Clarence: Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.
George Bailey: That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport!
Clarence: Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry.
George Bailey: Now, come on, get your clothes on, and we'll stroll up to my car and get... Oh, I'm sorry. I'll stroll. You fly.
Clarence: I can't fly! I haven't got my wings.
George Bailey: You haven't got your wings. Yeah, that's right.
Nick: That's it! Out you two pixies go... Through the door, or out the window!
George Bailey: Hold on, Nick! What's wrong?
Nick: That's another thing. Where do you come off calling me Nick?
George Bailey: Well... Nick, that's your name. Isn't it?
Nick: What does that have to do with anything?
Nick: Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere." Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?
George Bailey: Nick, hold on. Just give him the same as mine. He's no trouble.
Nick: Okay.
George Bailey: What's the matter with him? I never saw Nick act like that before.
Clarence: You'll see a lot of strange things from now on.
George Bailey: Well, just come back here, Mister. I'll give her a kiss that'll put hair back on your head!
George Bailey: Well, you look about the kind of angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings?
Clarence: I haven't won my wings, yet. That's why I'm called an Angel Second Class. I have to earn them. And you'll help me will you?
George Bailey: Sure, sure. How?
Clarence: By letting me help you.
George Bailey: I know one way you can help me. You don't happen to have 8,000 bucks on you?
Clarence: No, we don't use money in Heaven.
George Bailey: Well, it comes in real handy down here, bud!
Clarence: Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.
Mary: You look at me as if you didn't know me.
George Bailey: Well, I don't.
Mary: You pass me on the street almost every day.
George Bailey: Me? Naw, that was a little girl named Mary Hatch, that wasn't you.
Annie: I been savin' this money for a divorce, if ever I got a husband.
Mr. Potter: Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me a warped, frustrated, old man! What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds, nothin' but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive! Why don't you go to the riffraff you love so much and ask them to let you have $8,000? You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you, George. Since the state examiner is still here, as a stockholder of the Building and Loan, I'm going to swear out a warrant for your arrest. Misappropriation of funds, manipulation, malfeasance...
[sees George runs off.]
Mr. Potter: All right, George, go ahead! You can't hide in a little town like this!
Ernie Bishop: Just a minute! Quiet everybody! Quiet, quiet. Now get this, it's from London.
Ma Bailey: Oh!
Ernie Bishop: Mr. Gower cabled you need cash, stop. My office instructed to advance you up to twenty-five thousand dollars, stop. Hee Haw and Merry Christmas! Sam Wainwright.
George Bailey: You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!
George Bailey: Mary Hatch, why in the world did you ever marry a guy like me?
Mary: To keep from being an old maid!
George Bailey: You could have married Sam Wainright, or anybody else in town...
Mary: I didn't want to marry anybody else in town. I want my baby to look like you.
George Bailey: You didn't even have a honeymoon. I promised you...your what?
Mary: My baby!
George Bailey: Your, your, your, ba- Mary, you on the nest?
Mary: George Baily Lassos Stork!
George Bailey: Lassos a stork? What're'ya... You mean you're... What is it, a boy or a girl?
Mary: Mmmm-hmmm!
Clarence: You see George, you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?
Answer: It was a common phrase at the time, like someone saying "oh boy!" or "hot damn."