Quotes from Alec Guinness movies and TV shows

Colonel Nicholson: We can teach these barbarians a lesson in Western methods and efficiency that will put them to shame. We'll show them what the British soldier is capable of doing.

Colonel Nicholson: I realise how difficult it's going to be in this god-forsaken place where you can't find what you need, but there's the challenge.

Colonel Nicholson: It only remains for me to say, thank you, Colonel Saito, for your kind attention, and are there any other questions?
Colonel Saito: One question... can you finish the bridge in time?
Colonel Nicholson: Frankly, the consensus of opinion is that it's impossible... but we'll certainly give it a go. After all, we mustn't forget that we've wasted over a month through an unfortunate disagreement for which I was not to blame.

Major Hughes: Jennings has a plan, sir. He seems to think.
Colonel Nicholson: Yes, I'm sure Jennings has a plan. But escape? Where, into this jungle? That fellow Saito was right: no need for barbed wire or fence, one chance in a hundred of survival. I'm sure a man of Commander Shears' experience will attest to that.
Commander Shears: I'd say the odds against a successful escape are about 100 to one. But may I add another word, Colonel? The odds against survival in this camp are even worse.

Major Reeves: By the way, sir, I meant to tell you, there are trees in this forest very similar to elm. And the elm piles of London Bridge lasted six hundred years.
Colonel Nicholson: Six hundred years, Reeves?
Major Reeves: Yes, sir.
Colonel Nicholson: Six hundred years... That would be quite something.

Colonel Nicholson: One day the war will be over. And I hope that the people that use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it. Not a gang of slaves, but soldiers, British soldiers, Clipton, even in captivity.

President Bradshaw: Sir, you are before a court of law.
Charles I: I see I am before a power.

Oliver Cromwell: Any action against any member of this House is a breach of privilege, and I move that this House declare as public enemies any who lays hands upon its members. I FURTHER MOVE! I further move that any such action against this House be considered a crime against the people and treason against this nation.
Charles I: So be it. Mister Speaker, you will inform the members of this House that their service is no longer required by the nation. This parliament is, by my authority, terminated. Dissolved.

King Charles: Mr. Cromwell, you are impertinent.
Oliver Cromwell: Such issues are beyond good manners, sir. Catholicism is more than a religion. It is a political power. Therefore, I am led to believe there will be no peace in Ireland until the Catholic Church is crushed.

Charles I: You may be assured I do not intend now to be schooled in my high office by illiterate farmhands, cobblers and basket weavers.

Charles I: A democracy, Mr. Cromwell, was a Greek drollery based on the foolish notion that there are extraordinary possibilities in very ordinary people.
Oliver Cromwell: It is the ordinary people, my Lord, who would most readily lay down their lives in defense of your realm. It is simply that being ordinary that they would prefer to be asked and not told.

Charles I: Do you not rise, Sir, when your king approaches? Rise, Sir, or to your knees in shame! You did give me your most solemn promise that you would hold Bristol for four months, but you have not held it for four weeks! You promised mountains yet you've performed molehills. You make a knave of your king! (01:37:48)

Livius: A few days longer, Caesar, we'll bring you his head.
Marcus Aurelius: No Livius, please don't bring me his head. I wouldn't know what to do with it.

Adolf Hitler: It's good fortune for the government that the masses don't think. Otherwise, human society as we know it might cease to exist.

The Parson: The port is with you.

Professor Marcus: One-Round, there is a wheelbarrow outside, could you fetch it? The Major has a train to catch.

Neighbor: Ah, Holland, heh heh, the man of millions! What'd you get away with today? Got any spare ingots for an old pal? Ha ha, you'll be the death of me, Holland.
Henry Holland: I sincerely trust so.

Turner: Paris, eh? You're stepping out, Holland. Wonderful, isn't it, what a little extra money will do?
Henry Holland: Yes, it's going to make a big difference to me.

Henry Holland: I was a potential millionaire, but I had to be satisfied with eight pounds, fifteen shillings, less deductions.

Pendlebury: By Jove, Holland, it's a good job we're both honest men.
Henry Holland: It is indeed, Pendlebury.