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Willie Stark: I don't need money. People gives me things because they believe in me.
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[Newspaper editor Madison sends Burden to the backwaters of the state to learn about political upstart Willie Stark]
Jack Burden: What's so special about him?
Madison: They say he's an honest man.
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Willie Stark: Now, shut up! Shut up, all of you! Now listen to me, you hicks. Yeah, you're hicks too, and they fooled you a thousand times like they fooled me. But this time, I'm going to fool somebody. I'm going to stay in this race. I'm on my own and I'm out for blood.
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Jack Burden: [to Willie] You throw money around like it was money.
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Willie Stark: [to his fellow 'hicks' after surviving an impeachment trial in the state senate] They tried to ruin me, but they are ruined. They tried to ruin me because they didn't like what I have done. Do you like what I've done?
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Jack Burden: I tell you there's nothing on the judge.
Willie Stark: Jack, there's something on everybody. Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption.
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Willie Stark: I'm going to run. You can't stop me. I'm going to run even if I don't get a single vote!
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Willie Stark: It could have been - whole world - Willie Stark.
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Jack Burden: Anne, Burden's Landing is a place on the Moon. It isn't real. It doesn't exist. It's me pretending to live on what I earn. It's my mother trying to keep herself young and drinking herself old. It's you and Adam living in this house as though your father were still alive. It's an old man like the judge dreaming of the past.
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Willie Stark: I'm the hick they were gonna use to split the hick vote. But I'm standing right here now on my hind legs! Even a dog can learn to do that. Are you standing on your hind legs? Have you learned to do that yet?
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Willie Stark: Here it is, you hicks! Nail up anybody who stands in your way! Nail up Joe Harrison! Nail up McMurphy! And if they don't deliver, give me the hammer, and I'll do it myself!
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Willie Stark: You wanna know what my platform is? Here it is. I'm gonna soak the fat boys and spread it out thin.
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Judge Monte Stanton: Pillsbury is guilty. As Attorney General of this state, it's my job to prosecute.
Willie Stark: Judge, you talk like Pillsbury was human. He isn't. He's a thing. You don't prosecute an adding machine if a spring goes busted and makes a mistake. You fix it. Well, I fixed him.
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Sadie Burke: How'd you get him here? He was out stiff.
Jack Burden: A hair of the dog that bit him.
Sadie Burke: Hair? He must've swallowed the dog!
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Sadie Burke: Was she pretty?
Jack Burden: How should I know. I wasn't looking at her face.
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Sadie Burke: He'll ditch everybody in the whole world, because that's what Willie wants. Nobody in the world but him!
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Sadie Burke: Be smart. Play square with him. You're gonna need people like us around.
Willie Stark: Are you sure?
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[Willie arrives at the statehouse as the impeachment is proceeding]
Willie Stark: What's the score?
Tiny Duffy: They're lined up against you solid. They had a meeting.
Willie Stark: How do you know? Were you there?
Tiny Duffy: Me? What would I be doing there?
Willie Stark: Selling me out.
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Jack Burden: [inside the governor's swerving car being driven at dangerous speeds by Sugar] You'll never live to be impeached!
Willie Stark: Boy, I'll live to be President!
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Willie Stark: This much I swear to you. These things you shall have: I'm going to build a hospital. The biggest that money can buy. And it will belong to you. That any man, woman, and child who is sick or in pain can go through those doors and know that everything will be done for them that man can do to heal sickness, to ease pain. Free. Not as a charity. But as a right. And it is your right. Do you hear me? It is your right. And it is your right that every child should have a complete education. That any man who produce us anything can take it to market without paying toll. And no poor man's land or farm can be taxed or taken away from him. And it is the right of the people that they shall not be deprived of hope.
Anne Stanton: Does he mean it, Jack?
Adam Stanton: That's his bribe.
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Jack Burden: Appeal to their emotions. Make them laugh; make them cry; make them mad, even if they get mad at you. But for heaven's sake, don't try to improve their minds.
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Funeral Attendee: Oh Lord, I am punished for voting against an honest man!
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Willie Stark: Do you know what good comes out of?
Adam Stanton: You tell me, Mr. Stark.
Willie Stark: Out of bad, that's what good comes out of. Because you can't make it out of anything else. You didn't know that, did you?
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Anne Stanton: He hit me, Jack. My own brother hit me.
Jack Burden: Your brother's an old-fashioned man. He believes in a sister's honor. Me, I'm a modern man, the twentieth-century type. I run.
All the King's Men Quotes
Extended Reading
