# Best single lines of dialogue from artistic works
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 20, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111 "2023-02-20T22:37:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/1 "2023-02-20T22:37:58Z")
Sharona Fleming in the pilot for _ **Monk** _, in reference to politicians:
_I never vote. It just encourages them._
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### Author:  [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/2 "2023-02-20T23:01:51Z")
You’ve got me going down a Shakespeare rabbit hole. There are so many countless memorable lines from the Bard many of which we still use today. I enjoyed this one I hadn’t read before:
“I can see that he’s not in your good books,” said the messenger. “No, and if he were I would burn my library.”
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/3 "2023-02-20T23:13:30Z")
I’ve been watching all of the Seinfeld episodes back-to-back, and there are so many great lines. While walking the dog the other day I had a thought similar to the OP’ question, but what’s the best single line that’s only two words long. I’d go with “I’m out!”
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/4 "2023-02-20T23:26:28Z")
[ ](https://images.masterworksfineart.com/5f9cba39-438a-4ace-8fc4-b360387dba6c.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/5 "2023-02-20T23:32:22Z")
“If you trust in yourself. . .and believe in your dreams. . .and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Terry Pratchett
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/6 "2023-02-20T23:38:51Z")
_“The enemy,"_ retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, _"is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don’t you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.”_
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/7 "2023-02-20T23:43:54Z")
“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”
― George Bernard Shaw, [Back to Methuselah]
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### Author:  [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/8 "2023-02-21T00:01:31Z")
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a sign of weakness…that is life.” ----Jean Luc Picard
Also from Picard:
“I think when one has been angry for a very long time one gets used to it and it becomes comfortable like old leather. And finally it becomes so familiar one can’t ever remember feeling any other way.”
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/9 "2023-02-21T00:06:38Z")
“Make one mistake and you pay for it the rest of your life.”
_—Snoopy_
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/10 "2023-02-21T04:51:03Z")
My most recent favorite line.
A couple of days ago I watched, on Netflix, [Gangubai Kathiawadi](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10083340/reference/). It is a thoroughly enjoyable Hindi biography/crime story. Gangubai is on her way to give a speech and her assistant tells her to seek God’s blessing.
> Dear God. You’ve let me down so many times, don’t let me down today.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/11 "2023-02-21T06:29:07Z")
‘Instant gratification takes too long.’
–Postcards from the Edge.
‘I’m pretty much fucked.’
–The Martian
‘You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.’
–To Have and Have Not
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/12 "2023-02-21T07:21:44Z")
“If you mention extortion again, I’ll have your legs broken.” - The mayor in _Animal House_
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/13 "2023-02-21T11:56:20Z")
“Gilbert! I think sexual intercourse is in order!”
(The social climbing wife, played by Maggie Smith, in _A Private Function_)
More romantically:
“Thank you for coming back to me”
(Final line of _Brief Encounter_)
Not forgetting
“Well, nobody’s perfect”
(_Some Like It Hot_)
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/14 "2023-02-21T12:05:06Z")
“I always hear ‘Punch me in the face’ when you talk, but it’s usually subtext.” – John Watson, _Sherlock_
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/15 "2023-02-21T12:25:13Z")
A great line to randomly toss out. People either know it or they don’t. You learn something about them by their response.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/16 "2023-02-21T14:44:06Z")
It was on my mind because we just saw this in the Dali museum in Paris a week or so ago:
[ ](https://media.mutualart.com/Images/2019_10/24/16/160607756/d41c9b6b-138b-4278-976d-714045ffe716_338.Jpeg)
A clear homage to Magritte, and for extra fun Dali wrote “this is not a plate” _on an actual plate._ 😃
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/17 "2023-02-21T15:13:01Z")
“I don’t trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn’t die”
Mr Garrison, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/18 "2023-02-21T15:40:02Z")
“It is a sad and beautiful world!”
Robert Benigni’s character Roberto in _Down By Law_
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/19 "2023-02-21T15:45:19Z")
“I pulled into Nazareth, was feeling 'bout half past dead”
(_The Weight_)
“She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.”
(_The Big Sleep_)
> [@PatrickLondon](#):
>
> “Well, nobody’s perfect”
> (_Some Like It Hot_)
As a closing line, I prefer
“Stand still, Godfrey. It’ll all be over in a minute.”
(_My Man Godffrey_)
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/20 "2023-02-21T15:52:41Z")
From **Dr. Strangelove** :
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”
A close second:
“You’re going to have to answer to the Coca Cola Company.”
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