Ronald Spiers: The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it.
Lewis Nixon: Harry, just why exactly are you still carrying your reserve shute?
Harry Welsh: What? it’s silk. Make a great wedding gift for kitty when we get back.
Lewis Nixon: Jeez Harry, I never would have guessed.
Harry Welsh: What? that I’m so sentimental?
Lewis Nixon: No, that you actually think we’re going to make it back to England.
Richard Winters: Captain Sobel, we salute the rank, not the man.
2nd Lt. George Rice: Looks like you guys are going to be surrounded.
Richard Winters: We’re paratroopers, Lieutenant. We’re supposed to be surrounded.
[Easy Compagny is patrolling through the Bavarian woods]
Frank Perconte: Hey, George.
George Luz: Yeah?
Frank Perconte: Kind of remind you of Bastogne?
George Luz: Yeah, now that you mention it. Except, of course, there’s no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren’t exploding from Kraut artillery, but yeah… Frank… other than that, it’s a lot like Bastogne.
Frank Perconte: Right?
George Luz: Bull, smack him for me please?
[thump]
George Luz: Thank you.
[Translating a speech a German General is giving to his men after they all surrendered]
Liebgott: Men, it’s been a long war, it’s been a tough war. You’ve fought bravely, proudly for your country. You’re a special group. You’ve found in one another a bond, that exists only in combat, among brothers. You’ve shared foxholes, held each other in dire moments. You’ve seen death and suffered together. I’m proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace.
Richard Winters: [Cpt. Nixon won’t wake up] Let’s go. C’mon, you got 10 minutes.
Cpt. Nixon: [sleepily] Go away.
Richard Winters: C’mon, big guy, let’s go.
Cpt. Nixon: Ah, leave me alone!
Richard Winters: [tossing the contents of a nearby pitcher on Nix’ head] Okay…
Cpt. Nixon: GOD DAMMIT! Ahhh, that’s my own PISS, for Christ’s sake!
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: I’m gonna say something.
George Luz: To who?
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Lieutenant Winters!
Richard Winters: What is it?
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Permission to speak, sir.
Richard Winters: Granted.
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Sir, we got nine companies, sir.
Richard Winters: We do.
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Well, how come we’re the only one marching every Friday night, twelve miles, full pack, in the pitch dark?
Richard Winters: Why do you think, Private Randleman?
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Lieutenant Sobel hates us, sir.
Richard Winters: Lieutenant Sobel does not hate Easy Company, Private Randleman. He just hates you.
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Thank you, sir.
Richard Winters: We’re not lost, Private… we’re in Normandy.
George Luz: Hey Janovek, whatcha reading?
John Janovek: An article.
George Luz: No s**t. What’s it about?
John Janovek: It’s about why we’re fighting the war.
George Luz: Why are we fighting the war, Janovek?
John Janovek: It appears the Germans are bad, very bad.
George Luz: You don’t say! The Germans are bad, huh?
[Turns to Perconte]
George Luz: Hey Frank, this guy is reading an article that says the Germans *are bad*.
George Luz: [imitating Gen. Maxwell Taylor] Now the thing to remember, boys… flies spread disease, so keep yours closed!
Joe Toye: Three day supply of K-rations, chocolate bars, Charms candy, powdered coffee, sugar, matches, compass, bayonet, entrenching tool, ammunition, gas mask, musette bag with ammo, my weapon, my .45, canteen, two cartons of smokes, Hawkins mine, two grenades, smoke grenade, Gammon grenade, TNT, THIS bulls**t, and a pair of nasty skivvies!
Frank Perconte: What’s your point?
Joe Toye: This stuff weighs as much as I do! I still got my ‘chute, my reserve ‘chute, my Mae West, my M1.
Frank Perconte: Why you keeping the brass knuckles?
Joe Toye: I could use some brass knuckles.
Carwood Lipton: [narrating as Lieutenant Speirs runs across the battlefield] At first the Germans didn’t shoot at him. I think they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. But that wasn’t the really astounding thing. The astounding thing was that, after he hooked up with I Company, he came back.
Frank Perconte: Hey O’Brien, relax, would ya? I’m trying to read.
Pvt. Patrick O’Keefe: It’s O’Keefe.
Frank Perconte: Is that right?
Pvt. Patrick O’Keefe: Yeah, Patrick O’Keefe. My friends call me Patty.
[starts humming]
Frank Perconte: Hey O’Brien, shut up!
Pvt. Patrick O’Keefe: I told you, it’s O’Keefe.
Frank Perconte: Do you know why no one remembers your name? It’s ’cause no one wants to remember your name! There are too many Smiths, DiMatos, and O’Keefes and O’Briens who show up here, replacing Toccoa men that you dumb replacements got killed in the first place! And they’re all like you. They’re all piss and vinegar. “Where are the Krauts at? Let me at ’em! When do I get to jump into Berlin?” Two days later, there they are with their blood and guts hanging out. Screaming for a medic, begging for their goddamn mothers! You dumb kids don’t even know you’re dead yet. Hey, you listening to me? Don’t you know this is the best part of the war I’ve seen? I’ve got hot chow, hot showers, a warm bed. The way I see it, Germany is almost as good as being home. I even got to wipe my a** with real toilet paper today! So quit asking when you’re gonna see some action, will ya? And stop with the love songs!
[pause]
Frank Perconte: When’d you ship out? Two weeks ago?
Pvt. Patrick O’Keefe: [quiet] Yeah.
Frank Perconte: Its been two years since I’ve seen home. Two years.
Rudolph R. Dittrich: This stuff is orange. Spaghetti ain’t supposed to be orange.
Frank Perconte: This ain’t spaghetti. This is Army noodles with ketchup.
Bill Guarnere: You ain’t gotta eat it.
Frank Perconte: Come on, Gonorrhea, as a fellow Italian you should know that calling this crap spaghetti is a mortal sin.
Frank Perconte: Hey Luz, how far are we going?
George Luz: Oh, Jesus, Frank, I don’t know. Until they tell us to stop.
Donald Hoobler: High ground. There’s high ground up ahead.
Frank Perconte: Okay, genius. Answer me this, then. How come Easy Company is the only company who’s either at the front of an advance, or, like now, exposed at the far edge of the line?
Donald Hoobler: To keep you on your toes.
Frank Perconte: No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying, we’re never in the middle. And we’re the fifth of nine companies in this regiment. Able to Item. Think of it.
Darrel ‘Shifty’ Powers: Sniper! Down! 2nd Floor Left!
George Luz: [imitating Maj. Horton] Is there a problem, Captain Sobel?
Herbert Sobel: Who said that? Who broke silence?
Edward Tipper: I think it’s Major Horton, sir.
Herbert Sobel: Major Horton? What… what is he… did he join us?
Edward Tipper: I think, maybe, he’s moving between platoons, sir.
George Luz: What is the god-damn holdup, Mr. Sobel?
Herbert Sobel: A fence, sir! Uh, God… barb wire fence.
George Luz: Oh, that dog just ain’t gonna hunt. Now, you cut that fence and get this goddamn platoon on the move.
Richard D. Winters: Flash?
Pvt. John ‘Cowboy’ Hall: S**t!
Guarnere: Jesus Christ, we gotta do all this with a C.O. who has his head so far up his a**, that lump in his throat is his goddamn nose.
Col. Sink: If they come by here y’all remember to smile for the camera. Got to keep the morale up for them folks back home.
Richard Winters: Why?
Col. Sink: Damned if I know.
Frank Perconte: Hey this guy says he’s not a Nazi. All of Germany and I haven’t met one Nazi yet.
Cpl. Eugene Roe: Toye, are you missing something?
Joe Toye: Home.
Cpl. Earl ‘One Lung’ McLung: Ask him to dance, Doc.
Cpl. Eugene Roe: Toye, show me your feet.
Joe Toye: You watch the goddamn line, McClung.
[Toye’s feet are wrapped in blankets]
Cpl. Eugene Roe: Where are your boots?
Joe Toye: In Washington, up General Taylor’s a**.
Old Man on Bicycle: [raising his hands in the air] You’ve done it now, Yanks. You’ve captured me.
Richard Winters: [chuckles]
Herbert Sobel: [shouting in the background] Heigh-Ho Silver!
Old Man on Bicycle: Would that be the enemy?
Richard Winters: As a matter of fact… yes.
Cpt. Nixon: [about Major Winters] I heard reports about a redheaded eskimo. Thought I’d check it out.
Richard Winters: There’s a German general at the airfield who has a problem surrendering to Pvt. Babe Heffron from South Philly. I think 1st Lt. Carwood Lipton would suit him better.
Richard Winters: Harry, fire’s not a good idea.
Harry Welsh: Just a couple of minutes. We’re in a dell.
Richard Winters: A dell? Like where fairies and gnomes live?
Cpt. Nixon: I swear I thought I could smell a fire… I DID smell a fire. Are you out of your mind?
Richard Winters: Well, we’re in a dell.
Cpt. Nixon: Huh?
Bill Guarnere: Once we get into combat, they only people you can trust is yourself and the fella next to you.
Joe Toye: Hey, as long as he’s a paratrooper.
Liebgott: So what did you study?
Pvt. David Kenyon Webster: Literature.
Liebgott: You’re kidding me! I love to read.
Pvt. David Kenyon Webster: Really?
Liebgott: Yeah. Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon mostly.
Richard D. Winters: Let me know if you run into any trouble.
Lewis Nixon: Yeah, and you let me know if you run into any bacon sandwich.
Guarnere: Hey, Joe. Good to see you, pal.
Toye: You too.
Guarnere: What the hell are you doing back here?
Toye: I had to make sure you were on top of things.
Guarnere: Yeah, we’re on top of things. I even tied me own boots last week, all by meself. Hey fellas, look who I found!
Warren Muck: Hey, Joe Toye, back for more!
Cpt. Nixon: Hitler’s dead.
Liebgott: Holy s**t.
Cpt. Nixon: Shot himself in Berlin.
Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman: Is the war over, sir?
Cpt. Nixon: No. We have orders to Berchtesgaden. We move out in one hour.
Pvt. David Kenyon Webster: Why? The man’s not home. He should have killed himself three years ago. Saved us a lot of trouble.
Cpt. Nixon: Yeah, he should have. But he didn’t.
Harry Welsh: Light and noise discipline. That means no playing “grab the fanny” with the man in front of you, Luz.
Bill Guarnere: My brother’s in North Africa. He says it’s hot.
Donald Malarkey: Really? It’s hot in Africa?
Bill Guarnere: Shut up!
Alex Penkala: [about Buck] Don’t do anything stupid? Who the hell is he talking to? A bunch of morons who volunteered to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Can you get any more stupid that that?
George Luz: Probably not.
Frank Perconte: [after dropping an unmedicated injured Sisk] Oh Skinny, you got blood all over my trousers.
Wayne Sisk: [in pain] I’m real sorry, Frank.
Frank Perconte: Hey Luz, can you do Major Horton?
George Luz: [imitating Major Horton] Does a wild bear crap in the woods, son?
Sgt. Alton More: I’m guessing they were Hitler’s photo albums, sir. Sure had a lot of pictures of him in it.
Ronald Spiers: So, you looked at ’em, but you didn’t take ’em?
Sgt. Alton More: That’s right, sir.
Ronald Spiers: I don’t believe you! I’ll be watching you. You’re dismissed.
[as Moore leaves, smirking]
Ronald Spiers: You’d better not be lying to me.
[playing a game of darts]
George Luz: Lieutenant, are you going to shoot lefty all night?
Joe Toye: Hey, c’mon.
George Luz: I’m just curious cause he’s right-handed.
‘Buck’ Compton: [switches hands] George, what would I do without George Luz?
George Luz: [Imitating Capt. Sobel] Are those dusty jump wings? How do you expect to slay the Huns with dust on your jump wings?
Bill Guarnere: I like Winters, he’s a good man. But when the bullets start flying, I don’t know if I want a Quaker doing my fighting for me.
Toye: How do I feel about being rescued by Patton? Well I’d feel pretty peachy, except for one thing, we didn’t need to be rescued by Patton! Got that?
Bill Guarnere: [Guarnere and Toye have both lost a leg during a brutal shelling]
[the medics pick up Guarnere first]
Bill Guarnere: Hey, Joe, I told you I’d beat you back to the States!
Richard Winters: [after a bullet ricochets off of Nixon’s helmet] NIX!
Cpt. Nixon: I’m all right! I’m all right… am I all right?
[looking at Winters annoyed]
Cpt. Nixon: Stop looking at me like that!
Richard Winters: How’d it go? The drop?
Cpt. Nixon: We took a direct hit over the drop zone. I got out, two others got out.
Richard Winters: And the rest of the boys?
Cpt. Nixon: Oh, they blew up in Germany somewhere… Boom.
Harry Welsh: [takes some Nazi utensils] Kitty’s gonna love this. How many brides get a wedding gift from Hitler?
Sgt. Martin: Hey, Frank… you keep cleaning those teeth, the Germans are going to see you from a mile away.
Frank Perconte: That’s right Pee Wee, you keep laughin’!
David Webster: Sgt. Lipton, feeling all right?
George Luz: He’s got pneumonia.
David Webster: Sorry to hear that.
George Luz: Ah, what are you sorry about? He’s alive, got a couch, a goddamn blanket. Snug as a bug.
German Soldier: [waiting alongside an Allied trooper at the border] Ahh… Thus ends the end of my second war.
‘Popeye’ Wynn: Hey Sarge, you think this is a ticket home?
Carwood Lipton: [fixing Popeye’s wound] Could be.
‘Popeye’ Wynn: Aw s**t, I just got here!
Pvt. Edward ‘Babe’ Heffron: [a tree has fallen on Babe’s foxhole] Hey, Sarge, ya think I overdid it on the cover for my foxhole?
Ronald Spiers: Have the MPs take care of this piece of s**t.
Frank Perconte: Now just think… if you had any class or style like me, somebody might’ve mistaken you for somebody.
Sgt. Martin: Oh, like you Sergeant?
Sgt. Martin: [shows Perconte the Sergeant insignia on his arm]
Frank Perconte: [says in a meek fashion] I’m just kiddin’.
Joe Toye: Hey guys, I’m glad we’re going to Europe.
[takes out his knife]
Joe Toye: Hitler gets one of these right across the windpipe, Roosevelt changes Thanksgiving to Joe Toye Day, pays me ten grand a year for the rest of my life.
Cpt. Nixon: Who are you?
2nd Lt. Henry Jones: 2nd Lt. Henry Jones, sir.
Cpt. Nixon: Right, our West Pointer. When’d you graduate?
2nd Lt. Henry Jones: June 6th, sir.
Cpt. Nixon: Of last year?
2nd Lt. Henry Jones: Yes, D-Day, sir.
Cpt. Nixon: [laughs] Don’t get hurt.
David Webster: “They got me”. You believe that? You believe I said that?
Liebgott: [on a convoy to Bavaria] It’s gonna be good times, Web… When we get home I mean… First thing I’m gonna do is get my job back at the cab company in Frisco. Make a killing of all those sailors coming home, you know? Then I’m gonna find me a nice Jewish girl, with great big soft titties and a smile to die for. Marry her. Then I’m gonna buy a house… A big house, with lots of bedrooms for all the little Liebgotts we’re gonna be making.
Ronald Spiers: When you talk to an officer, you say “sir”.
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