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Top 100 Movie Quotes

100 of the best, most famous movie quotes in American cinema

To celebrate their hundredth anniversary, the American Film Institute ran a series of programs starting in 2005, discussing and honoring 100 years of American cinema. As part of the commemoration, the members they surveyed produced an all-star list of famous quotes from westerns, to crime thrillers, war movies, and more. We've reproduced the list below, as well as adding some trivia and fun facts about the selections. 

Think you're a movie buff? Think you know these quotes (and their movies) inside and out? Try your hand at our Top 100 Movie Quotes Quiz. Fair warning, though—this quiz isn't easy. 

The Honorable Mentions

The original list doesn't include any quotes from after 2002. Obviously, there have been plenty of great quotes since. Here are some of the contenders that come up in lists made since:

  • "Just keep swimming" - Finding Nemo, 2003

  • "I wish I knew how to quit you" - Brokeback Mountain, 2005

  • "What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?" - No Country for Old Men, 2007

  • "I drink your milkshake" - There Will Be Blood, 2007

  • "Why so serious?" - The Dark Knight, 2008

  • “A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars.” - The Social Network, 2010

Only time will tell which quotes from the 2010s will stand the test of time.

The ListGone with the wind scene quoting Frankly my dear I don't give a damn.

  1. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." - Gone With the Wind, 1939  

  2. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." - The Godfather, 1972
    Fun fact: This line makes it into each Godfather film in some way or another.

  3. "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am." - On the Waterfront, 1954

  4. "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." - The Wizard of Oz, 1939
    Fun fact: As one of the most famous movie quotes in film history, this line has been parodied by many different movies and television shows.

  5. "Here's looking at you, kid." - Casablanca, 1942Han Solo saying may the force be with you

  6. "Go ahead, make my day." - Sudden Impact, 1983

  7. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." - Sunset Boulevard, 1950

  8. "May the Force be with you." - Star Wars, 1977

  9. "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." - All About Eve, 1950

  10. "You talking to me?" - Taxi Driver, 1976
    Fun fact: Robert DeNiro improvised this line. The script only said "Travis speaks to himself in the mirror" so DeNiro took some liberties and was ultimately successful.

  11. "What we've got here is failure to communicate." - Cool Hand Luke, 1967

  12. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." - Apocalypse Now, 1979Little girl from E.T. saying E.T. phone home

  13. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." - Love Story, 1970
    Fun fact: Two years later Ryan O'Neal will hear this line again in the film What's Up Doc when Barbara Streisand says it to his character and respond, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

  14. "The stuff that dreams are made of." - The Maltese Falcon, 1941

  15. "E.T. phone home." - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982

  16. "They call me Mister Tibbs!" - In the Heat of the Night, 1967

  17. "Rosebud." - Citizen Kane, 1941

  18. "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" - White Heat, 1949James Bond quote, Bond, James Bond.

  19. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" - Network, 1976

  20. "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." - Casablanca, 1942

  21. "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti." - The Silence of the Lambs, 1991

  22. "Bond. James Bond." - Dr. No, 1962

  23. "There's no place like home." - The Wizard of Oz, 1939

  24. "I am big! It's the pictures that got small." - Sunset Blvd., 1950

  25. "Show me the money!" - Jerry Maguire, 1996

  26. "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" - She Done Him Wrong, 1933Dustin Hoffman midnight cowboy

  27. "I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" - Midnight Cowboy, 1969

    Fun fact: This scene was improvised. Midnight Cowboy filmed in New York City so the taxi in the shot is an actual New York taxi. Remaining in character Hoffman yells at the driver and the scene made the cut in the film.

  28. "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" - Casablanca, 1942

  29. "You can't handle the truth!" - A Few Good Men, 1992

  30. "I want to be alone." - Grand Hotel, 1932

  31. "After all, tomorrow is another day!" - Gone With the Wind, 1939

  32. "Round up the usual suspects." - Casablanca, 1942Jaws, you're gonna need a bigger boat

  33. "I'll have what she's having." - When Harry Met Sally, 1989

  34. "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." - To Have and Have Not, 1944

  35. "You're gonna need a bigger boat." - Jaws, 1975

  36. "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948

  37. "I'll be back." - The Terminator, 1984

  38. "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." - The Pride of the Forrest gump box of chocolates sceneYankees, 1942

  39. "If you build it, he will come." - Field of Dreams, 1989

  40. "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump, 1994

  41. "We rob banks." - Bonnie and Clyde, 1967

  42. "Plastics." - The Graduate, 1967

  43. "We'll always have Paris." - Casablanca, 1942

  44. "I see dead people." - The Sixth Sense, 1999Stella, Hey Stella scene Streetcar
    Fun fact: When Haley Joel Osmet says this line the camera goes to Bruce Willis's face. This is a cinematic clue that Bruce Willis's character is dead.

  45. "Stella! Hey, Stella!" - A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951

  46. "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." - Now, Voyager, 1942

  47. "Shane. Shane. Come back!" - Shane, 1953

  48. "Well, nobody's perfect." - Some Like It Hot, 1959

  49. "It's alive! It's alive!" - Frankenstein, 1931
    Fun fact: The original line was "It's alive! It's alive! In the name of God! Now I know what it's like to be God!" Censors cut Dr. Frankenstein's full line because it was considered sacrilege.

  50. "Houston, we have a problem." - Apollo 13, 1995

  51. "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" - Dirty Harry, 1971

  52. "You had me at ‘hello.’" - Jerry Maguire, 1996league of their own, theres no crying in baseball

  53. "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." - Animal Crackers, 1930

  54. "There's no crying in baseball!" - A League of Their Own, 1992

  55. "La-dee-da, la-dee-da." - Annie Hall, 1977

  56. "A boy's best friend is his mother." - Psycho, 1960

  57. "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." - Wall Street, 1987

  58. "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." - The Godfather Part II, 1974

  59. "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." - Gone With the Wind, 1939Scarface say hello to my little friend scene

  60. "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" - Sons of the Desert, 1933

  61. "Say "hello" to my little friend!" - Scarface, 1983

  62. "What a dump." - Beyond the Forest, 1949

  63. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" - The Graduate, 1967

  64. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" - Dr. Strangelove, 1964

  65. "Elementary, my dear Watson." - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1929
    Fun fact: Sherlock Holmes never says this iconic quote in any of the books the character is based off of.

  66. "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape." - Planet of the Apes, 1968

  67. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." - Casablanca, The Shining heres johnny scene1942

  68. "Here's Johnny!" - The Shining, 1980
    Fun fact: This line was completely improvised. Jack Nicholson was only prompted to break down the door, but he decided to improvise this line and it made the final cut of the movie.

  69. "They're here!" - Poltergeist, 1982

  70. "Is it safe?" - Marathon Man, 1976

  71. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" - The Jazz Singer, 1927

  72. "No wire hangers, ever!" - Mommie Dearest, 1981

  73. "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" - Little Caesar, 1930Terminator saying hasta la vista baby

  74. "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." - Chinatown, 1974

  75. "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." - A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951

  76. "Hasta la vista, baby." - Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991​​​​​

  77. "Soylent Green is people!" - Soylent Green, 1973

  78. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." - 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

  79. Striker: Surely you can't be serious.Rocky saying yo Adrian
    Rumack: I am serious…and don't call me Shirley. - Airplane!, 1980

  80. "Yo, Adrian!" - Rocky, 1976

  81. "Hello, gorgeous." - Funny Girl, 1968

  82. "Toga! Toga!" - National Lampoon's Animal House, 1978

  83. "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." - Dracula, 1931

  84. "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast." - King Kong, 1933
    Fun Fact: The King Kong roar was a combination of a lion and tiger's roar combined and played backward very slowly.

  85. "My precious." - The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, 2002

  86. "Attica! Attica!" - Dog Day Afternoon, 1975

  87. "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" - 42nd Street, 1933

  88. "Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't you forget it. You're James Bond saying a martini shaken not sitrredgoing to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go!" - On Golden Pond, 1981

  89. "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper." - Knute
    Rockne     All American, 1940

  90. "A martini. Shaken, not stirred." - Goldfinger, 1964
    ​Fun fact: This iconic scene has been parodied over and over again. In Casino Royale, 42
    years later, Daniel Craig's James Bond will be asked, "Shaken or stirred" and Bond responds "Do I look like I give a damn?"

  91. "Who's on first." - The Naughty Nineties, 1945

  92. "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Dead Poets Society, Carpe Diem, Seize the day, make your lives extraordinaryMasters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!"
    - Caddyshack, 1980

  93. "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Auntie Mame, 1958

  94. "I feel the need - the need for speed!" - Top Gun, 1986

  95. "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." - Dead Poets Society, 1989.

  96. "Snap out of it!" - Moonstruck, 1987

  97. "My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you." - Jack Dawson, Titanic, yelling I'm the King of the worldYankee Doodle Dandy, 1942

  98. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." - Dirty Dancing, 1987

  99. "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" - The Wizard of Oz, 1939

  100. "I'm king of the world!" - Titanic, 1997

Source: American Film Institute, 2005, IMDb, and Hollywood Reporter.

Gifs provided by giphy.com

 

The Stars

There are 100 quotes, but not nearly as many actors on the list. A few quotable superstars hold a big share of the top quotes. Here are the top contenders:

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