- Clarence: Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?
- Clarence: You see, George, you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?
- Man on Porch: Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?
- George Bailey: You want me to kiss her, huh?
- Man on Porch: Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people.
- George Bailey: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary.
- Mary: I'll take it. Then what?
- George Bailey: Well, then you can swallow it, and it'll all dissolve, see... and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair... am I talking too much?
- [last lines]
- Zuzu Bailey: Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.
- George Bailey: That's right, that's right.
- George Bailey: [Looks heavenward] Attaboy, Clarence.
- Little Mary: Is this the ear you can't hear on?
- [whispering in his bad ear]
- Little Mary: George Bailey, I'll love you 'til the day I die.
- George Bailey: Just a minute... just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was... why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what's wrong with that? Why... here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You... you said... what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be!
- [first lines]
- Mr. Emil Gower: [voice-over] I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father.
- Giuseppe Martini: [voice-over] Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend, Mr. Bailey.
- Ma Bailey: [voice-over] Help my son, George, tonight.
- Bert: [voice-over] He never thinks about himself, God, that's why he's in trouble.
- Ernie Bishop: [voice-over] George is a good guy. Give him a break, God.
- Mary: [voice-over] I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight.
- Janie Bailey: [voice-over] Please, God, something's the matter with Daddy.
- Zuzu Bailey: [voice-over] Please bring Daddy back.
- George Bailey: [running through Bedford Falls] Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!
- [George has discovered his brother Harry's tombstone]
- Clarence: [explaining] Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.
- George Bailey: That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport!
- Clarence: Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry.
- Mary: [embracing George] Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for.
- George Bailey: [softly] You're wonderful... wonderful.
- Mary: Bread... that this house may never know hunger.
- [Mary hands a loaf of bread to Mrs. Martini]
- Mary: Salt... that life may always have flavor.
- [Mary hands a box of salt to Mrs. Martini]
- George Bailey: And wine... that joy and prosperity may reign forever. Enter the Martini Castle.
- [George hands Mr. Martini a bottle of wine]
- George Bailey: Dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me
- [begins crying]
- George Bailey: show me the way... show me the way.
- George Bailey: Mary Hatch, why in the world did you ever marry a guy like me?
- Mary: To keep from being an old maid!
- George Bailey: You could have married Sam Wainright, or anybody else in town...
- Mary: I didn't want to marry anybody else in town. I want my baby to look like you.
- George Bailey: You didn't even have a honeymoon. I promised you...
- [stops]
- George Bailey: Your what?
- Mary: My baby!
- George Bailey: [stuttering] Your, your, your, ba- Mary, you on the nest?
- Mary: George Baily Lassos Stork!
- George Bailey: [still stuttering] Lassos a stork?
- [Mary nods]
- George Bailey: What're'ya... You mean you're... What is it, a boy or a girl?
- Mary: [nods enthusiastically] Mmmm-hmmm!
- George Bailey: [on Mary being caught naked in the bushes after her robe slips off] This is a very interesting situation!
- Mary: Please give me my robe.
- George Bailey: A man doesn't get in a situation like this every day.
- Mary: I'd like to have my robe.
- George Bailey: Not in Bedford Falls anyway.
- Mary: [after the bushes' thorns starting hurting her] Ouch! Oh!
- George Bailey: Gesundheit.
- Mary: George Bailey!
- George Bailey: Inspires a little thought!
- Mary: Give me my robe.
- George Bailey: I've read about things like this.
- Mary: Shame on you! I'm going to tell your mother on you.
- George Bailey: Well, my mother is way up on the corner.
- Mary: I'll call the police!
- George Bailey: Well, they're all the way downtown. They'd be on my side.
- Mary: Then I'll scream!
- George Bailey: Maybe I can sell tickets.
- [a car pulls up, and George is told that his father has suffered a stroke]
- Mr. Potter: George, I am an old man, and most people hate me. But I don't like them either so that makes it all even.
- George Bailey: How old are you anyway?
- Mary: 18.
- George Bailey: 18! Why it was only last year you were 17.
- Senior Angel: A man down on Earth needs our help.
- Clarence: Splendid. Is he sick?
- Senior Angel: No, worse. He's discouraged.
- George Bailey: Look, who are you? Who are you really?
- Clarence: I told you, George. I'm your guardian angel.
- George Bailey: Yeah, well what else are you? Are you a hypnotist?
- Clarence: No, of course not.
- George Bailey: Then why am I seeing all these strange things?
- Clarence: Don't you understand, George? It's because you were never born.
- George Bailey: Well, if I was never born... who am I?
- Clarence: You're nobody. You have no identity.
- George Bailey: What do you mean no identity? My name is George Bailey!
- Clarence: There is no George Bailey.
- [George searches his pockets for identification, finds none]
- Clarence: You have no papers, no cards, no driver's license, no 4F card, no insurance policy.
- [George finally searches his watch pocket for the rose petals from Zuzu]
- Clarence: They're not there either.
- George Bailey: What?
- Clarence: Zuzu's petals... You've been given a great gift, George: A chance to see what the world would be like without you.
- Mrs. Hatch: Who is down there with you, Mary?
- Mary: It's George Bailey, mother.
- Mrs. Hatch: George Bailey? What does he want?
- Mary: I don't know!
- [to George]
- Mary: What do you want?
- George Bailey: Me? Nothing! I just came in to get warm.
- Mary: [pause] He's making violent love to me, mother!
- Ma Bailey: [speaking of Mary Hatch] Why, she lights up like a firefly whenever you are around. Besides, Sam Wainright is off in New York, and you're here in Bedford Falls...
- George Bailey: And all's fair in love and war, right?
- Ma Bailey: [fixing his collar] Well, I don't know about war...
- George Bailey: Well, you look about the kind of angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings?
- Clarence: I haven't won my wings, yet. That's why I'm called an Angel Second Class. I have to earn them. And you'll help me will you?
- George Bailey: [sarcastic] Sure, sure. How?
- Clarence: By letting me help you.
- George Bailey: I know one way you can help me. You don't happen to have 8,000 bucks on you?
- Clarence: No, we don't use money in Heaven.
- George Bailey: Well, it comes in real handy down here, bud!
- Clarence: [hearing Nick's cash register ding] Oh-oh. Somebody's just made it.
- George Bailey: Made what?
- Clarence: Every time you hear a bell ring, it means that some angel's just got his wings.
- George Bailey: You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider! And...
- [turning to his aide]
- George Bailey: And that goes for you, too!
- George Bailey: [George hears a train whistle] There she blows. You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are?
- Uncle Billy: Uh huh. Breakfast is served; lunch is served; dinner...
- George Bailey: No no no no. Anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles.
- Cousin Tilly: Mrs Bailey is on the phone.
- George Bailey: I don't want Mrs Bailey I want my wife... Mrs Bailey? Oh, that's my wife.
- Little Violet: [commenting on George] I like him.
- Little Mary: You like every boy.
- Little Violet: What's wrong with that?
- George Bailey: I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long...
- George Bailey: [the staff celebrates closing the building and loan company with only two dollars remaining, to stay in business] Get a tray for these two great big important simoleans here.
- Uncle Billy: We'll save 'em for seed.
- George Bailey: A toast! A toast! A toast to Mama Dollar and to Papa Dollar, and if you want to keep this old Building and Loan in business, you better have a family real quick.
- Cousin Tilly: I wish they were rabbits.
- Ernie Bishop: Just a minute! Quiet everybody! Quiet, quiet. Now get this, it's from London.
- Ma Bailey: Oh!
- Ernie Bishop: [Reading the telegram in his hand] Mr. Gower cabled you need cash, stop. My office instructed to advance you up to twenty-five thousand dollars, stop. Hee Haw and Merry Christmas! Sam Wainwright.
- George Bailey: I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year, and the year after that.
- George Bailey: Now, you listen to me! I don't want any plastics, and I don't want any ground floors, and I don't want to get married - ever - to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you're... and you're...
- [runs out of words, sees her crying]
- George Bailey: Oh, Mary, Mary...
- Mary: George... George... George...
- George Bailey: [kisses her intensely] Mary... Would you?... Would you?...
- George Bailey: Clarence?
- Clarence: Yes, George?
- George Bailey: Where's Mary? If this is all real and I was never born, what became of Mary?
- Clarence: [hesitates] Well... I don't... I can't...
- George Bailey: [grabs Clarence by his collar] Look, I don't know how you know these things, but if you know where my wife is, you'll tell me.
- Clarence: I... I'm not supposed to tell.
- George Bailey: Please, Clarence, where's my wife? Tell me where my wife is.
- Clarence: You're not going to like it, George.
- George Bailey: Where is she? What happened to her?
- Clarence: She became an old maid. She never married...
- George Bailey: [desperate] Where is she? WHERE IS SHE?
- Clarence: She's... she's just about to close up the library!
- [George throws Clarence to the ground and runs off]
- Clarence: [more frustrated] Ohh... there must be some easier way for me to get my wings.
- Mr. Potter: George, I am an old man and most people hate me. But I don't like them either, so that makes it all even. You know just as well as I do that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it. Or kill it. But I haven't been able to do it. You have been stopping me. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. Now take during the Depression, for instance. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. You saved the Building and Loan, I saved all the rest.
- George Bailey: Yes, well, most people say you stole all the rest.
- Mr. Potter: The envious ones say that, George. The suckers. Now, I have stated my side very frankly. Now let's look at your side. A young man, age 27... 28... , married, making, say, $40 a week.
- George Bailey: Forty-five!
- Mr. Potter: Forty-five. $45 a week. Out of which, after supporting your mother and paying your bills, you're able to keep, say, ten, if you skimp. A child or two comes along and you won't even be able to save the ten. Now, if this young man of 28 was a common, ordinary yokel, I'd say he was doing fine. But George Bailey is not a common, ordinary yokel. He is an intelligent, smart, ambitious, young man who hates his job, who hates the Building and Loan almost as much as I do. A young man who's been dying to get out of this small town and on his own ever since he was born. A young man... the smartest one in the crowd, mind you... A young man who has to sit by and watch his friends go places because he's trapped. Yes, sir, trapped into this small town and frittering his life away, playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic eaters. Do I paint the correct picture or do I exaggerate?
- Pa Bailey: I know it's soon to talk about it.
- George Bailey: Oh, now Pop, I couldn't. I couldn't face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office... Oh, I'm sorry Pop, I didn't mean that, but this business of nickels and dimes and spending all your life trying to figure out how to save three cents on a length of pipe... I'd go crazy. I want to do something big and something important.
- Pa Bailey: You know, George, I feel that in a small way we are doing something important. Satisfying a fundamental urge. It's deep in the race for a man to want his own roof and walls and fireplace, and we're helping him get those things in our shabby little office.
- George Bailey: I know, Dad. I wish I felt... But I've been hoarding pennies like a miser in order to... Most of my friends have already finished college. I just feel like if I don't get away, I'd bust.
- Pa Bailey: Yes... yes... You're right son.
- George Bailey: You see what I mean, don't you, Pop?
- Pa Bailey: This town is no place for any man unless he's willing to crawl to Potter. You've got talent, son. I've seen it. You get yourself an education. Then get out of here.
- George Bailey: Pop, you want a shock? I think you're a great guy.
- [to Annie, listening through the door]
- George Bailey: Oh, did you hear that, Annie?
- Annie: I heard it. About time one of you lunkheads said it.
- George Bailey: Now, will you do something for me?
- Zuzu Bailey: What?
- George Bailey: Will you try and get some sleep?
- Zuzu Bailey: I'm not sleepy. I want to look at my flower.
- George Bailey: I know-I know, but you just go to sleep, and then you can dream about it, and it'll be a whole garden.
- Zuzu Bailey: It will?
- George Bailey: Uh-huh.
- Mr. Potter: [to George Bailey] Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me "a warped, frustrated, old man"! What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds, nothin' but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy.
- [Potter chuckles]
- Mr. Potter: You're worth more dead than alive! Why don't you go to the riffraff you love so much and ask them to let you have $8,000? You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you, George. Since the state examiner is still here, as a stockholder of the Building and Loan, I'm going to swear out a warrant for your arrest. Misappropriation of funds, manipulation, malfeasance...
- [sees George runs off]
- Mr. Potter: All right, George, go ahead! You can't hide in a little town like this!
- Clarence: I'm Clarence Oddbody, AS2.
- George Bailey: Oddbody... Hey, what's an AS2?
- Clarence: Angel, Second Class.
- [the bridgekeeper, overhearing it, falls backwards in his chair completely spooked]
- Mary: You look at me as if you didn't know me.
- George Bailey: Well, I don't.
- Mary: You pass me on the street almost every day.
- George Bailey: Me? Naw, that was a little girl named Mary Hatch, that wasn't you.
- Mr. Potter: Have you put any real pressure on these people of yours to pay those mortgages?
- Pa Bailey: Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people are out of work.
- Mr. Potter: Well, then, foreclose.
- Pa Bailey: I can't do that. These families have children.
- Mr. Potter: They're not my children.
- Pa Bailey: But they're somebody's children, Mr. Potter.
- Mr. Potter: Are you running a business or a charity ward? Not with my money!
- Pa Bailey: Mr. Potter, what makes you such a hard-skulled character? You have no family, no children. You can't begin to spend all the money you've got.
- Mr. Potter: Oh, I suppose I should give it to miserable failures like you and that idiot brother of yours to spend for me!
- Little George: He's not a failure! You can't say that about my father!
- Pa Bailey: George. George. Quiet, George. Run along. Run along.
- Little George: You're not! You're the biggest man in town!
- [Pushes Mr. Potter]
- Little George: Bigger than him, bigger than everybody!
- [walks out]
- Mr. Potter: [groans] Gives you an idea of the Baileys.
- Nick: Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?
- George Bailey: [intervening] Nick, hold on. Just give him the same as mine. He's no trouble.
- Nick: Okay.
- [Nick walks away to tend to the bar]
- George Bailey: [to Clarence] What's the matter with him? I never saw Nick act like that before.
- Clarence: You'll see a lot of strange things from now on.
- George Bailey: [George is having his last meal at home before leaving on his cruise. His father is distraught over his leaving] Pop, I think you're a great guy.
- George Bailey: [thinking Annie is eavesdropping] Did you hear that, Annie?
- Annie: I heard it... 'bout time one of you lunkheads said it!
- Uncle Billy: After all, Potter, some people like George HAD to stay at home. Not every heel was in Germany and Japan.
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