121 Quotes by Dalton Trumbo

An animal can learn to fight, but to sing beautiful things and make people believe them...

Telephones ringing at night are important.

Then there was this freedom the little guys were always getting killed for. Was it freedom from another country? Freedom from work or disease or death? Freedom from your mother-in-law? Please mister give us a bill of sale on this freedom before we go out and get killed. Give us a bill of sale drawn up plainly in advance what we’re getting killed for... so we can be sure after we’ve won your war that we’ve got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.

Vergissen jullie je daarin niet wij zullen leven. Wij zullen leven en wandelen en praten en eten en zingen en lachen en voelen en beminnen en onze kinderen dragen in rust in veiligheid in fatsoen in vrede beramen jullie de oorlogen maar jullie meesters van de mensheid beramen jullie de oorlogen en wijs de weg en dan zullen wij de geweren richten.

You plan the wars you masters of men plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun.

A guy says house and he can point to a house to prove it. But a guy says come on let’s fight for liberty and he can’t show you liberty. He can’t prove the thing he’s talking about so how in the hell can he be telling you to fight for it?

He knew now that he had never been really happy in his whole life. There had been times when he had thought he was happy but none of them were like this.

A man can’t fight always. If he’s drowning or suffocating he’s got to be smart and hold back some of his strength for the last the final the death struggle.

Everybody now seems to be talking about democracy. I don’t understand this. As I think of it, democracy isn’t like a Sunday suit to be brought out and worn only for parades. It’s the kind of a life a decent man leads, it’s something to live for and to die for.