Casablanca quotes

View Quote Rick: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for.
Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: Well, what of it? It'll be out of its misery.
Laszlo: You know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who's trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart. Each of us has a destiny - for good or for evil.
Rick: I get the point.
Laszlo: I wonder if you do. I wonder if you know that you're trying to escape from yourself, and that you'll never succeed.
Rick: You seem to know all about my destiny.
Laszlo: I know a good deal more about you than you suspect. I know, for instance, that you are in love with a woman. It is perhaps a strange cir****stance that we both should be in love with the same woman. The first evening I came into this cafe, I knew there was something between you and Ilsa. Since no one is to blame, I, I demand no explanation. I ask only one thing. You won't give me the letters of transit. All right. But I want my wife to be safe. I ask you as a favor to use the letters to take her away from Casablanca.
Rick: You love her that much?
Laszlo: Apparently, you think of me only as a leader of a Cause. Well, I am also a human being. Yes, I love her that much.

View Quote Rick: Henri wants us to finish this bottle, and then three more. He says he'll water his garden with champagne before he'll let the Germans drink it.
Sam: This takes the sting out of being occupied, doesn't it, Mr. Richard?
Rick: You said it. [toasting] Here's looking at you, kid.
[Gestapo loudspeakers in the street interrupt them, announcing the Germans' arrival the next day.]
Rick: My German's a little rusty.
Ilsa: They're telling us how to act when they come marching in. With the whole world crumbling we pick this time to fall in love.
Rick: Yeah, it's pretty bad timing. Where were you, say, ten years ago?
Ilsa: Ten years ago? Let's see, yes, I was having a brace put on my teeth. Where were you?
Rick: Looking for a job.
[They kiss, but are interrupted by artillery fire]
Ilsa: Was that cannon fire or is it my heart pounding?
Rick: Ah, that's the new German 77, and judging by the sound, only about thirty-five miles away - and getting closer every minute.

View Quote Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that there is gambling going on here!
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Renault: Oh, thank you very much.

View Quote Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louie?
Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have...we'd...we'd lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you...
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Here's looking at you, kid. Note: bolded line is ranked #43 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

View Quote Rick: Nothing can stop them now. Wednesday, Thursday, at the latest, they'll be in Paris.
Ilsa: Richard, they'll find out your record. It won't be safe for you here.
Rick: [smiles] I'm on their blacklist already. Their roll of honor.

View Quote Rick: Say, why don't we get married in Marseilles?
Ilsa: That's too far ahead to plan.
...
Ilsa: I love you so much. And I hate this war so much. Oh, it's a crazy world. Anything can happen. If you shouldn't get away, I mean, if something should keep us apart, wherever they put you and wherever I'll be, I want you to know that...kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.

View Quote Rick: So Yvonne's gone over to the enemy.
Renault: Who knows? In her own way, she may constitute an entire second front.

View Quote Rick: That was some going-over your men gave my place this afternoon. We just barely got cleaned up in time to open.
Renault: I told Strasser that he wouldn't find the letters here. But I told my men to be especially destructive. You know how that impresses Germans? Rick, have you got those letters of transit?
Rick: Louis, are you pro-Vichy or Free French?
Renault: Serves me right for asking a direct question. The subject is closed.

View Quote Rick: They grab Ugarte. Then she walks in. Well, that's the way it goes. One in, one out. Sam?
Sam: Yeah, boss?
Rick: If it's December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?
Sam: Uh, my watch stopped.
Rick: I bet they're asleep in New York. I bet they're asleep all over America.
[pounds his fist against the bar in frustration]
Rick: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine! (#67 in the AFI's list of the top 100 movie quotations)

View Quote Rick: What's that you're playing?
Sam: Oh, just a little somethin' on my own.
Rick: Well, stop it! You know what I want to hear.
Sam: No, I don't.
Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me.
Sam: Well, I don't think I can remember...
Rick: If she can stand it, I can. Play it!

View Quote Rick: Why did you have to come to Casablanca? There are other places.
Ilsa: I wouldn't have come if I'd known that you were here. Believe me, Rick. It's true. I didn't know.
Rick: It's funny about your voice how it hasn't changed. I can still hear it: 'Richard dear. I'll go with you anyplace. We'll get on a train together and never stop.'
Ilsa: Please don't. Don't Rick! I can understand how you feel.
Rick: Huh! You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?
Ilsa: I didn't count the days.
Rick: Well I did. Every one of them. Mostly, I remember the last one. The wow finish. A guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look on his face because his insides had been kicked out.

View Quote Rick: Yes, I have the letters, but I intend using them myself. I'm leaving Casablanca on tonight's plane, the last plane.
Renault: Huh?
Rick: And I'm taking a friend with me. One you'll appreciate.
Renault: What friend?
Rick: Ilsa Lund. That ought to put your mind to rest about my helping Laszlo escape, the last man I want to see in America.

View Quote Rick: Your unexpected visit isn't connected by any chance with the letters of transit? It seems as long as I have those letters, I'll never be lonely.
Ilsa: You can ask any price you want, but you must give me those letters.
Rick: I went all through that with your husband. It's no deal.
Ilsa: I know how you feel about me, but I'm asking you to put your feelings aside for something more important.
Rick: Do I have to hear again what a great man your husband is? What an important Cause he's fighting for?
Ilsa: It was your cause too. In your own way, you were fighting for the same thing.
Rick: I'm not fighting for anything anymore except myself. I'm the only Cause I'm interested in.
Ilsa: [after a long pause] Richard. Richard, we loved each other once. If those days meant anything at all to you...
Rick: I wouldn't bring up Paris if I were you. It's poor salesmanship.
Ilsa: Please, please listen to me. If you knew what really happened. If you only knew the truth.
Rick: I wouldn't believe you no matter what you told me. You'd say anything now to get what you want.
Ilsa: You want to feel sorry for yourself, don't you? With so much at stake, all you can think of is your own feeling. One woman has hurt you and you take your revenge on the rest of the world. You're a, you're a coward and a weakling. No. Oh Richard, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but, but you, you are our last hope. If you don't help us, Victor Laszlo will die in Casablanca.
Rick: What of it? I'm gonna die in Casablanca. It's a good spot for it.

View Quote Sam: I never expected to see you again...A lot of water under the bridge.
Ilsa: Play some of the old songs, Sam... Where is Rick?
Sam: I don't know. I ain't seen him all night.
Ilsa: When will he be back?
Sam: Not tonight no more. He ain't comin'...He went home.
Ilsa: Does he always leave so early?
Sam: Oh, he never..., well, he's got a girl up at the Blue Parrot. He goes up there all the time.
Ilsa: You used to be a much better liar, Sam.
Sam: Leave him alone, Miss Ilsa. You're bad luck to him.
Ilsa: Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake.
Sam: I don't know what you mean, Miss Ilsa.
Ilsa: [whispered] Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By. (#28 in the AFI's list of the top 100 movie quotations)
Sam: Why, I can't remember it, Miss Ilsa. I'm a little rusty on it.
Ilsa: I'll hum it for you. [Ilsa hums two bars. Sam starts to play] Sing it, Sam.
Sam: [singing] You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.
And when two lovers woo
They still say, 'I love you'
On that you can rely ,
No matter what the future brings
As Time Goes By. Lyrics and Music by Herman Hupfeld (1931)

Rick: [rushing in] Sam, I thought I told you never to play... [stares at Ilsa]

View Quote Strasser: I strongly suspect that Ugarte left the letters of transit with Mr. Blaine. I would suggest you search the cafe immediately and thoroughly.
Renault: If Rick has the letters, he's much too smart to let you find them there.
Strasser: You give him credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he's just another blundering American.
Renault: But we mustn't underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into Berlin in 1918.