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Quotations from A Christmas Carol

Scrooge giving a quote about tact.

A Christmas Carol is a comedy-drama family film about a old-rich man who shows no compassion for those around him. That is, until three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve. Luckily, since it's a family movie, there is a happy ending. The film is based on the famous novel by Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol is one of the greatest Christmas movies of all-time. Below are only a few of the films greatest quotes.


Ebenezer Scrooge: [looking at the Cratchit's feast] It's such a small bird.
Ghost of Christmas Present: [leaning in Scrooge's face] It's all Bob Cratchit can afford.
Tiny Tim: [outside Scrooge's office] Merry Christmas, Mister Scrooge.
Ebenezer Scrooge: Don't beg on this corner, boy.
Tiny Tim: I'm not begging, Sir. I'm Tim Cratchit. I'm waiting for my father.
Ebenezer Scrooge: Tim Cratchit, eh? Well you'll have a long wait, then, won't you?
[he walks off]
Tiny Tim: Merry Christmas, Sir!
Ebenezer Scrooge: Humbug.
Fred Holywell: [on his Uncle Ebenezer] ... His wealth is quite useless to him, really. He doesn't do any good with it; he doesn't even make HIMSELF comfortable with it.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [whom nobody else can see or hear] I haven't SQUANDERED it, if that's what you mean by "making myself comfortable!"
Ghost of Christmas Present: You mustn't argue with those in the right. It's pointless, and even tactless.
Ebenezer Scrooge: Tact is a quality I despise.
Ghost of Christmas Present: *That* I can see.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [after Cratchit claps following Fred's speech to Scrooge] Another sound from you... and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [on Tiny Tim] Tell me, Spirit... Will he live?
Ghost of Christmas Present: I see an empty place at this table. I see a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die.
Ebenezer Scrooge: No. Say he'll be spared.
Ghost of Christmas Present: If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my species will find him here. But if he is to die, then let him die...! "AND DECREASE THE SURPLUS POPULATION!"
Ebenezer Scrooge: You use my own words against me?
Ghost of Christmas Present: Yes! So perhaps, in the future, you will hold your tongue until you have discovered where the surplus population is, and WHO it is. It may well be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than MILLIONS like this poor man's child.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [to a "simile" player at the Hollywell's party, who's just been eliminated from the proceedings] ..."Quick as a FLASH," you idiot!
Ghost of Christmas Present: Ebenezer! Shush!
Ebenezer Scrooge: You said they could neither see nor hear us.
Ghost of Christmas Present: Oh, yes... that's right. Well, even I forget the regulations sometimes; after all, I don't come back very often.
Ebenezer Scrooge: SHUSH... I'm trying to listen to the game!

Ebenezer Scrooge: [Sitting under the bridge after the Ghost of Christmas Present leaves] What have I done... to be abandoned like this? What?
Next: A Christmas Story
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