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.

Planning a movie night? Check out our list of the Top 10 Projectors.

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 List

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." - Gone With the Wind, 1939
"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.
"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
"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.
"Here's looking at you, kid." - Casablanca, 1942
"Go ahead, make my day." - Sudden Impact, 1983
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." - Sunset Boulevard, 1950
"May the Force be with you." - Star Wars, 1977
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." - All About Eve, 1950
"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.
"What we've got here is failure to communicate." - Cool Hand Luke, 1967
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." - Apocalypse Now, 1979
"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."
"The stuff that dreams are made of." - The Maltese Falcon, 1941
"E.T. phone home." - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
"They call me Mister Tibbs!" - In the Heat of the Night, 1967
"Rosebud." - Citizen Kane, 1941
"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" - White Heat, 1949
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" - Network, 1976
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." - Casablanca, 1942
"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
"Bond. James Bond." - Dr. No, 1962
"There's no place like home." - The Wizard of Oz, 1939
"I am big! It's the pictures that got small." - Sunset Blvd., 1950
"Show me the money!" - Jerry Maguire, 1996
"Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" - She Done Him Wrong, 1933
"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.
"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" - Casablanca, 1942
"You can't handle the truth!" - A Few Good Men, 1992
"I want to be alone." - Grand Hotel, 1932
"After all, tomorrow is another day!" - Gone With the Wind, 1939
"Round up the usual suspects." - Casablanca, 1942
"I'll have what she's having." - When Harry Met Sally, 1989
"You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." - To Have and Have Not, 1944
"You're gonna need a bigger boat." - Jaws, 1975
"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
"I'll be back." - The Terminator, 1984
"Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." - The Pride of the Yankees, 1942
"If you build it, he will come." - Field of Dreams, 1989
"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump, 1994
"We rob banks." - Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
"Plastics." - The Graduate, 1967
"We'll always have Paris." - Casablanca, 1942
"I see dead people." - The Sixth Sense, 1999

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.
"Stella! Hey, Stella!" - A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
"Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." - Now, Voyager, 1942
"Shane. Shane. Come back!" - Shane, 1953
"Well, nobody's perfect." - Some Like It Hot, 1959
"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.
"Houston, we have a problem." - Apollo 13, 1995
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" - Dirty Harry, 1971
"You had me at ‘hello.’" - Jerry Maguire, 1996
"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." - Animal Crackers, 1930
"There's no crying in baseball!" - A League of Their Own, 1992
"La-dee-da, la-dee-da." - Annie Hall, 1977
"A boy's best friend is his mother." - Psycho, 1960
"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." - Wall Street, 1987
"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." - The Godfather Part II, 1974
"As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." - Gone With the Wind, 1939
"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" - Sons of the Desert, 1933
"Say "hello" to my little friend!" - Scarface, 1983
"What a dump." - Beyond the Forest, 1949
"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" - The Graduate, 1967
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" - Dr. Strangelove, 1964
"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.
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape." - Planet of the Apes, 1968
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." - Casablanca, 1942
"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.
"They're here!" - Poltergeist, 1982
"Is it safe?" - Marathon Man, 1976
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" - The Jazz Singer, 1927
"No wire hangers, ever!" - Mommie Dearest, 1981
"Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" - Little Caesar, 1930
"Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." - Chinatown, 1974
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." - A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
"Hasta la vista, baby." - Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991
"Soylent Green is people!" - Soylent Green, 1973
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL." - 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
Striker: Surely you can't be serious.

Rumack: I am serious…and don't call me Shirley. - Airplane!, 1980
"Yo, Adrian!" - Rocky, 1976
"Hello, gorgeous." - Funny Girl, 1968
"Toga! Toga!" - National Lampoon's Animal House, 1978
"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." - Dracula, 1931
"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.
"My precious." - The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, 2002
"Attica! Attica!" - Dog Day Afternoon, 1975
"Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" - 42nd Street, 1933
"Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't you forget it. You're going 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
"Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper." - Knute

Rockne All American, 1940
"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?"
"Who's on first." - The Naughty Nineties, 1945
"Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!"

- Caddyshack, 1980
"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Auntie Mame, 1958
"I feel the need - the need for speed!" - Top Gun, 1986
"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." - Dead Poets Society, 1989.
"Snap out of it!" - Moonstruck, 1987
"My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you." - Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner." - Dirty Dancing, 1987
"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" - The Wizard of Oz, 1939
"I'm king of the world!" - Titanic, 1997

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

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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: