Memorable quotes for
The Thin Red Line (1998) More at IMDbPro »

Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: It's never necessary to tell me that you think I'm right. We'll just... assume it.

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Japanese Soldier: Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay. There's just this one, just this rock.

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Capt. James 'Bugger' Staros: I've lived with these men, sir, for two and a half years and I will not order them all to their deaths.

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: I might be your best friend, and you don't even know it.

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: In this world, a man, himself, is nothing. And there ain't no world but this one.

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Sergeant Storm: I look at that boy dyin', I don't feel nothin'. I don't care about nothin' anymore.
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Sounds like bliss.

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Private Witt: [voice over] We were a family. How'd it break up and come apart, so that now we're turned against each other? Each standing in the other's light. How'd we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What's keepin' us from reaching out, touching the glory?

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[last lines]
Private Edward P. Train: [voice over] Where is it that we were together? Who were you that I lived with? The brother. The friend. Darkness, light. Strife and love. Are they the workings of one mind? The features of the same face? Oh, my soul. Let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes. Look out at the things you made. All things shining.

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Pvt. Jack Bell: [voice over] We. We together. One being. Flow together like water. Till I can't tell you from me. I drink you. Now. Now.

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Capt. James 'Bugger' Staros: [praying] You're my light. My guide.

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Private Witt: [voice over] This great evil. Where does it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doin' this? Who's killin' us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed to this night?

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Private Witt: [voice over] Everyone lookin' for salvation by himself. Each like a coal thrown from the fire.

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Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: You're Greek, aren't you, Captain? Did you ever read Homer? We read Homer at the Point. In Greek.

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Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: [voice over] Shut up in a tomb. Can't lift the lid. Playing a role I never concieved.

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Private Witt: I seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just my imagination.

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Private Witt: Maybe all men got one big soul everybody's a part of, all faces are the same man.

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: What difference do you think you can make, one man in all this madness?

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Private Witt: I can take anything you dish out. I am twice the man you are.

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Property. The whole fucking thing's about property.

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Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: The only time you should start worrying about a soldier is when they stop bitchin'.

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Everything a lie. Everything you hear, everything you see. So much to spew out. They just keep coming, one after another. You're in a box. A moving box. They want you dead, or in their lie... There's only one thing a man can do - find something that's his, and make an island for himself. If I never meet you in this life, let me feel the lack; a glance from your eyes, and my life will be yours.

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Private Witt: Do you ever feel lonely?
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Only around people.

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Pvt. Jack Bell: Love. Where does it come from? Who lit this flame in us? No war can put it out, conquer it. I was a prisoner. You set me free.

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Colonel Gordon Tall: How many men is it worth? How many lives? One? Two? Twenty? Lives will be lost in your company, Captain. If you don't have the stomach for it, now is the time to let me know.

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Colonel Gordon Tall: John, I'm convinced that the Japanese position can be broken right now. All we have to do is keep going and we'll have this hill. We'll have this hill by sundown! You see the spirit in these men? Do you see the new spirit? Well, I want to take advantage of that before something happens to sap their strength. To have this battalion relieved in a defeat, or even to have it reinforced by troops from a reserve regiment, if we were stalled before reaching the top, well, Jesus Christ, that's just a hell of a lot more than I could stand! I've waited all my life for this. I've worked, slaved, eaten untold buckets of shit to have this opportunity and I don't intend to give it up now.

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Private Jack Bell: You see that hill?
Second Lieutenant Whyte: Yeah.

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Colonel Gordon Tall: Look at this jungle. Look at those vines, the way they twine around, swallowing everything. Nature's cruel, Staros.

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Private Edward P. Train: [narrating] What is this great evil? How did it steal into the world? From what seed, what root did it spring? Who's doing this? Who's killing us? Robbing us of light and life. Mocking us with the sight of what we might have known.

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Private Edward P. Train: [narrating] Oh, my soul, let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes, look out at the things you've made. All things shining.

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Private Jack Bell: My dear wife, you get something twisted out of your insides by all this blood, filth, and noise. I want to stay changeless for you. I want to come back to you the man I was before.

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Sergeant Storm: It makes no difference who you are, no matter how much training you got and the tougher guy you might be. When you're at the wrong spot at the wrong time, you gonna get it.

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Private Jack Bell: [Narrating] Why should I be afraid to die? I belong to you. If I go first, I'll wait for you there, on the other side of the dark waters. Be with me now.

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Private Witt: [narrating] War don't ennoble men. It turns them into dogs... poisons the soul.

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Pvt. Charlie Dale: Maybe they wanna get into eh... Nirvana.

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Pvt. Charlie Dale: See them birds up there... they gonna eat you raw. You're dyin'.

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Pvt. Charlie Dale: What are you to me? Nothin'.

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Japanese soldier: We know you out there, Yank!
Sergeant Keck: Tojo eats shit!
Japanese soldier: No, Roosevelt eats-a shit!

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Japanese Soldier: We know you're there, Yankee!
Sergeant Keck: Tojo eats shit!
Japanese Soldier: No, Roosevelt eats shit!

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Private Ash: I'm outta this war for good, Witt.

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Private Ash: I would have had you Witt if you were a Jap, long ago.
Private Witt: They leave you here?
Private Ash: Yeah, I was holding them up.
Private Witt: You got one good huh?
Private Ash: Right in the knee. Yeah, I'm out of this war for good Witt. The Doc fixed me up pretty good, plenty of ammo. What are you doing up here?
Private Witt: I took a walk away from the village. You can come with me if you want, I can help you along.
Private Ash: No, its peaceful up here you know? I'll only slow you up. Someone will be along. You give the boys my best, huh?
Private Witt: I will.
Private Ash: Ok.

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[first lines]
Private Witt: I remember my mother when she was dyin', looked all shrunk up and gray. I asked her if she was afraid. She just shook her head. I was afraid to touch the death I seen in her. I couldn't find nothin' beautiful or uplifting about her goin' back to God. I heard of people talk about immortality, but I ain't seen it. I wondered how it'd be like when I died, what it'd be like to know this breath now was the last one you was ever gonna draw. I just hope I can meet it the same way she did, with the same... calm. 'Cause that's where it's hidden - the immortality I hadn't seen.

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Private Witt: How did we loose all the good that was given us?. Let it slip away. Scattered careless.

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Where's your spark now?

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Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: This is very important decision you're makin', Staros.

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Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: Come on, men, let's go! You're gonna see plenty more of these where we're goin'! Are we going up this hill or aren't we?

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Corporal Fife: They're coming! Fall back!

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Brigadier General Quintard: The Marines had their chance now we have ours.

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Private First Class Edward Beade: [as he is dying] Fife... Fife...

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First Sgt. Edward Welsh: We're living in a world that's blowing itself to hell as fast as everybody can arrange it.

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Sergeant Keck: I blew my butt off!

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Capt. James 'Bugger' Staros: The tough part is, uh... Not knowing if you're doing any good. That's the hard part.

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Private Witt: What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?

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