The Great Dictator (1940) Poster

Paulette Goddard: Hannah

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Quotes 

  • [last lines] 

    A Jewish Barber : I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite! Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hannah! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hannah! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow! Into the light of hope, into the future! The glorious future, that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!

    Mr. Jaeckel : Hannah, did you hear that?

    Hannah : Listen...

  • Hannah : Do you believe in God?

    A Jewish Barber : Well...

    Hannah : I do! But, if there wasn't one, would you live any different? I wouldn't.

  • Hannah : It's all right now. They've gone. Thanks, mister! Ah, that did me a lot of good. You sure got nerve the way you fought back! That's what we should all do. Fight back! We can't fight alone; but, we can lick 'em together! We didn't do so bad, did we?

  • Hannah : Look at that star. Isn't it beautiful. One thing, Hynkel, with all his power, can never touch that.

  • Hannah : [after the Jewish Barber gets in a scuffle with a storm trooper]  Oh, I'm sorry mister. I didn't mean to hit you. You were wonderful. I enjoyed that. But, don't stand there. You better beat it!

    A Jewish Barber : No, I'll call a policeman.

    Hannah : No, no! Don't do that!

    A Jewish Barber : Why not?

    Hannah : Are you crazy?

  • Mr. Jaeckel : Hannah, get up in that chair. We are going to make you look beautiful.

    Hannah : Beautiful? What for?

    Mr. Jaeckel : He's going to practice on you for a beauty parlor.

    Hannah : You're not going to put mud on my face are ya?

    Mr. Jaeckel : Ah, we're going to take some off!

  • Hannah : Life could be wonderful if people'd leave you alone.

  • Hannah : I wish I had a business like this. There's no future in housework.

  • Hannah : Do you ever daydream? I do. That's the only time I'm really happy. Dreaming.

    [pause] 

    Hannah : Sometimes I get so carried away I don't know what I'm doing. Aren't you like that?

  • Hannah : Do you know we're very much alike?

    A Jewish Barber : Are we?

    Hannah : Yeah, we're both absent-minded.

    A Jewish Barber : Do you think so?

    Hannah : Yes.

    [pause] 

    Hannah : I like absent-minded people.

    [pause] 

    Hannah : Do you know the story about the man who put his watch in boiling water and held the egg in his hand?

    A Jewish Barber : No...

    [both laugh] 

    A Jewish Barber : That's great.

  • Hannah : [looking in the mirror]  Gee! Ain't I cute.

  • Hannah : Never mind. We can start again. We can go to Osterlich. That's still a free country. Mr. Jaeckel says it's beautiful there. Wonderful green fields and they grow apples and grapes. Mr. Jaeckel's brother's got a vineyard in Osterlich. And when Mr. Jaeckel goes there, he said he'd take me with him. Now we can all go together.

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