The Best Years of Our Lives Quotes

The Best Years of Our Lives is a television program that first aired in 1970 . The Best Years of Our Lives ended in 1970.

It features Samuel Goldwyn as producer, Hugo Friedhofer; Emil Newman in charge of musical score, and Gregg Toland as head of cinematography.

The Best Years of Our Lives is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of The Best Years of Our Lives is 172 minutes long. The Best Years of Our Lives is distributed by RKO Radio Pictures.

The cast includes: Cathy O'Donnell as Wilma Cameron, Walter Baldwin as Homer Parrish, Myrna Loy as Milly Stephenson, Dana Andrews as Fred Derry, Michael Hall as Al Stephenson, Virginia Mayo as Marie Derry, Hoagy Carmichael as Butch Engle, Michael Hall as Rob Stephenson, Teresa Wright as Peggy Stephenson, and Ray Teal as Mr. Mollett.

The Best Years of Our Lives Quotes

Dana Andrews as Fred Derry

• (Dana Andrews) "I dreamed I was gonna have my own home. Just a nice little house for my wife and me out in the country -- in the suburbs anyway. That's the cock-eyed kind of dream you have when you're overseas."
• (Teresa Wright) "You don't have to be overseas to have dreams like that."
• (Dana Andrews) "Yeah. You can get crazy ideas right here at home."

• (Dana Andrews) "You gotta hand it to the Navy; they sure trained that kid how to use those hooks."
• (Michael Hall) "They couldn't train him to put his arms around his girl, or to stroke her hair."

• (Dana Andrews) "At what salary?"
• (Mr. Thorpe) "Thirty-two fifty per week."
• (Dana Andrews) "Thirty-two fifty. I used to make over four hundred dollars a month in the Air Force."
• (Mr. Thorpe) "The war is over, Derry."

• (Dana Andrews) "How long since you been home?"
• (Michael Hall) "Oh, a couple-a centuries."

• (Dana Andrews) "Some barracks you got here. Hey, what are you? A retired bootlegger?"
• (Michael Hall) "Nothing as dignified as that. I'm a banker."

• (Dana Andrews) "You know what it'll be, don't you, Peggy? It may take us years to get anywhere. We'll have no money, no decent place to live. We'll have to work, get kicked around."

Michael Hall as Al Stephenson

• (Michael Hall) "I've seen nothing, I should have stayed at home and found out what was really going on."

• (Michael Hall) "We don't need to worry about that child. She can take care of herself."
• (Myrna Loy) "That's what she thinks."

• (Michael Hall) "You see, Mr. Milton, in the Army I've had to be with men when they were stripped of everything in the way of property except what they carried around with them and inside them. I saw them being tested. Now some of them stood up to it and some didn't. But you got so you could tell which ones you could count on. I tell you this man Novak is okay. His 'collateral' is in his hands, in his heart and his guts. It's in his right as a citizen."

• (Michael Hall) "You know, I had a dream. I dreamt I was home. I've had that same dream hundreds of times before. This time, I wanted to find out if it's really true. Am I really home?"

• (Michael Hall) "I'm glad to see you've all pulled through so well. As Mr. Milton so perfectly expressed it: our country stands today -- where it stands today -- wherever that is. I'm sure you'll all agree with me if I said that now is the time for all of us to stop all this nonsense, face facts, get down to brass tacks, forget about the war and go fishing. But I'm not gonna say it. I'm just going to sum the whole thing up in one word."
• (Michael Hall) "My wife doesn't think I'd better sum it up in that one word. I want to tell you all that the reason for my success as a Sergeant is due primarily to my previous training in the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge I acquired in the good ol' bank I applied to my problems in the infantry. For instance, one day in Okinawa, a Major comes up to me and he says, "Stephenson, you see that hill?" "Yes sir, I see it." "All right," he said. "You and your platoon will attack said hill and take it." So I said to the Major, "but that operation involves considerable risk. We haven't sufficient collateral." "I'm aware of that," said the Major, "but the fact remains that there's the hill and you are the guys who are going to take it." So I said to him, "I'm sorry, Major -- no collateral, no hill." So we didn't take the hill and we lost the war. I think that little story has considerable significance, but I've forgotten what it is. And now in conclusion, I'd like to tell you a humorous anecdote. I know several humorous anecdotes, but I can't think of any way to clean them up, so I'll only say this much. I love the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. There are some who say that the old bank is suffering from hardening of the arteries and of the heart. I refuse to listen to such radical talk. I say that our bank is alive, it's generous, it's human, and we're going to have such a line of customers seeking and GETTING small loans that people will think we're gambling with the depositors' money. And we will be. We will be gambling on the future of this country. I thank you."

Walter Baldwin as Homer Parrish

• (Walter Baldwin) "I was afraid you wouldn't be able to stand up for me."
• (Dana Andrews) "I'd stand up for you, kid, til I drop."

• (Walter Baldwin) "I didn't see much of the war -- I was stationed in a repair shop below decks. Oh, I was in plenty of battles, but I never saw a Jap or heard a shell coming at me. When we were sunk, all I know is there was a lot of fire and explosions. And I was ordered topsides and overboard. And I was burned. When I came to, I was on a cruiser. My hands were off. After that, I had it easy -- That's what I said. They took care of me fine. They trained me to use these things. I can dial telephones, I can drive a car, I can even put nickels in the jukebox. I'm all right, but -- well, you see, I've got a girl."

• (Walter Baldwin) "I'm lucky. I have my elbows. Some of the boys don't. But I can't button them up."
• (Cathy O'Donnell) "I'll do that, Homer."
• (Walter Baldwin) "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. Well, now you know, Wilma. Now you have an idea of what it is. I guess you don't know what to say. It's all right. Go on home. Go away like your family said."
• (Cathy O'Donnell) "I know what to say, Homer. I love you and I'm never going to leave you -- never."

Cathy O'Donnell as Wilma Cameron

• (Cathy O'Donnell) "Tell me the truth, Homer. Do you want me to forget about you?"
• (Walter Baldwin) "I want you to be free, Wilma, to live your own life. I don't want you tied down forever just because you've got a kind heart."
• (Cathy O'Donnell) "Oh, Homer. Why can't you ever understand the way things really are, the way I really feel? I keep trying to tell you."
• (Walter Baldwin) "But, but you don't know, Wilma. You don't know what it'd be like to have to live with me. To have to face this"
• (Walter Baldwin) "every day, every night."
• (Cathy O'Donnell) "But I can only find out by trying. And if it turns out I haven't courage enough, we'll soon know it."

• (Cathy O'Donnell) "You wrote me that when you got home, you and I were going to be married. If you wrote that once, you wrote it a hundred times. Isn't that true?"
• (Walter Baldwin) "Yes, but things are different now."
• (Cathy O'Donnell) "Have you changed your mind?"
• (Walter Baldwin) "Have I said anything about changing my mind?"
• (Cathy O'Donnell) "No. That's just it. You haven't said anything about anything -- I don't know what to think, Homer. 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."

Myrna Loy as Milly Stephenson

• (Myrna Loy) ""We never had any trouble." 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?"

• (Myrna Loy) "What do you think of the children?"
• (Michael Hall) "Children? I don't recognize 'em. They've grown so old."
• (Myrna Loy) "I tried to stop them, to keep them just as they were when you left, but they got away from me."

• (Myrna Loy) "You'll probably have to make a speech."
• (Michael Hall) "It's my plan to meet that situation by getting plastered."

• (Myrna Loy) "You're crazy."
• (Michael Hall) "No. Too sane for my own good."

Virginia Mayo as Marie Derry

• (Virginia Mayo) "What do you think I was doing all those years?"
• (Dana Andrews) "I don't know, babe, but I can guess."
• (Virginia Mayo) "Go ahead. Guess your head off. I could do some guessing myself. What were you up to in London and Paris and all those places? 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. Couldn't even hold that job at the drugstore. So I'm going back to work for myself and that means I'm gonna live for myself too. And in case you don't understand English, I'm gonna get a divorce. What have you got to say to that?"
• (Dana Andrews) "Don't keep Cliff waiting."

• (Virginia Mayo) "What are you gonna do?"
• (Dana Andrews) "I'm going away."
• (Virginia Mayo) "Where?"
• (Dana Andrews) "As far away from Boone City as I can get."
• (Virginia Mayo) "That's a good idea. You'll get a good job someplace else. There are drugstores everywhere."

• (Virginia Mayo) "Say, who is this Peggy Stephenson?"
• (Dana Andrews) "She's a girl."
• (Virginia Mayo) "I didn't think she was a kangaroo."

Teresa Wright as Peggy Stephenson

• (Teresa Wright) "Well, what have you been doing with yourself lately?"
• (Dana Andrews) "Working."
• (Teresa Wright) "Yes, Dad told me he heard you were in some kind of building work."
• (Dana Andrews) "Well, that's a hopeful way of putting it. I'm really in the junk business; an occupation for which many people feel I'm well-qualified by temperament and training."

• (Teresa Wright) "I've made up my mind."
• (Michael Hall) "Good girl."
• (Myrna Loy) "To do what?"
• (Teresa Wright) "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. Oh, it's horrible for him. It's humiliating and it's killing his spirit. Somebody's got to help him."

• (Woody Merrill) "All marriages don't have to be like that one."
• (Teresa Wright) "Which one?"
• (Woody Merrill) "Your friends, Fred and Marie."
• (Teresa Wright) "What's wrong with their marriage?"
• (Woody Merrill) "Nothing, except one slight detail, they just don't like each other."

Hoagy Carmichael as Butch Engle

(We don't have any quotes for this character)

Ray Teal as Mr. Mollett

• (Ray Teal) "Say, uh, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"
• (Walter Baldwin) "I know what it is. How did I get these hooks and how do they work? That's what everybody says when they start off, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Well, I'll tell ya. I got sick and tired of that old pair of hands I had. You know, an awful lot of trouble washing them and manicuring my nails. So I traded them in for a pair of these latest models. They work by radar. Look."
• (Walter Baldwin) "Pretty cute, hey?"

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