Body of Lies Quotes

A CIA agent on the ground in Jordan hunts down a powerful terrorist leader while being caught between the unclear intentions of his American supervisors and Jordan Intelligence.

[first lines]
Title Card: I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn, those to whom evil is done, do evil in return. - W.H. Auden

Roger Ferris: Hani Pasha
Hani: Pasha? That is an Ottoman term.
Roger Ferris: I hear you like it sir.

Nizar: I have a PHD and they want me to blow myself up!
Roger Ferris: PHD in what? Chemistry? What do you know about radiological...
Nizar: Linguistics! I speak 5 languages. Nobody should say martyr to me. Nobody!
Roger Ferris: You are a rare and delicate flower!

Hani: You know you can always tell who cares about you the most by who comes first to visit you in the hospital.

Aisha: A man is not his job.

Roger Ferris: I thought you didn't believe in torture, Hani Pasha.
Hani: This is punishment, my dear. It's a very different thing.

Roger Ferris: You're a fat fucking piece of shit. We do this shit for a living. Go on a Goddam diet!

Ed Hoffman: See, what's changed is that our allegedly unsophisticated enemy has caughten on to the factually unsophisticated truth - we're an easy target. We are an *easy* target. And our world as we know it is a lot simpler to put to an end than you might think. We take our foot off the throat of this enemy for one minute, and our world changes completely.

Hani: Watch and learn, my dear. Watch and learn.

Roger Ferris: I need to take a shit, I need a shower and an Internet connection.

Hani: Urgency does not call for changing methods that work, for methods that do not work.
Ed Hoffman: Now who pays the bills around here? I would hate to have to have my president call your king, because it's just gonna be embarrassing for all of us.

Ed Hoffman: Nobody's innocent in this shit.

Hani: You Americans, you are incapable of secrecy because you are a democracy.

Ed Hoffman: In the words of the great Sam Snead: "If you're not thinking about pussy, you're just not concentrating."

Roger Ferris: [having cell phone conversation] You know what? I've had it. I've had it. I can't do this anymore.
Ed Hoffman: Yes, you can. Now, you just get yourself a couple of hours' sleep. And you call me when you're thinking straight.
Roger Ferris: You know what? I am thinking straight. You're not, all right? You can't, because you're a million fucking miles away. I'm here, Ed, every day. And I see the unnecessary travesties of this war... that the rest of you backstabbing political fucking bureaucrats... only look at pictures of. So don't you dare tell me I am not thinking straight! This is not working, all right? It's not working, I'm out.
Ed Hoffman: Ferris? Ferris?
[phone disconnects]
Ed Hoffman: I should pack.

Roger Ferris: Ed Hoffman doesn't know shit until he steals it from the guy on the ground and that's me.

Ed Hoffman: You're not safe here.
Roger Ferris: We're not safe anywhere.

Roger Ferris: [wounds being cleaned] What's that?
Doctor at Qatar Military Base: Bone fragments - not yours.

Roger Ferris: Still thinking about pussy, Ed?
Ed Hoffman: Don't be a smart aleck. Thing about that Hani, he's bright, but he's also arrogant. That's gonna be his undoing.
Roger Ferris: You're talking about him, right?
Ed Hoffman: Just flow with me, buddy.

Ed Hoffman: Ain't nobody likes the Middle East, buddy. There's nothing here to like.

Roger Ferris: We are your friends. We're here to watch you, we are here to protect *you*.
Nizar: [exasperated] You can't even protect yourselves.

Hani: This is unusual. Your Ed Hoffman would rather have less information than share what he has with me.

Roger Ferris: The light, the light is on you motherfucker!

Roger Ferris: So she doesn't know anything about what happened?
Hani: She knows what everybody who knows me knows.
Hani: That I am an exceedingly polite gentleman and a very good conversationalist.

Hani: Torture, it does not work. Under torture, a man will say almost anything to make the pain stop.

[Nizar refuses to come to them and Bassam has to leave the car to fetch him]
Bassam: Hey hey, listen to me. I'm not getting my head cut off on the Internet, alright? No. If something happens, shoot me. Will you shoot me?
Roger Ferris: Fuck that shit, I will shoot you right now.
Bassam: I'm not kidding.
Roger Ferris: Quit being a pussy.

Roger Ferris: Fucking cocksucker. How do you expect me to run an operation, when you're running a side operation that fucks up my own.

Roger Ferris: I can't do this anymore.
Ed Hoffman: Yes you can. Now you go home, get a few hours sleep and you call me when you're thinking straight.
Roger Ferris: Your know what, I AM thinking straight, alright, you're not, you can't 'cause you're a million fuckin' miles away.

Garland: ...and a list of emails for the Brothers of Awareness.
Roger Ferris: The Brothers of who the fuck?

Hani: Urgency does not call for changing methods that work for methods that do not work.

Hani: What have you heard about this building?
Roger Ferris: Well to be quite honest, I hear they call it the, uh, fingernail factory.

Hani: And so we throw him back into the sea to swim where he naturally swims, to learn what he naturally learns. We'll see how long he remembers my benevolence.
Roger Ferris: What if he forgets?
Hani: If he forgets, I remind him that I have the power of life and death over him. Because you see, any time I wish, I can let them know he works for me.

Ed Hoffman: We're a results oriented agency, and I want my results.

Ed Hoffman: Buddy's done, he's all by himself

[first lines]
Al-Saleem: Ali.
Ali: Yeah.
Al-Saleem: As we destroyed the bus in Sheffield last week, we will be ready and prepared for the operation in Britain. We avenge the American wars on the Muslim world.

Roger Ferris: We are together, Hani Pasha, in this House of War.

Roger Ferris: Now, you've read that directive there, which clearly states that I am in charge of this operation, so what I need you to do is leave this office immediately and hand your entire staff over to me.
Holiday: You know, we've all watched your rise in the Near East Division. I'll see you on the way down. You and Hoffman both.

Ed Hoffman: It is a fallacy that prolonged war will weaken an occupied enemy. It most likely will make your enemy stronger.

Roger Ferris: I'm gonna need some really really low-level Al Qaeda contacts, alright? No one too extreme. Picture someone in between Osama and Oprah.

Roger Ferris: I have to go deal with this Hanni bullshit, so go fuck yourself.

Body of Lies Quotes

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