Jedediah Leland I can remember everything. That's my curse, young man. It's the greatest curse that's ever been inflicted on the human race: memory.
Played by Joseph Cotten 
Citizen Kane (1941) · 68 quotes
Citizen Kane (1941) · 68 quotes
Tied for 2nd most-quoted character in Citizen Kane (1941): in 12 of its 68 quotes
Most scenes with: Charles Foster Kane (4), Mr. Bernstein (2)
I'd like to keep that particular piece of paper myself. I have a hunch it might turn out to be something pretty important, a document...like the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and my first report card at school.
More lines from Jedediah Leland
4 quotes Jedediah Leland Jedediah Leland I suppose he had some private sort of greatness, but he kept it to himself. He never gave himself away. He never gave anything away, he just left you a tip, hmm? Ha. He had a generous mind. I don't suppose anybody ever had so many opinions. But he never believed in anything except Charlie Kane. He never had a conviction except Charlie Kane in his life. I suppose he died without one. It must have been pretty unpleasant. Of course, a lot of us check out without having any special convictions about death, but we do know what we believe in, we do believe in something.
Jedediah Leland He married for love. Love. That's why he did everything. That's why he went into politics. It seems we weren't enough, he wanted all the voters to love him too. Guess all he really wanted out of life was love. That's Charlie's story, how he lost it. You see, he just didn't have any to give. Well, he loved Charlie Kane of course, very dearly, and his mother, I guess he always loved her.
Jedediah Leland You know, when I was a young man there used to be an impression around that nurses were pretty. Well, it was no truer then than it is today.
Scenes with Jedediah Leland
7 scenes Leland These men who were with the Chronicle. Weren't they just as devoted to the Chronicle politics as they are now to our policies?
Sure, they're just like anybody else. They got work to do, they do it! Only they happen to be the best men in the business!
Leland Do we stand for the same things the Chronicle stands for, Bernstein?
Certainly not. Listen, Mr. Kane, he'll have them changed to his kind of newspapermen in a week!
Leland There's always a chance, of course, that they'll change Mr. Kane, without his knowing it.
Leland You still eating?
I'm still hungry.
Are we going to declare war on Spain, or are we not?
Leland The Inquirer already has.
You long-faced, overdressed anarchist.
Leland I am not overdressed.
You are too. Mr. Bernstein, look at his necktie.
Leland Bernstein, am I a stuffed shirt? Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England school marm?
Yes. If you thought I'd answer you any differently than what Mr. Kane tells you...
I set back the sacred cause of reform, is that it? All right, that's the way they want it, the people have made their choice. It's obvious the people prefer Jim Gettys to me.
Leland You talk about the people as though you owned them, as though they belong to you. Goodness. As long as I can remember, you've talked about giving the people their rights, as if you can make them a present of Liberty, as a reward for services rendered...Remember the working man?
I'll get drunk too, Jedediah, if it'll do any good.
Leland Aw, it won't do any good. Besides, you never get drunk. You used to write an awful lot about the workingman...He's turning into something called organized labor. You're not going to like that one little bit when you find out it means that your workingman expects something is his right, not as your gift! Charlie, when your precious underprivileged really get together, oh boy! That's going to add up to something bigger than your privileges! Then I don't know what you'll do! Sail away to a desert island probably and lord it over the monkeys!
I wouldn't worry about it too much, Jed. There'll probably be a few of them there to let me know when I do something wrong.
Leland Mmm, you may not always be so lucky...You don't care about anything except you. You just want to persuade people that you love 'em so much that they ought to love you back. Only you want love on your own terms. Something to be played your way, according to your rules.
[On Kane finishing Leland's bad review of Susan's opera singing]
Everybody knows that story, Mr. Leland. But why did he do it? How could a man write a notice like that?
Leland You just don't know Charlie. He thought that by finishing that notice he could show me he was an honest man. He was always trying to prove something. The whole thing about Susie being an opera singer, that was trying to prove something. You know what the headline was the day before the election, "Candidate Kane found in love nest with quote, singer, unquote." He was gonna take the quotes off the singer.
Hello, Jedediah.
Leland Hello, Charlie. I didn't know we were speaking...
Sure, we're speaking, Jedediah: you're fired.
