Denzel Washington movie quotes

View Quote To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.

View Quote King Kong ain't got shit on me!

View Quote The shit's chess, it ain't checkers!

View Quote What matters in business is honesty, integrity, hard work, loyalty, and never forgetting where you came from. You are what you are and that's one of two things. You're nothing ... or you're something. Understand what 'm saying?

View Quote It's chaos. Every gorilla for himself.

View Quote This is my home. My country. Frank Lucas don't run from nobody. This is America.

View Quote [Repeated line] Stay on the path. It's not your concern.

View Quote [about his Bible] In all these years I've been carrying it and reading it every day... I got so caught up in keeping it safe that I forgot to live by what I learned from it.

View Quote [Quoting scripture of Genesis 3:18] Cursed be the ground, for our sake. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth, for us, for out of the ground we were taken for the dust that we are... and to the dust we shall return.

View Quote Get the radio fixed Vossler. I could've built one by now.

View Quote See you in my dreams. To his wife, before leaving for duty

View Quote Capt. Ramsey: God help you if you're wrong.
Hunter: If I'm wrong, then we're at war. God help us all.

View Quote I've done some bad things in my life, Nicolai... Things I'm not proud of. I promised someone I love very much that I would never go back to being that person. But for you, I'm going to make an exception. You asked me what I saw when I looked at you. What do you see when you look at me?

View Quote I couldn't tell you why — it mattered. Why what they did to her, that mattered to me so much. One day somebody does something unspeakable to someone else to... someone you hardly knew, and you... do something about it because you can.

View Quote When you pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too.

View Quote Let me tell you something, boy. You can march like the white man, you can talk like him. You can sing his songs, you can even wear his suits. But, you ain't NEVER gonna be nothing to him, than an ugly ass chimp... in a blue suit.

View Quote [about his paycheck, after the 54th learns they will be paid less than an all-white regiment] Tear it up! Tear it up! TEAR IT UP!

View Quote [addressing the 54th the night before battle] I ain't much about no prayin', now. I ain't never had no family, and...killed off my mama. Well, I just... Y'all's the onliest family I got. I love the 54th. Ain't even much a matter what happens tomorrow, 'cause we men, ain't we? We men.

View Quote Forgiveness is between them and God. It's my job to arrange the meeting.

View Quote Last wish? I wish...You had...More time

View Quote Okay, my friend. It's off to the next life for you. I guarantee, you won't be lonely.

View Quote We're standing here in Philadelphia, the, uh, city of brotherly love, the birthplace of freedom, where the, uh, founding fathers authored the Declaration of Independence, and I don't recall that glorious document saying anything about all straight men are created equal. I believe it says all men are created equal.

View Quote Some of these people make me sick, Philco. But a law's been broken. You remember the law, don't you?

View Quote Now, explain it to me like I'm a two-year-old.

View Quote Detective first grade Keith Fraz-ahhh.

View Quote Don't bullshit the bullshitter!

View Quote Look out, bad guys! Here I come.

View Quote Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter: [to Lesra] Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out.

View Quote Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out.

View Quote Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter': [addressing the court] Twenty years spent locked up in a cage considered as a danger to society.

View Quote We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us!

View Quote Like every hustler I was trapped. Cats that hung out together trying to find a solution found nothing. Cats that might have proved space or cured cancer, West Indian Archie might have been a mathematical genius... but we were all victims of the American social order.

View Quote The only thing I like integrated is my coffee.

View Quote [voiceover] It was actually looking more and more like I might not make it through this little adventure I was having. But I was likin' the chill in my blood, and the freedom of working on my own. There were times in the war when I had felt like this. When life or death where the only two choices. That made it simple. And that was alright by me.

View Quote [voiceover] It occurred to me that Coretta had found out a lot more about what I was up to than I had wanted her to. But I had found out that the rich man's woman had a colored boyfriend. It had cost me a sawbuck to get Coretta to give me that information. Well, let's just say somethin' had cost me ten dollars.

View Quote [voiceover] It scared me to think about a world that could kill a man like DeWitt Albright. What could a world like that do to me?

View Quote Everything you have, you lose, right? Mother, father - gone. Good looks, Pryzwarra? - gone. Loved ones gone in a second. That's what this job teaches you, isn't it? No matter what, no matter how hard you grab onto something - you still lose it, right?

View Quote What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?

View Quote For all of my career, I've been trying to catch people after they do something horrible. For once in my life, I'd like to catch somebody before they do something horrible.

View Quote You can beat or jail me or even kill me, but I am not going to be what you want me to be!

View Quote I just expect to be treated like you expect to be treated. Come on, what are you so afraid of? Once you try you see there's nothing to fear. We're just as weak and human as you are.

View Quote Judge: Why do you people call yourselves black? You look more brown than black.
Steve Biko: Why do you call yourselves white? You look more pink than white.

View Quote I shall deliver them Caracalla's head and the people shall acclaim me. That, my friend, is politics.

View Quote You will be my instrument!

View Quote Do you hear that crowd? The greatest temple ever built. The Colosseum. Because this is what they believe in. Power.

View Quote Pray with me, then. Let's pray. Pray for my mother, who your men raped. Pray for my sisters, who your men murdered. [undoes his collar to reveal a scar on his throat] Did you pray when they strung me up?

View Quote Emma Cullen: He made them murder my husband, he will take everything we have.
Sam Chisolm: So you seek revenge?
Emma Cullen: I seek righteousness, as should we all. But I'll take revenge.

View Quote Goodnight Robicheaux: Why do you waste your time on a piece of rebel trash like me?
Sam Chisolm: What we lost in the fire, we will find in the ashes.

View Quote We are formed of frailty and error. Let us pardon reciprocally each other's follies. That is the first law of nature.

View Quote [repeated phone call] Hello? Yeah. Yeah, of course I remember you. That's why I gave you my card.

View Quote The real enemies aren't the ones on the outside, they're on the inside.

View Quote Gray Grantham: Do you want to talk about the brief?
Darby Shaw: Everyone I have told about the brief is dead.
Gray Grantham: I'll take my chances.

View Quote Smith Keen: Didn't they also say they knew of no connection with the assassination?
Gray Grantham: Yes. But what else are they gonna say?

View Quote Edwin Newman: Where is Darby Shaw?
Gray Grantham: I think that's also a question for Darby Shaw, but I know that she's not available to answer questions as long as this "feeding frenzy" continues.
Edwin Newman: Does that mean that you don't know where she is?
Gray Grantham: No, I didn't say that.
Edwin Newman: Then you do know...
[Gray Grantham laughs]
Edwin Newman: I, I take it this cryptic smile means you'll not answer...
[Gray Grantham smirking uncontrollably]
Edwin Newman: Okay Gray, you know that in view of all this, you know that there's a lot of speculation that this woman is a figment of your imagination. That you created her, from a lot of different sources. Just as there are people who believe there was no Deep Throat, there are those who believe that there is no Darby Shaw. In other words, she's just too good to be true.
Gray Grantham: [pause] She almost is.

View Quote [to Will] I only got one rule. One rule only: you're gonna do something, you do it right. You don't know how to do it, you ask me, all right? Likewise, if you need anything from me, you'd better speak up. 'Cause, uh, you're the conductor. Once we get our freight, it's your train; I'm just the guy driving it.

View Quote This ain't training. In training, they just give you an F. Out here, you get killed.

View Quote [to Will] You are a funny guy. Well-trained, but funny.

View Quote Cory..: How come you ain't never liked me?
Troy: Like you? Who the hell said I got to like you? What law is there say I got to like you? Wanna stand up in front of my face and ask a damn fool-ass question like that, talkin' 'bout likin' somebody? Come here, boy, when I talk to you. Straighten up, goddammit. I asked you a question: what law is there say I got to like you?
Cory: None.
Troy: All right then. Don't you eat every day? Answer me when I talk to you! Don't you eat every day?
Cory: Yeah...
Troy: ****, as long as you're in my house you put a "Sir" on the end of it when you talk to me.
Cory: Yes, Sir.
Troy: You eat every day?
Cory: Yes, Sir.
Troy: You got a roof over you head?
Cory: Yes, Sir.
Troy: Got clothes on your back?
Cory: Yes, Sir.
Troy: Why you think that is?
Cory: 'Cause of you?
Troy: [chuckles] Hell, I know it's 'cause of me. But why do you think that is?
Cory: 'Cause you like me?
Troy: Like you? I go outta here every morning, I bust my butt, puttin' up with them crackers every day, 'cause I like you? You're about the biggest fool I ever saw. It's my job. It's my responsibility. A man is supposed to take care of his family. You live in my house, feed your belly with my food, put your behind on my bed because you're my son, not 'cause I like you. 'Cause it's my duty to take care of you, I owe a responsibility to you. Now let's get this straight right here and now before we go along any further: I ain't got to like you! Mr. Rand don't gimme my money come payday 'cause he like me, he give it to me 'cause he owe me! Now I done give you everything I got to give you! I give you your life! Me and your Mama worked that out between us and liking your black ass wasn't part of the bargain! Now don't you go through life worryin' about whether somebody like you or not! You best be makin' sure they're doin' right by you! You understand what I'm sayin'?
Cory: Yes, Sir.
Troy: Then get the hell outta my face, and get on down to that A&P!

View Quote Troy: It's not easy for me to admit that I've been standin' in the same place for eighteen years!
Rose: Well, I've been standin' with you! I've been right here with you, Troy! I've got a life too! I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot as you! Don't you think I ever wanted other things? Don't you think I had dreams and hopes? What about my life? What about me? Don't you think it ever crossed my mind to want to know other men, that I wanted to lay up somewhere, forget about my responsibilities, that I wanted someone to make me laugh so I could feel good? You're not the only one who's got wants and needs! But I held on to you, Troy. I took all my feelings, my wants and needs and dreams, and I buried them inside you. I planted a seed and watched and prayed over it. I planted myself inside you, and I waited for it to bloom. It didn't take me no eighteen years to realize the soil was hard and rocky, and it wasn't never gonna bloom! But I held on to you, Troy. I held you tighter. You was my husband. I owed you everything I had, every part of me I could find to give you - and upstairs in that bedroom, with the doctors fallin' in on me, I gave everything I had to try and erase the thought that you wasn't the finest man in the world and wherever you was going, I was gonna be there with you because you was my husband! 'Cause that's the only way I was gonna survive as your wife! You're always talkin' about what you give and what you don't have to give... but you take, too, Troy. You take, and don't even know nobody's givin'.

View Quote Rose: Why don't you go ahead and let the boy play football, Troy? He just wants to be like you with the sports.
Troy: I don't want him to be like me. I want him to get as far away from my life as he possibly can get. You the only decent thing that ever happened to me, Rose. I wish him that. But I don't wish him nothin' else from my life. I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn't gonna get involved in no sports - not after what they did to me in the sports.
Rose: Why don't you just admit you were too old for the major leagues - for once, why don't you just admit that?
Troy: Stop tellin' me I was too old. I just wasn't the right color. Hell, I'm 53 years old and do better than Selkirk .269 right now.
Rose: How are you gonna play ball when you are over 40? Sometimes I can't get no sense outta you.
Troy: I got good sense, woman, I got sense enough not to let that boy get hurt playin' no sports. You're motherin' the boy too much. worryin' about whether people like him or not.
Rose: Everything that boy do, he do for you. He want you to say, "good job, son". That's all.
Troy: Ain't got time for that, Rose. He's alive, he's healthy. He's got to make his own way; I made mine! Ain't nobody gonna hold his hand when he get out there in the world!
Rose: Times have changed, Troy. People change. The world's changin', and you can't even see it.
Troy: Woman, I do the best I can do. I come in here every Friday, I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of lard. You all line up at the door with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets; I give you my sweat and my blood. I ain't got no tears; I done spent them. We go upstairs in that room at night, I fall down on you and try to blast the whole into forever. I get up Monday morning, find my lunch on the table, go out and make my way, find my strength to get me through to next Friday. That's all I got, Rose. All I got to give. I can't give nothin' else!