Memorable quotes for
Meet John Doe (1941) More at IMDbPro »

The Colonel: I don't read no papers, and I don't listen to radios either. I know the world's been shaved by a drunken barber, and I don't have to read it.

---

Long John Willoughby: Hey, stop worryin', Colonel, fifty bucks ain't gonna ruin me.
The Colonel: I've seen plenty of fellas start out with fifty bucks and wind up with a *bank* account!
Beany: Hey, what's wrong with a bank account, anyway?
The Colonel: And let me tell you, Long John, when you become a guy with a bank account, they gotcha! Yes sir, they gotcha!
Beany: Who's got him?
The Colonel: The helots!

---

Mayor Hawkins: O.K. folks, but remember your manners. No stampeding. Walk slow, like you do when you come to pay your taxes.

---

Angelface, Beany: [after Willoughby gives the Colonel the $50 to give away]
Angelface: Say, he's giving it away. I better get me some of that
Beany: Hey, come back here you hee-lot.

---

D. B. Norton: You'll play your cards right and you'll never have to worry about money again.

---

D. B. Norton: From now on, I think you'd better work directly with me.

---

The Colonel: $5,000. Holy mackerel! I can see the hee-lots coming now. A whole army of them.

---

Ann: Everything in that speech is what a certain man believed in. He was my father. When he talked people listened. They will listen to you too.

---

Henry Connel: Listen. If that guys lays an egg by getting something out of it, I'm getting a Jane Doe ready.

---

Mayor Hawkins: No you can't see him, you didn't vote for me in the last election. Shame on you.

---

Henry Connel: I should be drinking milk. This stuff is posnous.

---

Henry Connel: There you are, Norton - - the people, try and lick that.

---

The Colonel: I've seen guys like you before. Guys that never had to worry. Then they get a hold of some dough and go goofy.

---

Mayor Hawkins: Why, Bert. I feel slighted. I'd like to join, but nobody asked me.
Sourpuss Smithers: I'm sorry, Mayor, but we voted that no politician could join.
Mrs. Hansen: Just the John Does of the neighborhood because you know how politicians are.

---

The Colonel: Gangway, you hee-lots!

---

Ann: If it was raining hundred dollar bills, you'd be out looking for a dime you lost someplace!

---

Henry Connel: Lighthouses, John. Lighthouses in a foggy world.

---

[Discussing the contract with John Doe]
Henry Connel: On December 26th, you get one railroad ticket... out of town. And the Bulletin agrees to pay to have your arm fixed. That's what you want, isn't it?
Long John Willoughby: Yeah, but, it's gotta be by "Bonesetter" Brown.

---

Ann: [Ann is pleading with John not to commit suicide] Please don't give up. We'll start all over again. Just you and I. It isn't too late. The John Doe movement isn't dead yet. You see, John, it isn't dead or they wouldn't be here. It's alive in them. They kept it alive by being afraid. That's why they came up here. Oh, darling!... We can start clean now. Just you and I. It'll grow John, and it'll grow big because it'll be honest this time. Oh, John, if it's worth dying for, it's worth living for. Oh please, John... You wanna be honest, don't ya? Well, you don't have to die to keep the John Doe ideal alive. Someone already died for that once. The first John Doe. And he's kept that ideal alive for nearly 2,000 years. It was He who kept it alive in them. And He'll go on keeping it alive for ever and always - for every John Doe movement these men kill, a new one will be born. That's why those bells are ringing, John. They're calling to us, not to give up but to keep on fighting, to keep on pitching. Oh, don't you see darling? This is no time to give up. You and I, John, we... Oh, no, no, John. If you die, I want to die too. Oh, oh, I love you.

---

Beany: What's a hee-lot?
The Colonel: You've ever been broke, sonny?
Beany: Sure, mostly often.
The Colonel: All right. You're walking along, not a nickel in your jeans, your free as the wind, nobody bothers ya. Hundreds of people pass you by in every line of buisness: shoes, hats, automobiles, radios, everything, and there all nice lovable people and they lets you alone, is that right? Then you get a hold of some dough and what happens, all those nice sweet lovable people become hee-lots, a lotta heels. They begin to creep up on ya, trying to sell ya something: they get long claws and they get a stranglehold on ya, and you squirm and you duck and you holler and you try to push them away but you haven't got the chance. They gots ya. First thing ya know you own things, a car for instance, now your whole life is messed up with alot more stuff: you get license fees and number plates and gas and oil and taxes and insurance and identification cards and letters and bills and flat tires and dents and traffic tickets and motorcycle cops and tickets and courtrooms and lawers and fines and... a million and one other things. What happens? You're not the free and happy guy you used to be. You need to have money to pay for all those things, so you go after what the other fellas got. There you are, you're a hee-lot yourself.

---

Long John Willoughby: [addressing the public] Why can't that spirit, that warm Christmas spirit, last all year long?

---

The Colonel: [criticizing John's anti-separatism speech] Tear down fences... why, if you tore one picket off your neighbor's fence, he'd sue you!

---

Long John Willoughby: [gets carried away spanking his own knees as he describes his dream to Ann]
Long John Willoughby: Then I came down and started whackin' you myself, and then you whacked me, and then I whacked you, and then we started whackin' back and forth, and...
Long John Willoughby: [stops abruptly when he realizes Beany is standing right behind him]
Beany: If you're through whackin' her, can we go now?

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Plot synopsis	Plot keywords
User comments	Trivia	Goofs
Main details	IMDb quotes browser	Search quotes section
Browse titles with quotes by letter    A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other