The Quiet Man 1952 quotes

Father Paul

Father Lonergan!

Shhh...

Father Paul

It's, it's a big fight in the town!

And there's a big fight in this fish right here.

Father Paul

I'd have put a stop to it, but you see...

You do that, lad. It's your duty.

Father Paul

But see now, it's Danahar and Shawn Thornton!

Who?

Father Paul

Danahar and Shawn Thornton!

Well why the devil didn't you tell me? [Quickly drops fishing rod and runs]
...

Father Paul

Father, shouldn't we put a stop to it now?

Ah, we should lad, yes we should, it's our duty. Yes, it's our duty... [Smiles as a punch is heard]

Wipe your feet.

Will Danaher

Thank you, ma'am.

'[after the widow sells her cottage to Sean instead of Will] Good for Widow Tillane...After all, he's [Sean Thornton] got more right to that land than you have.

Will

He'll regret it till his dying day, if he lives that long.

Hurry. Now is a good time to ask him. What! Go on, go on.

Sean

Ask him what?

About my money. He can't say that he hasn't got it with him now.

Sean

Can't you get it through your head that I didn't marry you for your fortune? I don't give a hang about the money.

But he does. And that's the whole point of it. Now will you go and ask him?!

Sean

No, why shame ourselves?

Shame? The shame's on you, not on me. Oh, on me too if I've married a coward.

Sean

Is that what you think of me?

Well, what else if you let him rob you out of my money?

Sean

'Money!' I'm sick of the talk of it. Is that all you Danahers think about - money?

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of having my own things about me. My spinnet over there, and a table here, and my own chairs to rest upon. And a dresser over there in that corner, and my own china and pewter shinin' about me. And now...

Sean

I didn't know you felt that way about it. Seems like a lot of fuss and grief over a little furniture and stuff. [They go outside]

It is a pretty cottage, isn't it?

Sean

Yeah, I think so. [He moves to embrace her]

Don't touch me! You have no right!

Sean

Whaddya mean, no right?

I'll wear your ring, I'll cook, and I'll wash, and I'll keep the land. But that is all. Until I've got my dowry safe about me, I'm no married woman. I'm the servant I've always been, without anything of my own!

Sean

That's ridiculous. You're my wife and...[She shuts the bottom half of the cottage's front door on him] What is this?

Haven't I been tryin' to tell ya? - ...that until you have my dowry, you haven't got any bit of me - me, myself. I'll still be dreamin' amongst the things that are my own as if I had never met you. There's three hundred years of happy dreamin' in those things of mine and I want them. I want my dream. I'll have it and I know it. I'll say no other word to you.

Sean

All right. You'll have your dowry or dot or fortune or whatever you call it.

Well, get it then.
She bolts the bedroom door behind her. He kicks the door open]

Sean

There'll be no locks or bolts between us Mary Kate except those in your own mercenary little heart.

I have a fearful temper. You might as well know about it now instead of finding out about it later. We Danahers are a fighting people.

Sean

I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do to one of the Danahers - Miss Danaher.

Shhh, Mr. Thornton. What will Mr. Flynn be thinking?

I thank you anyway, Sean Thornton, for the asking.

Sean

You don't think this changes anything? It's what you say that counts, not him.

Now Sean, you've gone too far. That's enough.

Sean

Say, what is this? We're gonna get married. Aren't we? [She turns away, dejected, and runs upstairs to her room] I don't get it.

This is Ireland, Sean, not America. Without a brother's consent, she couldn't and wouldn't. I'm sorry for both of ya.

Michaleen Flynn

Actually, me mouth is like a dry crust and the sun is that hot on me pate.

Would you be steppin' into the parlor? The house may belong to my brother, but what's in the parlor belongs to me.

Michaleen Flynn

I will then, and I hope that there's a bottle there, whoever it belongs to.

Michaleen Flynn

What do they feed you Irishmen in that Pittsburgh?

Sean Thornton

Steel, Michaleen. Steel and pig iron furnaces so hot a man forgets his fear of hell.
There'll be no locks or bolts between us, Mary Kate, except those in your own mercenary little heart!

Sean

Do you think she'd sell it?

I doubt it.

Sean

Don't bet on it, 'cause I'm buyin' it.

Now why would a, why would a Yankee from Pittsburgh want to buy it?

Sean

I'll tell you why Michaeleen Oge Flynn, young small Michael Flynn who used to wipe my runny nose when I was a kid. Because I'm Sean Thornton and I was born in that little cottage over there. And I've come home, and home I'm gonna stay. Now does that answer your questions once and for all, you nosy little man?

Seanin Thornton! And look at you now...What do they feed you, all you men who are in Pittsburgh?

Sean

Steel, Michaleen. Steel and pig iron furnaces so hot a man forgets his fear of hell. When you're hard enough, tough enough, other things, other things Michaeleen.

Sean

Hey, is that real? She couldn't be.

Oh nonsense, man. It's only a mirage brought on by your terrible thirst.

Sean

If anybody had told me six months ago that today I'd be in a graveyard in Innisfree with a girl like you that I'm just about to kiss, I'd have told 'em...

Oh, but the kisses are a long way off yet.

Sean

Huh?

Well, we just started a-courtin', and next month, we, we start the walkin'-out, and the month after that there'll be the threshin' parties, and the month after that...

Sean

Nope.

Well, maybe we won't have to wait that month.

Sean

Yep.

Or for the threshin' parties.

Sean

Nope.

Or for the walkin'-out together.

Sean

No.

And so much the worse for you, Sean Thornton. For I feel the same way about it myself.

Sean

Maybe it's just one of those things in the scrapbook, but now when you carry it around in here...I didn't go in there to outbox him. I went in there to beat his brains out. To drive him into the canvas, to murder him. That's what I did. For what? The purse, a piece of the gate. Lousy money.

Reverend Playfair

And now money is behind your trouble with Danaher.

Sean

They think I'm afraid to fight him, all the friends I've made here, even my wife.

Reverend Playfair

But aren't you in a way?

Sean

Did you ever kill a man? Well I have, and all this talk about her big fortune. It's not that important.

Reverend Playfair

Perhaps it is to her. It must be strange to you from America, but it's an old, old custom here, and believe me, it's a good custom. The fortune means more to her than just the money.

Sean

To me it isn't, and worth fightin' for.

Reverend Playfair

Is your wife's love worth fightin' for?

Sean

I don't know. About all I know is I can't fight or won't fight unless I'm mad enough to kill, and if that means losin' her, I don't know. Maybe she doesn't love me enough.

Reverend Playfair

It's a difficult situation. But I think you'll find the answer in God's good time.

Sean

The point is, it's already done. I own the property now, and as long as we're gonna be neighbors...

Will

Neighbors? Oh, neighbors. NEVER! And if I so much as catch you putting your wet foot on my property...and oh, another thing, you keep away from my sister Mary Kate. She's not for the likes of you.

Sean

Where I come from, we don't talk about our women folk in saloons. You sort of make a habit of it.

Sean

Well, let him keep it.

Keep my fortune?

Sean

Sure, you've got your tables and chairs about ya. What do we care about his money?

My money!

Sean

Well, let him have it if it means that much to him....

What manner of man is it that I have married?