Inherit the Wind

Henry Drummond:
Yes! The individual human mind. In a child's ability to master the multiplication table, there is more holiness than all your shouted hosannas and holy holies. An idea is more important that a monument and the advancement of Man's knowledge more miraculous than all the sticks turned to snakes and the parting of the waters.

Henry Drummond:
Suppose God whispered into a Bertram Cate's ear that an un-Brady thought could still be holy? Must men go to jail because they find themselves at odds with a self-appointed prophet?

Matthew Harrison Brady:
We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!

Henry Drummond:
Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one thing that sets above the other animals? What other merit have we? The elephant is larger, the horse stronger and swifter, the butterfly more beautiful, the mosquito more prolific, even the sponge is more durable. Or does a sponge think?

Matthew Harrison Brady:
I don't know. I'm a man, not a sponge!

Henry Drummond:
Do you think a sponge thinks?

Matthew Harrison Brady:
If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks!

Henry Drummond:
Does a man have the same privilege as a sponge?

Matthew Harrison Brady:
Of course!

Henry Drummond:
Then this man wishes to have the same privilege of a sponge, he wishes to think!

Henry Drummond:
Hornbeck, I'm getting tired of you. You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something.

E. K. Hornbeck:
We're growing a strange crop of agnostics this year.

E. K. Hornbeck:
He's the only man I know who can strut sitting down.

E. K. Hornbeck:
Disillusionment is what little heroes are made of.

E. K. Hornbeck:
Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Matthew Harrison Brady:
Remember the wisdom of Solomon in the book of Proverbs. "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."

Henry Drummond:
I don't swear for the hell of it. Language is a poor enough means of communication. We've got to use all the words we've got. Besides, there are damn few words anybody understands.

E. K. Hornbeck:
He that sups with the devil must have a long spoon.

E. K. Hornbeck:
Madam, I had a nice clean place to stay... and I left it, to come here.

Matthew Harrison Brady:
But your client is wrong. He is deluded. He has lost his way.

Henry Drummond:
It's a shame we don't all possess your positive knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, Mr. Brady.

Matthew Harrison Brady:
I do not think about things I do not think about.

Henry Drummond:
Do you ever think about things that you do think about?

Henry Drummond:
For I intend to show this court that what Bertram Cates spoke quietly one spring morning in the Hillsboro High School is not crime. It is incontrovertible as geometry to any enlightened community of minds.

Prosecutor Tom Davenport:
In this community, Colonel Drummond, and in this sovereign state, exactly the opposite is the case. The language of the law is clear, your Honor. We do not need experts to question the validity of a law that is already on the books.

Henry Drummond:
Well, what do you need? A gallows to hang him from?

Prosecutor Tom Davenport:
That remark is an insult to this entire community.

Henry Drummond:
And this community is an insult to the world.

E. K. Hornbeck:
Which is hungrier my stomach or my soul? Hotdog!

Henry Drummond:
The Bible is a book. It's a good book, but it is not the only book.

Henry Drummond:
But all you have to do is knock on any door and say, "If you let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live, and I'll think the way you want me to think," and all the blinds'll go up and all the windows will open, and you'll never be lonely, ever again. If that's the case, I'll change the plea - that is, if you know the law's right and you're wrong.

E. K. Hornbeck:
I may be rancid butter but I'm on your side of the bread.

Henry Drummond:
You poor slob! You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You're all alone.

E. K. Hornbeck:
You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?

E. K. Hornbeck:
Well, those are the b*obs that make our laws. That's the democratic process.

Henry Drummond:
Is that the way of things? God tells Brady what is good; to be against Brady is to be against God!

Matthew Harrison Brady:
No! Every man is a free agent!

Henry Drummond:
Then what is Bertram Cates doing in the Hillsboro Jail?

Henry Drummond:
Radio! God, this is going to break down a lot of walls.

Radio Announcer:
You're not supposed to say "God" on the radio!

Henry Drummond:
Why the hell not?

Radio Announcer:
You're not supposed to say "Hell", either.

Henry Drummond:
This is going to be a barren source of amusement!

Rachel Brown:
I was always more afraid of you than of falling!

E. K. Hornbeck:
We’re growing a strange crop of agnostics this year.