Crawford Gilcuttie: I'm tired of you, David. Just give me the formula and get the hell out of here...!
David Stillwell: What's the matter, Major? You seem nervous!
Crawford Gilcuttie: ...Why should I be?
David Stillwell: That's what I want to know...
[David looks around at the others]
David Stillwell: Josephson?
Josephson: Hm?
David Stillwell: Is that who you're worried about?
Josephson: Why should he be worried about me?
David Stillwell: Because I'm not on the hook anymore. You are.
Josephson: Why?
David Stillwell: Because you've got the gun!


--Gregory Peck (as David) in Mirage

Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense: Is anyone living at the hall now?
Driver: Only the caretaker, Mrs. Clarr - maybe Andre's back from London now. They say he knows more about the poor Colonel's death than he would tell. He's a queer one, all right.
Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense: In what way?
Driver: Oh, I don't know. He keeps himself to himself - perhaps that's because he's foreign. They never do seem quite the same, do they, sir?


--Gregory Peck (as Anthony Keane) in The Paradine Case

Atticus Finch: [his closing statement] To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place... It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewel was beaten - savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses... his RIGHT. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime - she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now, what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption... the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is, in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against TWO white people's! The defendant is not guilty - but somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system - that's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality! Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review, without passion, the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision and restore this man to his fami

--Gregory Peck (as Atticus Finch) in To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus Finch: Do you know what a compromise is?
Scout: Bendin' the law?
Atticus Finch: [slightly bemused] Uh, no. It's an agreement reached by mutual consent. Now, here's the way it works. You concede the necessity of goin' to school, we'll keep right on readin' the same every night, just as we always have. Is that a bargain?


--Gregory Peck (as Atticus Finch) in To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus Finch: I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Jem: Why?
Atticus Finch: Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.


--Gregory Peck (as Atticus Finch) in To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus Finch: There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man.
Scout: If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it?
Atticus Finch: For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again.
[he puts his arm around her]
Atticus Finch: You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing: That you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.


--Gregory Peck (as Atticus Finch) in To Kill a Mockingbird

Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: Captain Horatio Hornblower at your service. King George of England charges me with messages of his friendship...
El Supremo: I am not interested in the words of a mere king!
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: Ha-hmm.


--Gregory Peck (as Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N) in Captain Horatio Hornblower

Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: If I am not back aboard the Lydia within one hour, she'll train her guns upon your fort and reduce it to rubble.
El Supremo: With you in it, Captain?
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: That is my order.


--Gregory Peck (as Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N) in Captain Horatio Hornblower

Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: Mr. Bush, here are the keys to my dispatch box containing the Admiralty's orders. If I'm not back aboard by midnight, you will assume command.
Lt. William Bush: Not back on board, sir? But you said they were on our side!
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: War breeds strange allies, Mr. Bush


--Gregory Peck (as Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N) in Captain Horatio Hornblower

Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: This ship is getting slack, Mr. Gerard. It's taking you longer every day to clear for action.
2nd Lt. Gerard: The hands are weak, sir, and...
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: And what?
2nd Lt. Gerard: Restless, sir. After all, sir, seven months without sighting land.
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: No excuse. You ought to control them...
Lookout: Land ho! Off the starboard bow!
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: ...An officer who cannot control his men is not reliable.
2nd Lt. Gerard: Yes, sir. Excuse me, sir, that was "Land ho."
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: I have ears, Mr. Gerard.
2nd Lt. Gerard: I thought you might be interested, sir.
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: It took you eleven minutes and twenty seconds to clear for action the other day. I want it done in ten. Now!
2nd Lt. Gerard: Now, sir?
Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: You seem to have your mind on something else - I said, "Now!"


--Gregory Peck (as Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N) in Captain Horatio Hornblower