Other Titles • Inherit the Wind • Wer den Wind sät (1960) • Wer den Wind sät... (1960)
Quotes from Inherit the Wind (1960)
1
E. K. Hornbeck: We're growing a strange crop of agnostics this year.
(15 votes)
2
[Challenged to say if he considers anything holy] Henry Drummond: Yes! The individual human mind. In a child's ability to master the multiplication table, there is more holiness than all your shouted hosannas and holy holies. An idea is more important that a monument and the advancement of Man's knowledge more miraculous than all the sticks turned to snakes and the parting of the waters.
(14 votes)
3
Matthew Harrison Brady: We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing! Henry Drummond: Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one thing that sets above the other animals? What other merit have we? The elephant is larger, the horse stronger and swifter, the butterfly more beautiful, the mosquito more prolific, even the sponge is more durable. Or does a sponge think? Matthew Harrison Brady: I don't know. I'm a man, not a sponge! Henry Drummond: Do you think a sponge thinks? Matthew Harrison Brady: If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks! Henry Drummond: Does a man have the same privilege as a sponge? Matthew Harrison Brady: Of course! Henry Drummond: Then this man wishes to have the same privilege of a sponge, he wishes to think!
(14 votes)
4
Henry Drummond: Hornbeck, I'm getting tired of you. You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something.
(14 votes)
5
Henry Drummond: Suppose God whispered into a Bertram Cate's ear that an un-Brady thought could still be holy? Must men go to jail because they find themselves at odds with a self-appointed prophet?
(14 votes)
6
E. K. Hornbeck: He's the only man I know who can strut sitting down.
7
E. K. Hornbeck: Disillusionment is what little heroes are made of.
8
E. K. Hornbeck: Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
9
E. K. Hornbeck: [to Drummond] Hello, Devil. Welcome to Hell.
10
Matthew Harrison Brady: Remember the wisdom of Solomon in the book of Proverbs. "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
11
Henry Drummond: I don't swear for the hell of it. Language is a poor enough means of communication. We've got to use all the words we've got. Besides, there are damn few words anybody understands.
12
E. K. Hornbeck: He that sups with the devil must have a long spoon.
13
Townswoman: You're the stranger, ain'tcha? Are you looking for a nice, clean place to stay? E. K. Hornbeck: Madam, I had a nice clean place to stay... and I left it, to come here.
14
Matthew Harrison Brady: But your client is wrong. He is deluded. He has lost his way. Henry Drummond: It's a shame we don't all possess your positive knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, Mr. Brady.
15
Matthew Harrison Brady: I do not think about things I do not think about. Henry Drummond: Do you ever think about things that you do think about?
16
Judge: [after Drummond asks the judge for permission to withdraw form the case] Colonel Drummond, what reasons can you possibly have? Henry Drummond: [Indicates the crowd] Well, there are two hundred of them. [Crowd reacts angrily] Henry Drummond: And if that's not enough there's one more. I think my client has already been found guilty. Matthew Harrison Brady: [Rises] Is Mr. Drummond saying that this expression of an honest emotion will in any way influence the court's impartial administration of the law? Henry Drummond: I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy, you can only punish. And I warn you, that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys every one it touches. Its upholders as well as its defiers. Judge: Colonel Drummond... Henry Drummond: Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind! Judge: I hope counsel does not mean to imply that this court is bigoted. Henry Drummond: Well, your honor has the right to hope. Judge: I have the right to do more than that. Henry Drummond: You have the power to do more than that. [the Judge holds Drummond in contempt of court]
17
Henry Drummond: For I intend to show this court that what Bertram Cates spoke quietly one spring morning in the Hillsboro High School is not crime. It is incontrovertible as geometry to any enlightened community of minds. Prosecutor Tom Davenport: In this community, Colonel Drummond, and in this sovereign state, exactly the opposite is the case. The language of the law is clear, your Honor. We do not need experts to question the validity of a law that is already on the books. Henry Drummond: Well, what do you need? A gallows to hang him from? Prosecutor Tom Davenport: That remark is an insult to this entire community. Henry Drummond: And this community is an insult to the world.
18
E. K. Hornbeck: Which is hungrier my stomach or my soul? Hotdog!
19
Henry Drummond: The Bible is a book. It's a good book, but it is not the only book.
20
Henry Drummond: But all you have to do is knock on any door and say, "If you let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live, and I'll think the way you want me to think," and all the blinds'll go up and all the windows will open, and you'll never be lonely, ever again. If that's the case, I'll change the plea - that is, if you know the law's right and you're wrong.
21
E. K. Hornbeck: I may be rancid butter but I'm on your side of the bread.
22
Henry Drummond: You poor slob! You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You're all alone. E. K. Hornbeck: You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?
23
[a crowd burns the teacher in effigy] E. K. Hornbeck: Well, those are the boobs that make our laws. That's the democratic process.
24
Henry Drummond: Is that the way of things? God tells Brady what is good; to be against Brady is to be against God! Matthew Harrison Brady: No! Every man is a free agent! Henry Drummond: Then what is Bertram Cates doing in the Hillsboro Jail?
25
[Drummond contemplates a radio microphone in the courtroom] Henry Drummond: Radio! God, this is going to break down a lot of walls. Radio Announcer: You're not supposed to say "God" on the radio! Henry Drummond: Why the hell not? Radio Announcer: You're not supposed to say "Hell", either. Henry Drummond: This is going to be a barren source of amusement!
26
E. K. Hornbeck: [Cates rises as his girlfriend is called to testify] Sit down, Samson, you're about to get a haircut.
27
Rachel Brown: I was always more afraid of you than of falling!
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