Memorable quotes for
Anne of Green Gables (1985) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

Anne Shirley: My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read once and I say it over to comfort myself in these times that try the soul.

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Anne Shirley: This is the most tragical thing that has ever happened to me.

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Aunt Josephine: Make a little room in your plans for romance again, Anne, girl. All the degrees and scholarships in the world can't make up for the lack of it.

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Mrs. Cadbury: Tell me what you know about yourself.
Anne Shirley: Well, it really isn't worth telling, Mrs. Cadbury... but if you let me tell you what I IMAGINE about myself you'd find it a lot more interesting.

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Anne Shirley: Can't you even IMAGINE you're in the depths of despair?
Marilla Cuthbert: No I cannot. To despair is to turn your back on God.

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Anne Shirley: Mrs. Hammond told me that God made my hair red on purpose and I've never cared for Him since.

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Anne Shirley: Don't you ever imagine things differently from what they are?
Marilla Cuthbert: No.
Anne Shirley: Oh Marilla, how much you miss.

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[Marilla, commenting on whether or not she'll keep Anne]
Marilla Cuthbert: If she can avoid catastrophe two days in a row, I might have a chance to make up my mind.

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[Anne, after a failed attempt to dye her hair]
Anne Shirley: I thought nothing could be as bad as red hair. Green is ten times worse.

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[Anne has just fallen from a roof]
Diana Barry: Just say one word and tell me if you're killed!
Anne Shirley: No... but I think I've been rendered unconscious.

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Anne Shirley: I don't think Mrs. Barry is a well-bred woman. I don't believe God himself would entirely meet with her approval.
Marilla Cuthbert: Anne, you musn't say things like that... especially in front of the minister's wife. But, if you left God out of it, you'd have it just about right.

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[Anne, after she's forbidden to see Diana]
Anne Shirley: Farewell, my beloved friend. Henceforth, we must be strangers living side by side... but my heart will be ever faithful to thee.

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Anne Shirley: Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.

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Anne Shirley: I know I chatter on far too much... but if you only knew how many things I want to say and don't. Give me SOME credit.

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Anne Shirley: Ruby Gillis says when she grows up, she wants to have a line of beaus on a string and make them crazy for her. I'd rather have ONE in his rightful mind.

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[Anne, commenting on city life]
Anne Shirley: I think I would probably come to the conclusion that I'd like it for a while... but in the end, I'd still prefer the sound of the wind in the firs across the brook more than the tinkling of crystal.

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Aunt Josephine: I like people who make me like them. Saves me so much trouble forcing myself to like them.

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Aunt Josephine: Wealth can be very empty when you don't have someone to share it with. But by the time I realized that, no one would have me... except men who wanted my money more than I did.

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[Marilla, reading a letter from Anne away at college]
Marilla Cuthbert: As Rachel Lynde used to say, the sun will go on rising and setting whether I fail in Geometry or not. I think I'd rather it didn't go on if I failed.

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[after Matthew's funeral, Marilla finds Anne crying in her room]
Anne Shirley: Tears don't hurt like the ache does.

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Diana Barry: I wish I were rich, and I could spend the whole summer at a hotel, eating ice cream and chicken salad.
Anne Shirley: You know something, Diana? We are rich. We have sixteen years to our credit, and we both have wonderful imaginations. We should be as happy as queens.
[gestures to the setting sun]
Anne Shirley: Look at that. You couldn't enjoy its loveliness more if you had ropes of diamonds.
Diana Barry: I don't know about that.

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Anne Shirley: And I promise I'll never do it again. That's the one good thing about me. I never do the same wrong thing twice.

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[commenting on Anne's outburst toward Rachel]
Rachel Lynde: Mark my words, Marilla. That's the kind puts strychnine in the well.

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[commenting on Anne's dramatic apology]
Rachel Lynde: Her tongue appears to be hinged in the middle, but she may turn out all right.

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[Gilbert finds Anne clinging to the post under a bridge]
Gilbert Blythe: Anne Shirley. What in heck are you doing here?
Anne Shirley: [trying to be diganified] Fishing. For lake trout.

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Gilbert Blythe: Psst! Carrots! Carrots!

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Anne Shirley: Wilt thou give me a lock of thy jet-black tresses?
Diana Barry: But I don't have any black dresses.
Anne Shirley: Your hair.
Diana Barry: All right.

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Gilbert Blythe: Well, I figured you can give me a hand with my work, and we'll call it a fair exchange.
Anne Shirley: Aren't you worried? I'm liable to break another slate over your head.
Gilbert Blythe: I'm more worried I might break one over yours, carrots.

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Marilla Cuthbert: I'm afraid for her, Matthew. She'll be gone so long. She'll get terrible lonesome.
Matthew Cuthbert: You mean, we'll get terrible lonesome.
Marilla Cuthbert: I can't help wishing that she'd stayed a little girl.
Matthew Cuthbert: Mrs. Spencer made a lucky mistake, I guess.
Marilla Cuthbert: It wasn't luck; it was Providence. He knew we needed her.
Matthew Cuthbert: Even with her queer little ways.
Marilla Cuthbert: I loved her for them.

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Anne Shirley: Please, Matthew. You need help. We've got to get a doctor.
Matthew Cuthbert: I've worked hard all my life. I'd rather just drop in the harness. I got old; I never noticed.
Anne Shirley: If I'd been the boy you sent for, I could have spared you in so many ways.
Matthew Cuthbert: I never wanted a boy. I only wanted you from the first day. Don't ever change. I love my little girl. I'm so proud of my little girl.

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Anne Shirley: Oh, Marilla, you look so elegant!
Marilla Cuthbert: You don't make important visits in kitchen clothes.

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Rachel Lynde: [after seeing Matthew riding in the buggy to get Anne] Oh, my afternoon is spoiled.

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Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, this is a fine kettle of fish.

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Anne Shirley: Would you please call me Cordelia?

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Anne Shirley: Plain, old, unromantic Anne Shirley.

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Marilla Cuthbert: [talking to Matthew] She could talk the hind leg of a mule. Hmm, wouldn't that be a change around here.

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Marilla Cuthbert: That girl is next door to a perfect heathen.

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Anne Shirley: How would you like to have nasty things said about you? How would you like to hear that you're fat, ugly, and a sour old gossip!

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Anne Shirley: He called me carrots!

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Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, you blessed girl. I know I ought to stick to it and make you go to college, but I've learned better than to stand in your way. Gilbert Blythe will be teaching, too. Won't he?
Anne Shirley: Yes.
Marilla Cuthbert: What a nice looking young boy he is. He looks a lot like his father did at that age. We used to be real good friends, he and I. People called him my beau.
Anne Shirley: And what happened?
Marilla Cuthbert: We quarreled and I wouldn't forgive him when he asked me to. I wanted to after a while, but I was stubborn and I wanted to punish him first. He never came back. I, uh, always felt rather sorry. I, uh, sort of wished that I'd forgiven him when I had a chance.

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Marilla Cuthbert: Making a little wine for refreshment is far less sinful then meddling in other people's affairs!

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[Marilla meets with Mrs. Barry and Rachel after Diana gets drunk]
Mrs. Barry: Marilla, I don't believe a word. Anne Shirley is a conniving, manipulating child and she's pulled the wool over your eyes.
Rachel Lynde: I always warned you about making that current wine, Marilla. You said it wouldn't have the least effect on anyone. Well, I ask you.
Marilla Cuthbert: It isn't meant to be drunk three tumbler-fulls at a time! And if I had a child that was so greedy, I'd sober her up with a darn good spanking!
Mrs. Barry: Oh! So it's my Diana's fault, is it?
Rachel Lynde: It's the demon liquor's fault. And as I told you for years, if you didn't insist on making that current wine ...
Marilla Cuthbert: [cuts her, furiously] My current wine is famous all over the island, Rachel Lynde, as you well know; and the Reverend Allen himself is not opposed to taking a bit when he comes calling. And as for Christian virtue: making a little wine for a refreshment is far less sinful than MEDDLING in other people's affairs!
Rachel Lynde: [in shock] Oh!
[Marilla leaves]
Marilla Cuthbert: [to Mrs. Allen] Of all the unreasonable, pig-headed, self-important women that I have ever met - she is the worst!

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Miss Stacy: The truth will set you free.

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Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, stuff and nonsense.

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Marilla Cuthbert: [to Matthew] You'd let her go to the moon if she had the notion.

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Anne Shirley: Gilbert Blythe would stand on his head if I asked him to.

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Miss Stacy: True friends are always together in spirit.

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Anne Shirley: The fact that you rescued me, unnecessarily, hardly wipes out past wrongs.

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Diana Barry: [Anne is about to perform "The Highwayman"] You've never failed at anything, Anne Shirley.

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Marilla Cuthbert: [to Anne] I think you may be a kindred spirit after all.

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Matthew Cuthbert: She?
Station Master: Don't worry, I don't think she'll bite, Matthew.

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Anne Shirley: Anne Shirley. Anne with an "e."

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Anne Shirley: I've never belonged to anyone!

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Matthew Cuthbert: You can talk all you like; I don't mind.

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Matthew Cuthbert: It's a girl.
Marilla Cuthbert: Well, I can see that.

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Anne Shirley: [after saying her prayers] Did I do alright?
Marilla Cuthbert: Yes, if you were addressing a business letter to the catalog store.

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Anne Shirley: [after staying up all night with Minnie May, Anne is trying to stay awake on the ride home] Can't go to school now. I can
[yawn]
Anne Shirley: hardly keep my eyes open. Hate to stay at home and let Gil, get ahead.

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Marilla Cuthbert: [Mrs. Barry has invited Anne over for dinner after Anne saves Minnie May's life] I believe humble pie is on the menu.

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Matthew Cuthbert: [Anne has come into the barn to thank Matthew for her dress] Puffed sleeves.
Anne Shirley: The puffiest!

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Diana Barry: [Anne is going to apologize to Aunt Jo] Anne, don't. She'll eat you alive!
Anne Shirley: Don't worry. I've had lots of practice making apologies.

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Aunt Josephine: You amuse me and precious little amuses me in this world at my age.

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Ruby Gillis: [about to reenact the Lily Maid scene] I'm frightened. Mrs. Lynde says acting is a sin.

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Marilla Cuthbert: [rolling her eyes at Matthew's excessive purchase] Twenty. Pounds. Of brown. Sugar.

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Anne Shirley: Wilt thou give me a lock of thy jet-black tresses?
Diana Barry: I don't have any black dresses!

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