Inherit the Wind (1960) Poster

Fredric March: Matthew Harrison Brady

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Quotes 

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!

    Henry Drummond : Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one faculty of man that raises him above the other creatures of the earth, the power of his brain to reason? What other merit have we? The elephant is larger, the horse is swifter and stronger, the butterfly is far more beautiful, the mosquito is more prolific. Even the simple sponge is more durable. But does a sponge think?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : I don't know. I'm a man, not a sponge!

    Henry Drummond : But do you think a sponge thinks?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks!

    Henry Drummond : Do you think a man should have the same privilege as a sponge?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : Of course!

    Henry Drummond : [Gesturing towards the defendant, Bertram Cates]  Then this man wishes to have the same privilege of a sponge, he wishes to think!

  • Judge : [after Drummond asks the judge for permission to withdraw form the case]  Colonel Drummond, what reasons can you possibly have?

    Henry Drummond : [Indicates the crowd]  Well, there are two hundred of them.

    [Crowd reacts angrily] 

    Henry Drummond : And if that's not enough there's one more. I think my client has already been found guilty.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : [Rises]  Is Mr. Drummond saying that this expression of an honest emotion will in any way influence the court's impartial administration of the law?

    Henry Drummond : I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy, you can only punish. And I warn you, that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys every one it touches. Its upholders as well as its defiers.

    Judge : Colonel Drummond...

    Henry Drummond : Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!

    Judge : I hope counsel does not mean to imply that this court is bigoted.

    Henry Drummond : Well, your honor has the right to hope.

    Judge : I have the right to do more than that.

    Henry Drummond : You have the power to do more than that.

    [the Judge holds Drummond in contempt of court] 

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : I do not think about things I do not think about.

    Henry Drummond : Do you ever think about things that you DO think about?

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : Why is it, my old friend, that you've moved so far away from me?

    Henry Drummond : All motion is relative, Matt. Maybe it's you who've moved away by standing still.

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : Remember the wisdom of Solomon in the book of Proverbs. "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : Drummond and I have worked side by side in many battles for the common folk. Twice he campaigned for me when I ran for president.

    Henry Drummond : That's right.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : After all these years we find ourselves on the opposite side of an issue.

    Henry Drummond : Well, that's evolution for you.

  • Henry Drummond : Is that the way of things? God tells Brady what is good; to be against Brady is to be against God!

    Matthew Harrison Brady : No! Every man is a free agent!

    Henry Drummond : Then what is Bertram Cates doing in the Hillsboro jail?

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : But your client is wrong. He is deluded. He has lost his way.

    Henry Drummond : It's a shame we don't all possess your positive knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, Mr. Brady.

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : A fine biblical scholar, Bishop Usher, has determined for us the exact date and hour of the Creation. It occurred in the year 4004 B.C.

    Henry Drummond : Well, that's Bishop Usher's opinion.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : It's not an opinion. It's a literal fact -- which the good Bishop arrived at through careful computation of the ages of the prophets, as set down in the Old Testament. In fact, he determined that the Lord began the Creation on the 23rd of October, 4004 B.C. at, uh, 9:00 AM.

    Henry Drummond : That Eastern Standard Time? Or Rocky Mountain Time? It wasn't Daylight Saving Time, was it? Because the Lord didn't make the sun until the fourth day.

  • Sam : We all voted for you three times.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : I trust it was in three separate elections! I just wish one thing, that you'd not given us quite so WARM a welcome.

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : Is the counsel for the defense showing us the latest fashion in the great metropolitan city of Chicago?

    Henry Drummond : Glad you asked me that. I brought these along special. Just so happens I bought these suspenders at Peabody's General Store in your home town Mr. Brady. Weeping Water, Nebraska.

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : The Bible satisfies me. It is enough.

    Henry Drummond : It frightens me to think of the state of learning in the world if everybody had your driving curiosity.

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : [to Henry Drummond]  They're looking for something that's more perfect than what they already have. Why do you want to take that away from them when it's all they have?

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : Funny how two people can start off at the same point and... drift apart.

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : I am more interested in the 'Rock of Ages' than I am in the age of rocks.

  • Henry Drummond : [Brady is testifying about the first day of creation]  That first day, what do you think, it was 24 hours long?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : The Bible says it was a day.

    Henry Drummond : Well, there was no sun out. How do you know how long it was?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : The Bible says it was a day!

    Henry Drummond : Well, was it a normal day, a literal day, 24 hour day?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : I don't know.

    Henry Drummond : What do you think?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : I do not think about things that I do not think about.

    Henry Drummond : Do you ever think about things that you do thing about? Isn't it possible that it could have been 25 hours? There's no way to measure it; no way to tell. Could it have been 25 hours?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : It's possible.

    Henry Drummond : Then you interpret that the first day as recorded in the Book of Genesis could've been a day of indeterminate length.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : I mean to state that it is not necessarily a 24 hour day.

    Henry Drummond : It could've been 30 hours, could've been a week, could've been a month, could've been a year, could've been a hundred years, or it could've been 10 million years!

  • Henry Drummond : The Gospel according to Brady! God speaks to Brady, and Brady tells the world! Brady, Brady, Brady, Almighty!

    Matthew Harrison Brady : All of you know what I stand for - what I believe! I believe in the truth of the Book of Genesis! Exodus! Leviticus! Numbers! Deuteronomy! Joshua! Judges! Ruth! First Samuel! Second Samuel! First Kings! Second Kings! Isaiah! Jeremiah! Lamentations! Ezekiel!...

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : I have been to their cities and I have seen the altars upon which they sacrifice the futures of their children to the gods of science. And what are their rewards? Confusion and self-destruction. New ways to kill each other in wars. I tell you gentlemen the way of science is the way of darkness.

  • Howard : He said that men sort of evo-luted from Old World monkeys.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : Do you hear that, friends? Old World monkeys! According to Bertram Cates, we don't even descend from good American monkeys!

    [laughing] 

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : There is only one great truth in the world!

  • Henry Drummond : [Questioning Brady on the Bible]  Now, this book goes into a lot of "begats". "And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber." And so on and so on and so on. Are these pretty important people?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : They are the generations of the holy men and women of the Bible.

    Henry Drummond : How did they go about all this begatting?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : What do you mean?

    Henry Drummond : I mean did they begat in much the same way as folks get themselves begat today?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : The process is about the same. I don't think your scientists have improved it any.

    Henry Drummond : [laughter followed by gavel]  In other words, all of these folks were conceived and brought forth by the normal biological function known as sex? What do you think of sex, Colonel Brady?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : In what spirit is this question asked?

    Henry Drummond : Well, I'm not asking you what you think of sex as a father, as a husband or even as a presidential candidate. You're up here as an expert on the Bible. What is the biblical evaluation of sex?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : It is considered original sin.

    Henry Drummond : And all these holy people got themselves begat through original sin? Well, all that sinning make 'em any less holy?

  • Matthew Harrison Brady : It the revealed word of the Almighty God, spake to the men who wrote the Bible.

    Henry Drummond : How do you know God didn't spake to Charles Darwin?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : I know because God tells me to oppose the evil teachings of that man.

    Henry Drummond : Oh, God speaks to you?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : Yes.

    Henry Drummond : He tells you what is right and wrong?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : Yes.

    Henry Drummond : And you act accordingly?

    Matthew Harrison Brady : Yes.

    Henry Drummond : So you, Matthew Harrison Brady, through oratory or legislature or whatever, you pass on God's orders to the rest of the world! Well, meet the prophet from Nebraska!

  • Henry Drummond : Extend the testaments. Let us have a Book of Brady. We shall hex the Pentateuch and slip you in neatly between Numbers and Deuteronomy.

    Matthew Harrison Brady : My friends, Your Honour...

    Henry Drummond : The witness is excused!

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