [He pulls out a slip of paper] Perlman.

View Quote Schindler: What do you say we get your fire hoses out here and hose down the cars? Indulge me.
Goeth: This is really cruel, Oskar, you're giving them hope. You shouldn't do that. That's cruel.

View Quote Schindler: I'm going home. I've done what I came here for. I've got more money than any man can spend in a lifetime. Someday this is all going to end, you know. I was going to say we'll have a drink then.
Stern: I think I'd better have it now.

View Quote Schindler: That's it. You can finish that page.
Stern: What did Goeth say about this? You just told him how many people you needed, and - you're not buying them. You're buying them? You're paying him for each of these names?
Schindler: If you were still working for me, I'd expect you to talk me out of it. It's costing me a fortune. Finish the page and leave one space at the bottom.
Stern: The list is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.

View Quote Schindler: [gambling with Goeth for Helen] I'll never find a maid as well-trained as her in Brinnlitz. They're all country girls...She's just going to Auschwitz # 2 anyway. What difference does this make?
Goeth: She's not going to Auschwitz. I'd never do that to her. No, I want her to come back to Vienna with me. I want her to come work for me there. I want to grow up old with her.
Schindler: Are you mad? Amon, you can't take her to Vienna with you.
Goeth: No, of course I can't. That's what I'd like to do. What I can do, if I'm any sort of a man, is the next most merciful thing. I should take her into the woods and shoot her painlessly in the back of the head...What is it you said for a natural twenty-one? Fourteen thousand, eight hundred?

View Quote Stern: We've received an angry complaint from the Armaments Board. The artillery shells, tank shells, rocket casings, apparently all of them have failed quality-control tests.
Schindler: Well, that's to be expected - start-up problems. This isn't pots and pans. This is a precise business. I'll write them a letter.
Stern: They're withholding payment.
Schindler: Sure. So would I. So would you. I wouldn't worry about it. We'll get it right one of these days.
Stern: There's a rumor you've been going around miscalibrating the machines. They could shut us down, send us back to Auschwitz.
Schindler: I'll call around, find out where we can buy shells, pass them off as ours.
Stern: I don't see the difference. Whether they're made here or somewhere else.
Schindler: You don't see a difference? I see a difference.
Stern: You'll lose a lot of money, that's the difference.
Schindler: Fewer shells will be made. Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I'll be very unhappy.

View Quote Stern: Do you have any money hidden away someplace that I don't know about?
Schindler: No. Why, am I broke?
Stern: Uh, well...

View Quote Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don't know. If I'd just... I could have got more.
Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.
Schindler: If I'd made more money... I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I'd just...
Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Schindler: I didn't do enough!
Stern: You did so much.
[Schindler looks at his car]
Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.
[removing Nazi pin from lapel]
Schindler: This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. I could have gotten one more person... and I didn't! And I... I didn't!

View Quote Russian: You have been liberated by the Soviet Army!
Stern: Have you been in Poland?
Russian: I just came from Poland.
Stern: Are there any Jews left?
Lemper: Where should we go?
Russian: Don't go east, that's for sure. They hate you there. I wouldn't go west either, if I were you.
Nowak: We could use some food.
Russian: [pointing toward the town of Brinnlitz] Isn't that a town over there?