James Mason movie quotes

“Cats do not need to be shown how to have a good time, for they are unfailingly ingenious in that respect.”
James Mason

“The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity with which others are trying to prove him wrong.”
James Mason - Mr. Jordan

“- Dr. Zempf: Has anybody instructed Lolita in the facts of life?
- Humbert Humbert: The facts?
- Dr. Zempf: The facts of life. You see, Lolita is a sweet, little child, but the onset of maturity seems to be giving her a certain amount of trouble.
- Humbert Humbert: I really don't think that this is a fit topic.
- Dr. Zempf: Well, Dr. Humbert, to...” (continue)(continue reading)
Peter Sellers - Dr. Zempf
James Mason - Prof. Humbert Humbert

“What drives me insane is the twofold nature of this nymphet, of every nymphet perhaps, this mixture in my Lolita of tender, dreamy childishness and a kind of eerie vulgarity. I know it is madness to keep this journal, but it gives me a strange thrill to do so. And only a loving wife could decipher my microscopic script.”
James Mason - Prof. Humbert Humbert

“- Lolita Haze: Do you always have to shave twice a day?
- Humbert Humbert: Yes, of course, because all the best people shave twice a day.”
Sue Lyon - Lolita
James Mason - Prof. Humbert Humbert

“- Charlotte Haze: Do you believe in God?
- Humbert Humbert: The question is does God believe in me?”
Shelley Winters - Charlotte Haze
James Mason - Prof. Humbert Humbert

“- Leonard: Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful of worms.
- Phillip Vandamm: The truth? I've heard nothing but innuendos.
- Leonard: Call it my woman's intuition, if you will. But I've never trusted neatness. Neatness is always the result of deliberate planning.”
Martin Landau - Leonard
James Mason - Phillip Vandamm

“Although I've been a slave, I'm not acostumed to pain. Although a philosopher, I am weak.”
James Mason - Timonides

“We were right Livius. There is no limit with what can be done with a human spirit, for good or evil.”
James Mason - Timonides

“- Marcus Aurelius: When I was a child, Timonides, I had a secret fear that night would come and would never end. That we would live out our lives in total darkness. It was a small fear, then.
- Timonides: Yet, my lord Caesar, the sun always rises - and will again.
- Marcus Aurelius: So you say.”
Alec Guinness - Marcus Aurelius
James Mason - Timonides

“- Marcus Aurelius: What is another day to offer you, Timonides?
- Timonides: Warmth, life, color, people.”
Alec Guinness - Marcus Aurelius
James Mason - Timonides

“It's a shame that I didn't marry someone who was my intellectual equal.”

James Mason - Ed Avery

“God was wrong!”
James Mason - Ed Avery

“Childhood is a congenital disease - and the purpose of education is to cure it. We're breeding a race of moral midgets.”
James Mason - Ed Avery

“- Sherlock Holmes: I suppose since, after all, he's only the Prince of Wales, we should not expect the same degree of courtesy.
- Dr. Watson: And since you are the Prince of Detectives, Holmes, I don't think you should presume to criticize a man who one day will be King of England.”

Christopher Plummer - Sherlock Holmes
James Mason - Dr. Watson

“- Dr. Watson: You squashed my pea.
- Sherlock Holmes: Now you've got it cornered.
- Dr. Watson: Yes, but squashing a fellow's pea.
- Sherlock Holmes: Just trying to help.
- Dr. Watson: I didn't want it squashed, I don't like it that way - I like it whole so that you can feel it pop when you bite down on it.”

James Mason - Dr. Watson
Christopher Plummer - Sherlock Holmes

“- Ed Concannon: Why wasn't she getting oxygen?
- Dr. Towler: Well, many reasons, really...
- Ed Concannon: Tell me one.
- Dr. Towler: She'd aspirated vomitus into her mask.
- Ed Concannon: She threw up in her mask. Now cut the bullshit, please. Just say it: She threw up in her mask.”
James Mason - Ed Concannon
Wesley Addy - Dr. Towler

“Haven't you learned the rules of probability and outcome? Aren't you aware that every question of life and death remains a probability until the outcome?”
James Mason - Mr. Jordan

I'd prepared a case and old man White said to me, "How did you do?". And, I said, "Did my best". And he said, "You're not paid to do your best. You're paid to win".
James Mason - Ed Concannon

“- Joe Pendleton: She loves me, Mr. Jordan!
- Mr. Jordan: Joe, you must abide by what is written.”

Warren Beatty - Joe Pendleton
James Mason - Mr. Jordan

“- Dr. Watson: It's a damn disgrace!
- Sherlock Holmes: On the contrary. I prefer bad manners in the theater to active violence in the streets.”

James Mason - Dr. Watson
Christopher Plummer - Sherlock Holmes