7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

Arthur O'Connell: Clint Stark

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Quotes 

• Giant Serpent : I wouldn't care to trade with you.

  Clint Stark : Maybe not, but the point is, my scaly friend, that you are in a cage, while I'm free to walk about!

  Giant Serpent : Oh, you have your cage, too. You test your bars just as often as I test mine, kiddo.

• Mayor James Sargent : He doesn't want to lose. Who does?

  Clint Stark : I do. Mayor Sargent, every time I bet on weakness, corruption, fallibility... I want to lose. But I always win.

• Apollonius of Tyana : You were born with a great love of humanity, Clinton Stark. But, this love soon turned to bitterness and contempt. Why? It's because in all your years, you've never been able to understand that perfection exists only as an ideal.

  Clint Stark : Who's interested in ideals? Get the money! That's what counts. Hold it out for the people, then grab at it. That's the truth! There's nothing in-between.

  Apollonius of Tyana : Oh, but there is. Life is sharing. You began with an extreme notion of man's good. His strength and his nobility. You ended with another extreme, equally false. The notion of man's evil. His weakness and his ignobility.

• Clint Stark : I was like you once, long time ago. I believed in the dignity of man. Decency. Humanity. But I was lucky. I found out the truth early, boy.

  Ed Cunningham : And what is the truth, Stark?

  Clint Stark : It's all very simple. There's no such thing as the dignity of man. Man is a base, pathetic and vulgar animal.

• Clint Stark : [reading a story written by Ed Cunningham]  All dictators, past and present, have thrived in a climate of fear. Without fear, they perish.

• Clint Stark : Am I going to win?

  Apollonius of Tyana : Yes.

• Apollonius of Tyana : Look at you now. Gloating over a victory that is a defeat. A defeat for all the ideals you once held so sacred.

  Clint Stark : They'll vote to sell.

  Apollonius of Tyana : And then what have you shown, but, your own greed and your own sick hunger for self destruction.

• Clint Stark : I've lost. But, I want you to know, it's the kind of loss, I wished for, a long time. So, I guess I've really won.