“The Best Years of Our Lives” quotes
(1946)
William Wyler
directed this movie
in 1946
Title The Best Years of Our Lives
Year 1946
Director William Wyler
Genre Drama, Romance, War
Year 1946
Director William Wyler
Genre Drama, Romance, War
Plot – Three World War II American veterans come home and find out many things have changed. Moreover the military life have transformed them too. Homer, mutilated to the hands, tries to recover the relationship with his girlfriend and to overcome his condition as disabled. Al finds his family changed too, while Fred's wife doesn't love him anymore, so he falls in love with Al's eldest daughter. Together the three veterans have to find a way to reconcile their dramatic experiences with daily life to be able to put back together the broken pieces and move on.
All actors – Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Russell, Gladys George, Roman Bohnen, Ray Collins, Minna Gombell
show all“The Best Years of Our Lives” Quotes 20 quotes
“Everything has always been so perfect for you. You loved each other and you got married in a big church, and you had a honeymoon in the south of France. And you never had any trouble of any kind. So how can you possibly understand how it is with Fred and me?”
“- Peggy Stephenson: What's wrong with their marriage?
- Woody Merrill: Nothing, except one slight detail, they just don't like each other.”“- Wilma Cameron: Why can't you ever understand the way things really are, the way I really feel? I keep trying to tell you.
- Homer Parrish: You don't know what it'd be like to have to live with me. To have to face this every day, every night.
- Wilma Cameron: But I can only find out by trying.”“You don't know anything about what's inside him. And neither does she, his wife. That's probably what she thought when she married him. A smooth operator with money in his pockets. But now he isn't smooth any longer and she's lost interest in him.”
“This is when I know I'm helpless. My hands are down there on the bed. I can't put them on again without calling to somebody for help. I can't smoke a cigarette or read a book. If that door should blow shut, I can't open it and get out of this room. I'm as dependent as a baby that doesn't know how to get anything except to cry for it.”
“Poor Fred. I guess you think he's an awful sourpuss. He didn't use to be that way, though. The Army's had an awful effect on him - knocked all the life out of him... you can't have happy marriages on that kind of dough.”
“I've given you every chance to make something of yourself. I gave up my own job when you asked me. I gave up the best years of my life, and what have you done? You flopped!”
“All I know is, I was in love with you when you left and I'm in love with you now. Other things may have changed but that hasn't.”
“I'm going to do everything I can to keep her away from you, to help her forget about you, and get her married to some decent guy who can make her happy.”
“- Al Stephenson: So you're gonna break this marriage up. Have you decided yet how you're gonna do it? Are you gonna do it with an axe?
- Peggy Stephenson: It's none of your business how I'm gonna do it. You've forgotten what it's like to be in love.”“- Milly Stephenson: You're crazy.
- Al Stephenson: No. Too sane for my own good.”“I'm going to break that marriage up! I can't stand it seeing Fred tied to a woman he doesn't love and who doesn't love him.”
“How many times have I told you I hated you and believed it in my heart? How many times have you said you were sick and tired of me; that we were all washed up? How many times have we had to fall in love all over again?”
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