American Film Institute’s
100 Years . . . 100 Quotes
The American Film Institute (AFI) celebrated the centennial of cinema by airing a number of television specials, each honoring a different aspect of excellence in American film. On June 21, 2005 AFI broadcast a program entitled “100 Years . . . 100 Quotes—America’s Greatest Movie Quotes.”
To determine the winners, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community—screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics, among them—to choose from a list of nominated films compiled by AFI. The selected films (and their ranking) are listed below.
The
symbol appears next to those films which also received an Academy Award nomination (although this was not a requirement for inclusion on the list). Click on the name of one of those films to display more information about it. You can also click on the IMDb link to to open a new browser window or tabshowing information about the film from the Internet Movie Database. Or, click on a title in the column on the right to display the winners from another AFI program.
For more information, you can follow this link to the American Film Institute’s website.
 | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) IMDb |
| “Elementary, my dear Watson.” (65) | |
| Airplane! (1980) IMDb |
| “Striker: Surely you can’t be serious. Rumack: I am serious . . . and don’t call me Shirley.” (79) | |
| All About Eve (1950) IMDb |
| “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” (9) | |
| Animal Crackers (1930) IMDb |
| “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.” (53) | |
| Annie Hall (1977) IMDb |
| “La-dee-da, la-dee-da.” (55) | |
| Apocalypse Now (1979) IMDb |
| “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” (12) | |
| Apollo 13 (1995) IMDb |
| “Houston, we have a problem.” (50) | |
| Auntie Mame (1958) IMDb |
| “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” (93) | |
| Beyond the Forest (1949) IMDb |
| “What a dump.” (62) | |
| Bonnie and Clyde (1967) IMDb |
| “We rob banks.” (41) | |
| Caddyshack (1980) IMDb |
| “Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Master’s champion. It looks like a mirac . . . It’s in the hole! It’s in the hole! It’s in the hole!” (92) | |
| Casablanca (1943) IMDb |
| “Here’s looking at you, kid.” (5) | |
| “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” (20) | |
| “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’” (28) | |
| “Round up the usual suspects.” (32) | |
| “We’ll always have Paris.” (43) | |
| “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” (67) | |
| Chinatown (1974) IMDb |
| “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” (74) | |
| Citizen Kane (1941) IMDb |
| “Rosebud.” (17) | |
| Cool Hand Luke (1967) IMDb |
| “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” (11) | |
| Dead Poets Society (1989) IMDb |
| “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” (95) | |
| Dirty Dancing (1987) IMDb |
| “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” (98) | |
| Dirty Harry (1971) IMDb |
| “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” (51) | |
| Dr. No (1962) IMDb |
| “Bond. James Bond.” (22) | |
| Dr. Strangelove (1964) IMDb |
| “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” (64) | |
| Dog Day Afternoon (1975) IMDb |
| “Attica! Attica!” (86) | |
| Dracula (1931) IMDb |
| “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.” (83) | |
| E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) IMDb |
| “E. T. phone home.” (15) | |
| A Few Good Men (1992) IMDb |
| “You can’t handle the truth!” (29) | |
| Field of Dreams (1989) IMDb |
| “If you build it, he will come.” (39) | |
| Forrest Gump (1994) IMDb |
| “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” (40) | |
| 42nd Street (1933) IMDb |
| “Sawyer, you’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!” (87) | |
| Frankenstein (1931) IMDb |
| “It’s alive! It’s alive!” (49) | |
| Funny Girl (1968) IMDb |
| “Hello, gorgeous.” (81) | |
| The Godfather (1972) IMDb |
| “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” (2) | |
| The Godfather Part II (1974) IMDb |
| “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” (58) | |
| Goldfinger (1964) IMDb |
| “A martini. Shaken, not stirred.” (90) | |
| Gone with the Wind (1939) IMDb |
| “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” (1) | |
| “After all, tomorrow is another day.” (31) | |
| “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.” (59) | |
| The Graduate (1967) IMDb |
| “Plastics.” (42) | |
| “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?” (63) | |
| Grand Hotel (1932) IMDb |
| “I want to be alone.” (30) | |
| In the Heat of the Night (1967) IMDb |
| “They call me Mister Tibbs!” (16) | |
| Jaws (1975) IMDb |
| “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” (35) | |
| The Jazz Singer (1927) IMDb |
| “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” (71) | |
| Jerry Maguire (1996) IMDb |
| “Show me the money!” (25) | |
| “You had me at ‘hello.’” (52) | |
| King Kong (1933) IMDb |
| “Oh, no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.” (84) | |
| Knute Rockne All American (1940) IMDb |
| “Tell ’em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper.” (89) | |
| A League of Their Own (1992) IMDb |
| “There’s no crying in baseball!” (54) | |
| Little Caesar (1930) IMDb |
| “Mother of mercy, is this the end if Rico?” (73) | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) IMDb |
| “My precious.” (85) | |
| Love Story (1970) IMDb |
| “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” (13) | |
| The Maltese Falcon (1931) IMDb |
| “The stuff that dreams are made of.” (14) | |
| Marathon Man (1976) IMDb |
| “Is it safe?” (70) | |
| Midnight Cowboy (1969) IMDb |
| “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” (27) | |
| Mommie Dearest (1981) IMDb |
| “No wire hangers, ever!” (72) | |
| Moonstruck (1987) IMDb |
| “Snap out of it!” (96) | |
| National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) IMDb |
| “Toga! Toga!” (82) | |
| The Naughty Nineties (1945) IMDb |
| “Who’s on first.” (91) | |
| Network (1976) IMDb |
| “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” (19) | |
| Now, Voyager (1942) IMDb |
| “Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.” (46) | |
| On Golden Pond (1981) IMDb |
| “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!” (88) | |
| On the Waterfront (1954) IMDb |
| “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.” (3) | |
| Planet of the Apes (1968) IMDb |
| “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape.” (66) | |
| Poltergeist (1982) IMDb |
| “They’re here!” (69) | |
| The Pride of the Yankees (1942) IMDb |
| “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” (38) | |
| Psycho (1960) IMDb |
| “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” (56) | |
| Rocky (1976) IMDb |
| “Yo, Adrian!” (80) | |
| Scarface (1983) IMDb |
| “Say ‘hello’ to my little friend!” (61) | |
| Shane (1953) IMDb |
| “Shane. Shane. Come back!” (47) | |
| She Done Him Wrong (1933) IMDb |
| “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” (26) | |
| The Shining (1980) IMDb |
| “Here’s Johnny!” (68) | |
| The Silence of the Lambs (1991) IMDb |
| “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” (21) | |
| The Sixth Sense (1999) IMDb |
| “I see dead people.” (44) | |
| Some Like It Hot (1959) IMDb |
| “Well, nobody’s perfect.” (48) | |
| Sons of the Desert (1933) IMDb |
| “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!” (60) | |
| Soylent Green (1973) IMDb |
| “Soylent Green is people!” (77) | |
| Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977) IMDb |
| “May the Force be with you.” (8) | |
| A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) IMDb |
| “Stella! Hey, Stella!” (45) | |
| “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” (75) | |
| Sudden Impact (1983) IMDb |
| “Go ahead, make my day.” (6) | |
| Sunset Blvd. (1950) IMDb |
| “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” (7) | |
| “I’m big! It’s the pictures that got small.” (24) | |
| Taxi Driver (1976) IMDb |
| “You talking to me?” (10) | |
| The Terminator (1984) IMDb |
| “I’ll be back.” (37) | |
| Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) IMDb |
| “Hasta la vista, baby.” (76) | |
| Titanic (1997) IMDb |
| “I’m king of the world!” (100) | |
| To Have and Have Not (1944) IMDb |
| “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” (34) | |
| Top Gun (1986) IMDb |
| “I feel the need—the need for speed!” (94) | |
| The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) IMDb |
| “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!” (36) | |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) IMDb |
| “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” (78) | |
| Wall Street (1987) IMDb |
| “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” (57) | |
| When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989) IMDb |
| “I’ll have what she’s having.” (33) | |
| White Heat (1949) IMDb |
| “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” (18) | |
| The Wizard of Oz (1939) IMDb |
| “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” (4) | |
| “There’s no place like home.” (23) | |
| “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.” (99) | |
| Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) IMDb |
| “My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you.” (97) |