Daniel Day-Lewis movie quotes

View Quote I want you's all to meet the son of Priest Vallon. I took him under my wing and see how I'm repaid? Saves my life one day so he can kill me the next like a sneak-thief, instead of fighting like a man. A base defiler. Unworthy of a noble name.

View Quote Look, I want you to see this. This is you, right here! Notch 45, you Irish bog bastard.

View Quote Everything you see belongs to me, to one degree or another. The beggars and newsboys and quick thieves here in Paradise, the sailor dives and gin mills and blind tigers on the waterfront, the anglers and amusers, the she-hes and the ****. Everybody owes, everybody pays. Because that's how you stand up against the rising of the tide.

View Quote [to Cora] No, you submit, do you hear? You be strong, you survive... You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.

View Quote (Kicks the rifle from Maj. Heyward's hand while he aims at a Mohawk that Chingachgook is chasing) ...In case your aim isn't any better than your judgment.

View Quote I am La Longue Carabine! My death is a great honor to the Huron, take me!

View Quote In times like this, I'm best alone.

View Quote Abraham Lincoln: Since we have the floor next in the debate, I thought I'd suggest you might... temper your contributions so as not to frighten our conservative friends?
Thaddeus Stevens: Ashley insists you're ensuring approval by dispensing patronage to otherwise undeserving Democrats.
Abraham Lincoln: I can't ensure a single damn thing if you scare the whole House with talk of land appropriations and revolutionary tribunals and punitive thisses and that's—
Thaddeus Stevens: When the war ends, I intend to push for full equality, the Negro vote and much more. Congress shall mandate the seizure of every foot of rebel land and every dollar of their property. We'll use their confiscated wealth to establish hundreds of thousands of free Negro farmers, and at their side soldiers armed to occupy and transform the heritage of traitors. We'll build up a land down there of free men and free women and free children and freedom. The nation needs to know that we have such plans.
Abraham Lincoln: That's the untempered version of reconstruction. It's not... It's not exactly what I intend, but we shall oppose one another in the course of time. Now we're working together, and I'm asking you—
Thaddeus Stevens: For patience, I expect.
Abraham Lincoln: When the people disagree, bringing them together requires going slow till they're ready to make up—
Thaddeus Stevens: Ah, shit on the people and what they want and what they're ready for! I don't give a goddamn about the people and what they want! This is the face of someone who has fought long and hard for the good of the people without caring much for any of 'em. And I look a lot worse without the wig. The people elected me! To represent them! To lead them! And I lead! You ought to try it.
Abraham Lincoln: I admire your zeal, Mr. Stevens, and I have tried to profit from the example of it. But if I'd listened to you, I'd have declared every slave free the minute the first shell struck Fort Sumter; then the border states would've gone over to the Confederacy, the war would've been lost and the Union along with it, and instead of abolishing slavery, as we hope to do in two weeks, we'd be watching helpless as infants as it spread from the American South into South America.
Thaddeus Stevens: Oh, how you have longed to say that to me. You claim you trust them—but you know what the people are. You know that the inner compass that should direct the soul toward justice has ossified in white men and women, North and South, unto utter uselessness through tolerating the evil of slavery. White people cannot bear the thought of sharing this country's infinite abundance with Negroes.
Abraham Lincoln: A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it'll point you True North from where you are standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp, what's the use of knowing True North?

View Quote Edwin Stanton: They cannot possibly maintain under this kind of an assault! Terry's got ten thousand men surrounding the Goddamned fort! Why doesn't he answer my cables?
Gideon Welles: Fort Fisher is a mountain of a building, Edwin.
Thomas Thompson Eckert: It's the largest fort they have, sir.
Gideon Welles: Twenty-two big seacoast guns on each rampart...
Thomas Thompson Eckert: They've been reinforcing it for the last two years...
Edwin Stanton: They've taken 17,000 shells since yesterday!
Thomas Thompson Eckert: They said...
Gideon Welles: The commander is an old goat.
Edwin Stanton: I want to hear that Fort Fisher is ours and Wilmington has fallen! Send another damn cable! The problem's their commander, Whiting. He engineered the fortress himself. The damned thing's his child; he'll defend it till his every last man is gone. He is not thinking rationally...
Abraham Lincoln: Come on out, you old rat! [the room goes silent] That's what...that's what Ethan Allen called out to the commander of Fort Ticonderoga in 1776. 'Come on out, you old rat!' Ah, 'course there were only forty odd redcoats at Ticonderoga. But...but there is one Ethan Allen story that I'm very partial to...
Edwin Stanton: No! No, you're, you're going to tell a story! I don't believe that I can bear to listen to another one of your stories right now! [Stanton storms out, shouting to himself] I need the B&O sideyard schedules for Alexandria! I asked for them this morning! I don't care how long it takes!
Abraham Lincoln: It was right after the Revolution, right after peace had been concluded. And Ethan Allen went to London to help our new country conduct its business with the king. The English sneered at how rough we are and rude and simple-minded and on like that, everywhere he went, till one day he was invited to the townhouse of a great English lord. Dinner was served, beverages imbibed, time passed as happens and Mr. Allen found he needed the privy. He was grateful to be directed to this. [pours himself another cup of coffee] Relieved, you might say. [slight laughter] Mr. Allen discovered on entering the water closet that the only decoration therein was a portrait of George Washington. Ethan Allen done what he came to do and returned to the drawing room. His host and the others were disappointed when he didn't mention Washington's portrait. And finally his lordship couldn't resist and asked Mr. Allen had he noticed it. The picture of Washington. He had. Well what did he think of its placement? Did it seem appropriately located to Mr. Allen? And Mr. Allen said it did. The host was astounded. [mocking British accent] "Appropriate? George Washington's likeness in a water closet?" "Yes," said Mr. Allen, "where it will do good service. The whole world knows nothing will make an Englishman shit quicker than the sight of George Washington." [louder laughter] I love that story.

View Quote [after his case is dismissed, and the guards try to escort him out] I'm a free man, and I'm going out the front door.

View Quote Gerry Conlon: Was I always bad, was I?
Giuseppe Conlon: Not always.
Gerry Conlon: I don't deserve to spend the rest of my life in here do I?
Giuseppe Conlon: All they done was block out the light. [points to his head] They can't block out the light in here.

View Quote Gerry Conlon: What I remember most about my childhood is holding your hand. My wee hand in your big hand, and the smell of tobacco. I remember, I could smell the tobacco in the palm of your hand. When I want to feel happy, I try to remember the smell of tobacco.
Giuseppe Conlon: Oh, my heart.

View Quote I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.

View Quote I'm an oil man, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day. I like to think of myself as an oil man. As an oil man, I hope that you'll forgive just good old-fashioned plain speaking. Now, this work that we do is very much a family enterprise. I work side by side with my wonderful son, H. W.—I think one or two of you might have met him already—and I encourage my men to bring their families as well. Of course, it makes for an ever so much more rewarding life. Family means children, and children means education, so wherever we set up camp, education is a necessity, and we're just so happy to take care of that. We'll have to build a wonderful school in Little Boston. These children are the future that we strive for, and so they should have the very best of things. Now, there's something else, and please don't be insulted if I speak about this: bread. Let's talk about bread. Now to my mind, it's an abomination to consider that any man, woman or child in this magnificent country of ours should have to look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury. We're going to dig water wells here, and water wells means irrigation. Irrigations means cultivation. We're going to raise crops here where before it simply wasn't possible. You're going to have more grain than you know what to do with! Bread'll be coming right out of your ears, ma'am. New roads, agriculture, employment, education: these are just a few of the things that we can offer you, and I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that if we do find oil here—and I think there's a very great chance that we will—this community of yours will not only survive. It will flourish!

View Quote Daniel Plainview: You're not the chosen brother, Eli. 'Twas Paul who was chosen. See, he found me and told me about your land. You're just a fool!
Eli Sunday: Why are you talking about Paul? Don't say this to me.
Daniel Plainview: I did what your brother couldn't. I broke you and I beat you. It was Paul who told me about you. He's the prophet. He's the smart one. He knew what was there. He found me to take it out of the ground. You know what the funny thing is? Listen, listen, listen! I paid him $10,000 cash in hand, just like that. He has his own company now — prosperous little business — three wells producing $5000 a week. Stop crying, you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense! You're just the afterbirth, Eli —
Eli Sunday: No...
Daniel Plainview: — that slithered out in your mother's filth. They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantelpiece. Where were you when Paul was suckling at his mother's teat, eh? Where were you? Who was nursing you, poor Eli? One of Bandy's sows? That land has been had. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s gone, had.
Eli Sunday: If you would just —
Daniel Plainview: You lose.
Eli Sunday: — take this lease, Daniel!
Daniel Plainview: [yelling] Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy! Drained dry. I’m so sorry. Here: if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw — There it is. That's a straw, see? Watch it. Now my straw reaches across the room, and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake! [slurping noise] I drink it up!
Eli Sunday: Don't bully me, Daniel!
Daniel Plainview: [throws Eli the floor] Did you think your song and dance and your superstition would help you, Eli? I am the Third Revelation. I am whom the Lord has chosen. [throws bowling balls at Eli]
Eli Sunday: [dodging the bowling balls] Daniel!
Daniel Plainview: Because I'm smarter than you! I'm older!
Eli Sunday: I'm your old friend, Daniel! Help me! Help me, please!
Daniel Plainview: I'm not a false prophet, you sniveling boy! I am the Third Revelation! I am the Third Revelation! I told you I would eat you!
Eli Sunday: We're family!
Daniel Plainview: I told you I would eat you up!