Of My Favorite Quotes From My Favorite Movies -- The One That Got Away

My favorite novel of all time is Jane Eyre. And I'd love to love, really for my favorite movie of all time to be based on my favorite novel of all time. Every version of Jane Eyre (save one) I've ever seen transforms Jane from an independent, slightly temperamental woman of strong character into an insipid Cinderella. It makes me nuts. 

The intermal monoloque with which she answer's Rochester when he asks: 

Is it better to drive a fellow-creature to despair than to transgress a mere human law, no man being injured by the breach? for you have neither relatives nor acquaintances whom you need fear to offend by living with me?

has yet to appear in any film adaptation. Which is a shame. Apart from being beautifully written it reveals the depth and breadth of the heroine's...well, all the stuff I wrote above. I'm hard pressed to imagine an actor who wouldn't love to get her teeth into it. As it couldn't be added to this week's Thursday Thirteen; it is here shared in this special post.

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad--as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth--so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane--quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.

Thursday Thirteen: Of My Favorite Quotes From My Favorite Movies

1. Ada Doom: I saw something nasty in the woodshed.

Earl P. Neck: Sure you did, but did it see you baby?  -- COLD COMFORT FARM

2.  Cousin Angus: There's NO butter in hell! -- COLD COMFORT FARM

3. Noah Praetorius: The woman has yet to be born who doesn't in her heart believe that she'll make her husband a much better wife than he has any possible right to expect. -- PEOPLE WILL TALK

5. Professor Barker: What a bloody mess. 

Noah Praetorius: And who's fault is it, my fine atomic friend? You can't go around smashing everything you see, you know. Everything isn't atoms. 

Professor Barker: Yes it is. 

Noah Praetorious: Not for smashing it isn't. Not in my house and not my train. Debra, get out of the way before Professor Barker smashes you. He's on a smashing bend. -- PEOPLE WILL TALK

6.  Debra Praetorius: It's just that I love you so much. And I went and put all those candles on that cake when you're really only nine years old. -- PEOPLE WILL TALK

7. Gilbert: Come on, sit down, take it easy. What's the trouble? 

Iris Henderson: If you must know, something fell on my head. 

Gilbert: When, infancy? -- THE LADY VANISHES

8.  Gilbert: Can I help? 

Iris Henderson: Only by going away. 

Gilbert: No, no, no, no. My father always taught me, never desert a lady in trouble. He even carried that as far as marrying Mother. -- THE LADY VANISHES

9. One of the best 'Thanks, but no thanks" lines ever.

Reggie Lambert: I already know an awful lot of people and until one of them dies I couldn't possibly meet anyone else.

and then...

10. Peter Joshua: Well if anyone goes on the critical list let me know.

Reggie Lambert: Quitter.

Peter Joshua: What's that?

Reggie Lambert: You give up awfully easy don't you? -- CHARADE

11. Ned Seton: You know most people, including Johnny and yourself, make a big mistake about Julia: They're taken in by her looks. At bottom she's a very dull girl and the life she pictures for herself is the  life she belongs in. -- HOLIDAY

12. Linda Seton: You wouldn't care to step into a waltz as the old year dies, would you Mr. Case? -- HOLIDAY

13. Flora Poste: Highly sexed young men living on farms are always called Seth or Reuben. -- COLD COMFORT FARM
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