A Matter of Life and Death

A Matter of Life and Death Quotes

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court.

Doctor Frank Reeves: A weak mind isn't strong enough to hurt itself. Stupidity has saved many a man from going mad.
[first lines]
Narrator: This is the universe. Big, isn't it.
Conductor 71: One is starved for Technicolor up there.
Peter: [over radio] Where were you born?
June: Boston.
Peter: Mass.?
June: Yes.
Peter: That's a place to be born, history was made there. Are you in love with anybody? No, no don't answer that.
June: I could love a man like you, Peter.
Peter: I love you, June. You're life and I'm leaving you.
Peter: June, are you pretty?
June: Not bad.
Peter: Can you hear me as well as I hear you?
June: Yes.
Peter: You've got a good voice. You've got guts too. It's funny - I've known dozens of girls: I've been in love with some of them, but an American girl whom I've never seen and who I never shall see will hear my last words. That's funny. It's rather sweet.
Peter: June, if you're around when they pick me up, turn your head away?
The Judge: Members of the jury, as Sir Walter Scott is always saying... In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, and men below, and saints above; For Love is heaven, and heaven is Love. Will you please consider your verdict.
Chief Recorder: Don't you know that any slip must be reported immediately?
Conductor 71: I lost my head.
Chief Recorder: Not long in the service?
Conductor 71: I joined in the so-called Second Germinal of the so-called glorious French Revolution.
Chief Recorder: I see. Natural death?
Conductor 71: I lost my head.
Abraham Farlan: Child, where were you born?
June: In Boston Sir.
Abraham Farlan: Do you know this man?
June: I think so.
Abraham Farlan: You think so?
June: I only met him a few days ago.
Abraham Farlan: You hardly know him. How can you think you love him?
June: But I do love him.
Abraham Farlan: Nonsense my child.
Doctor Frank Reeves: I object. Council will withdraw the expression.
June: It's all right Frank. he's right. There's no sense in love.
Abraham Farlan: Wisdom still flowers in Boston.
June: [opening words, before faces shown on screen] Request your position. Come in, Lancaster. Come in, Lancaster.
Peter: Position - nil, repeat nil. Age - 27, 27, did you get that? Very important. Education - interrupted, violently interrupted. Religion - Church of England. Politics - Conservative by nature, Labour by experience. What's your name?
Conductor 71: You are determined to get me into this... salade.
Peter: And what about the salad you got me into?
Abraham Farlan: Your smile is not unattractive, sir. Did you use it to enamor this young American lady?
Peter: I love her sir.
Abraham Farlan: Answer the question.
Peter: Would you repeat the question? It, erm, had "enamored" in it.
[last lines]
[waking up after operation]
Peter: Hello.
June: Hello.
Peter: We won.
June: I know darling.
Conductor 71: [On the Stairway to Heaven, passing by various statues representing important figures in history, points to a statue of Abraham Lincoln] What about him?
Peter: Lincoln? No, it's hardly fair to drag him in. I don't believe *he'd* be prejudiced.
Conductor 71: Plato. How would you like to be defended by Plato? Nobody knew more about reasoning than Plato.
Peter: He was eighty-one when he died, he might be too old to think love important.
Conductor 71: You think so? Anyhow, Plato had very elementary ideas about love.
Peter: Besides, didn't he quote Sophocles when somebody asked him if he was still able to appreciate a woman?
Conductor 71: What did the old boy say?
Peter: Well, he said, uh, "I'm only too glad to be rid of all that. It's like escaping from bondage to a raving madman."
Conductor 71: [scoffs] These Greeks, cold as their marble. Now, if he had been French... Richelieu, for example, irresistible at eighty. How *about* Richelieu?
Peter: No, I never liked him much in "The Three Musketeers".
Abraham Farlan: You claim you love her.
Peter: I do love her!
Abraham Farlan: Can you prove it?
Peter: Well give me time, sir. Fifty years will do.
Abraham Farlan: But can you prove it?
Peter: Well, can a starving man prove he's hungry except by eating?
Abraham Farlan: Would you die for her?
Peter: I would, but, er, I'd rather live.
Abraham Farlan: Be careful, doctor Reeves. In the whole Universe, nothing is stronger than The Law.
Doctor Frank Reeves: Yes, Mr. Farlan, nothing is stronger than The Law in the Universe, but on Earth nothing is stronger than Love.
Peter: Don't be upset about the parachute, I'll have my wings soon anyway, big white ones. I hope it hasn't gone all modern, I'd hate to have a prop instead of wings!
Conductor 71: Ah, these English! What is the good of kissing a girl if she does not feel it?
Conductor 71: After all, what is time? A mere tyranny.
Doctor Frank Reeves: Sir, may I bring you up to date? We are living in the 20th century, not in the 18th.
Abraham Farlan: May I bring you up to date, sir? We are not alive at all.
Conductor 71: [speaking with strong French accent] Your time was up. But they missed you because of your ridiculous English climate.
Doctor Frank Reeves: Ah, there's June. She walks in beauty, like the night... Only she's cycling and it's daytime.
Peter: Look at her.
Bob: Holy smoke! She looks like a nice girl.
Doctor Frank Reeves: She is a nice girl.
Bob: Hardly your type, Skip.
Peter: I've fallen in love with her. Her accent is foreign, but it sounds sweet to me. We were born thousands of miles apart, but we were made for each other.
Peter: [to dead radio operator] So long, Bob. I'll see you in a minute. You'll know what we wear by now - a prop or wings!
Doctor Frank Reeves: Tell me, do you believe in the survival of human personality after death?
Peter: I thought you said you read my verses.
[to June]
Doctor Frank Reeves: Do you?
June: I don't know, er, I'd never thought about it, do you?
Doctor Frank Reeves: I don't know, I've thought about it too much.
Doctor Frank Reeves: The rights of the uncommon man must always be respected.
Peter: "Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope's true gage; And thus I'll take my pilgrimage." Sir Walter Raleigh wrote that. I'd rather have written that than flown through Hitler's legs!
Doctor Frank Reeves: [talking to Peter] I've got bad news for you.
June: Then why the grin?
Doctor Frank Reeves: You're going with me.
June: Where to?
Doctor Frank Reeves: [talking to both June and Peter] To my house, for two reasons, first I want to meet this chap next time he drops in and second I like a nice girl around the house and she only come to see me to borrow a book, and she's a slow reader
June: Received your message. We can hear you. Are you wounded? Repeat. Are you wounded? Are you bailing out?
Peter: What's your name?
June: June.
Peter: Yes June, I'm bailing out. I'm bailing out but there's a catch, I've got no parachute.
Doctor Frank Reeves: This is a court of justice, not of law.
Doctor Frank Reeves: Milord, I submit that this court is concerned with the life and death of Peter Carter and not with past history or present plumbing.
Abraham Farlan: An American baby sucks in freedom with the milk of the breast on which he hangs.

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