Memorable quotes for
Scrooge (1970) More at IMDbPro »

Ebenezer Scrooge: I will start anew/I will make amends/and I will make quite certain/that the story ends/on a note of hope/on a strong amen/and I'll thank the world/and remember when/I was able to begin again!
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Ebeneezer Scrooge: [the Ghost of Christmas Present has brought Scrooge to the home of Bob Cratchit] I want to look in the window.
the Ghost of Christmas Present: It will cost you nothing, which I'm sure is good news for you.
Ebeneezer Scrooge: Will they be able to see me?
the Ghost of Christmas Present: No, which I'm sure is good news for them.
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the Ghost of Jacob Marley: Hello, Ebeneezer. I've been waiting here for you; I heard you were coming down, today. Thought I'd be here to greet you; show you to your new office... no one else wanted to...
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[a knock at the door]
Scrooge: Fire and damnation! Don't they know that I'm trying to run a business here?
[flings the door open]
Nephew Harry: Uncle Ebenezer! I cannot tell you what a joy it is to see your happy, smiling face.
Scrooge: Oh... it's you.
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[trying to collect Christmas donations]
2nd Portly Gentleman: What may we put you down for, sir?
Scrooge: Nothing, sir.
1st Portly Gentleman: Ah, you wish to remain anonymous.
Scrooge: I wish to be left alone, sir! That is what I wish! I don't make myself merry at Christmas and I cannot afford to make idle people merry. I have been forced to support the establishments I have mentioned through taxation and God knows they cost more than they're worth. Those who are badly off must go there.
2nd Portly Gentleman: Many would rather die than go there.
Scrooge: If they'd rather die, then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population. Good night, gentlemen.
[walks away, then turns back]
Scrooge: Humbug!
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the Ghost of Christmas Present: There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not here any more.
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Ebenezer Scrooge: Why do you walk the earth? Why'd you come to persecute me? And what is that great chain you wear?
the Ghost of Jacob Marley: I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it, link by link and yard by yard, while on Earth, and now I will never be rid of it, any more than you will ever be rid of yours!
Ebenezer Scrooge: [shocked] Mine?
the Ghost of Jacob Marley: It was as heavy and long as this seven Christmases ago. It's a terrible, ponderous chain you are making, Scrooge!
Ebenezer Scrooge: Tell me more, Marley, but speak comforts to me!
the Ghost of Jacob Marley: I have none to give.
Ebenezer Scrooge: None?
the Ghost of Jacob Marley: Comfort comes from other sources, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is given by other ministers than I to other kinds of men than you. When I lived, my spirit, like yours, never walked beyond the narrow limits of our counting house.
Ebenezer Scrooge: But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.
the Ghost of Jacob Marley: Mankind should be our business, Ebenezer, but we seldom attend to it... as you shall see.
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Ebenezer Scrooge: How shall I ever understand this world? There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty, and yet, there is nothing it condemns with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.
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Ebenezer Scrooge: What reason have you got to be merry? You're poor enough.
Fred: What reason have you got to be miserable? You're rich enough.
Ebenezer Scrooge: There is no such thing as rich enough; only poor enough.
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Nephew Harry: A merry Christmas, Uncle Ebenezer! God save you.
Ebenezer Scrooge: God save me from Christmas. It's another humbug.
Nephew Harry: Christmas a humbug? Come, now. I'm sure you don't mean that.
Ebenezer Scrooge: And I'm sure that I do mean that. Merry Christmas, indeed. What reason have you got to be merry? You're poor enough.
Nephew Harry: What reason have you got to be miserable? You're rich enough.
Ebenezer Scrooge: There is no such thing as rich enough, only poor enough.
Nephew Harry: Don't be so dismal, Uncle Ebenezer!
Ebenezer Scrooge: What else can I be when I live in a world full of fools babbling "Merry Christmas" at one another? What's Christmas but a time for finding yourself a year older and not a day richer? There's nothing merry in that. If I could work my will, nephew, every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
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the Ghost of Jacob Marley: See the phantoms filling the sky around you. They astound you, I can tell, these inhabitants of hell. Poor wretches whom the Hand of Heaven ignores. Beware, beware, beware, lest their dreadful fate be yours!
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Ebenezer Scrooge: Who are you?
Ghost of Christmas Past: I am the spirit whose coming was foretold to you.
Ebenezer Scrooge: You don't look like a ghost.
Ghost of Christmas Past: Thank you.
Ebenezer Scrooge: May I inquire as to more precisely who or what you are?
Ghost of Christmas Past: I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Ebenezer Scrooge: Long past?
Ghost of Christmas Past: No. Your past.
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[In front of a toy store window]
Bob Cratchit: Well, my loves, which one do you like best, eh?
Kathy Cratchit: I like the dolly in the corner.
Tiny Tim: I like all of them.
Bob Cratchit: Good boy? And why not one in particular?
Tiny Tim: Well... you said I can't have none of them, so I might as well like them all.
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Ebenezer Scrooge: Fifteen shillings a week, a wife and five children... and he still talks of a Merry Christmas!
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1st Portly Gentleman: Mr. Scrooge, sir, we find it more than usually desirable that we make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.
Ebenezer Scrooge: Excellent! Than I suggest you do so!
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Ebenezer Scrooge: What business brings you here?
Ghost of Christmas Past: Your welfare.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [scoffs] To be wakened by a ghost at one o'clock in the morning is hardly conducive to my welfare!
Ghost of Christmas Past: Your redemption, then.
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Ebenezer Scrooge: [watching Fezziwig's Christmas party] What a marvelous man...
Ghost of Christmas Past: What's so marevlous? He's merely spent a few pounds of your mortal money. Three or four, perhaps. What is that to be deserving of so much praise?
Ebenezer Scrooge: You don't understand. He had the power to make us happy or unhappy, to make our work a pleasure or a burden. It's nothing to do with money!
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Ebenezer Scrooge: As for you, nephew, if you were in my will, I'd disinherit you!
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[Scrooge is covertly watching Harry's Christmas party]
Tom - Friend of Harry's: Harry, I've visited you every Christmas for the past five years, and to this day I can never understand this extraordinary ritual of toasting the health of your old uncle Ebenezer. I mean, everyone knows he's the most miserable old skinflint that ever walked God's earth.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [glaring] Who's he?
the Ghost of Christmas Present: Oh... just a friend.
Nephew Harry: My dear Tom, it's very simple. He is indeed a despicable old miser, worse than you could ever possibly imagine.
[the Ghost bursts out laughing]
Ebenezer Scrooge: You find this amusing?
the Ghost of Christmas Present: Believe it or not, he likes you.
Nephew Harry: See, I look at it this way: If I can wish a Merry Christmas to him, who is beyond dispute the most obnoxious and parsimonious of all living creatures, then I know in my heart that I am truly a man of goodwill.
Ebenezer Scrooge: [rising to lunge at Harry] Scoundrel!
the Ghost of Christmas Present: Wait! There's more to come.
Nephew Harry: And besides... I like old Scrooge!
the Ghost of Christmas Present: What did I tell you?
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Ebenezer Scrooge: And be good enough to leave me alone during business hours.
Nephew Harry: Seven o'clock on Christmas Eve? That's not business hours, that's drudgery for the sake of it, and an insult to all men of goodwill.
Bob Cratchit: Here, here!
Nephew Harry: [surprised] Thank you, Bob Cratchit.
[Scrooge slowly turns on Cratchit]
Ebenezer Scrooge: Another word from you, Cratchit, and you will celebrate Christmas by losing your position.
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the Ghost of Jacob Marley: You will be visited by three ghosts.
Ebenezer Scrooge: I... I think I'd rather not.
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Tom Jenkins: Hot broth, Mr. Scrooge. A small token of Christmas esteem, with the compliments of Tom Jenkins.
Ebenezer Scrooge: No.
Tom Jenkins: And there'll be a free can of broth, sir, every night for the coming year in gratitude for your infinite kindness... in giving me another two weeks to pay.
Ebenezer Scrooge: One week.
Tom Jenkins: Ten days?
Ebenezer Scrooge: *One* week.
Tom Jenkins: [defeated] One week.
Ebenezer Scrooge: And put a lid on that stuff, I'll take it home.
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Ebenezer Scrooge: [to Bob] You still don't reconise me, do you Cratchit?
Bob Cratchit: Yes. No. Er... Father Christmas?
Ebenezer Scrooge: heh heh
[Pulls down mask briefly]
Mrs. Cratchit: Mr Scrooge? He's gone mad!
Bob Cratchit: No no my dear, I'm sure there's an explination
Ebenezer Scrooge: I want to see you in my office on Monday morning, when I will double your wages.
Bob Cratchit: He *has* gone mad!
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