E. K. Hornbeck Quotes in

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E. K. Hornbeck Quotes:

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Evolution is a tricky question, which is hungrier, my stomach or my soul? Hot dog.

    Bible salesman: Are you an evolutionist? An infidel? A sinner?

    E. K. Hornbeck: The worst kind, I write for a newspaper.

    [to Henry]

    E. K. Hornbeck: Want a hot dog?

    Henry Drummond: No.

    Bible salesman: Oh then you sir, you must be a man of God.

    Henry Drummond: No no no, ulcers.

  • Townswoman: You're the stranger, ain'tcha? Are you looking for a nice, clean place to stay?

    E. K. Hornbeck: Madam, I had a nice clean place to stay... and I left it, to come here.

  • [last lines]

    Henry Drummond: You poor slob! You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You're all alone.

    E. K. Hornbeck: You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: We're growing a strange crop of agnostics this year.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: I do hateful things for which people love me, and I do loveable things for which they hate me. I'm admired for my detestability. Now don't worry, little Eva. I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Looks like you're going out in a blaze of glory counselor. You were pretty impressive for a while there today, Henry. "Your Honor, after a while you'll be setting man against man, creed against creed" etc, etc, ad nauseam unquote. AHH, Henry! why don't you wake up? Darwin was Wrong! Man's still an ape. His creed still a totem pole. When he first achieved the upright position he took a look at the stars... thought they were something to eat. When he couldn't reach them, he thought they were groceries belonging to a bigger creature... that's how Jehovah was born.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [to Bertram Cates as Rachel is called to the witness stand] Sit down, Samson, you're about to get a haircut.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [about Brady] He's the only man I know who can strut sitting down.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: He that sups with the devil must have a long spoon.

  • [a crowd burns the teacher in effigy]

    E. K. Hornbeck: Well, those are the boobs that make our laws. That's the democratic process.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [to Dr. Britton's chimp] Grandpa! Welcome to Hillsboro sir, are you here to testify for the defense or the prosecution?

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Aw, Henry! Why don't you wake up? Darwin was wrong. Man's still an ape. His creed's still a totem pole. When he first achieved the upright position, he took a look at the stars - thought they were something to eat. When he couldn't reach them, he decided they were groceries belonging to a bigger creature; that's how Jehovah was born.

    Henry Drummond: I wish I had your worm's-eye view of history. It would certainly make things a lot easier.

    E. K. Hornbeck: Oh ho, no! Not for you. No, you'd still be spending your time trying to make sense out of what is laughingly referred to as the "human race." Why don't you take your blinders off? Don't you know the future's already obsolete? You think man still has a noble destiny. Well I tell you he's already started on his backward march to the salt and stupecy from which he came.

    Henry Drummond: What about men like Bert Cates?

    E. K. Hornbeck: Cates? A monkey who tried to fly. Cates climbed to the top of the totem pole, but then he jumped. And there was nobody there to catch him. Not even you.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [to Drummond] Hello, Devil. Welcome to Hell.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Which is hungrier my stomach or my soul? Hotdog!

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [Cates rises as his girlfriend is called to testify] Sit down, Samson, you're about to get a haircut.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [watching the reverend spur the crowd with his sermon] Whatever happened to silent prayer?

  • Bertram T. Cates: Where do I finish? Dead with a paper medal on my chest? 'Bert Cates, World's Chump, he Died Fighting.' Well, let's face it - to him I'm a headline, to you I'm a cause?

    Henry Drummond: And to yourself? All right, let's face it. Now you chose to get into this by yourself. You didn't get into it because of his headline or because of my cause or maybe even because of their kids! You got into it because of yourself, because of something you believed in, for yourself.

    Bertram T. Cates: I didn't believe it would happen this way.

    E. K. Hornbeck: It can get worse, those people are in a lean and hungry mood.

    E. K. Hornbeck: They look at me as if I was a murderer.

    Henry Drummond: In a way you are. You killed one of their fairy tale notions.

  • Henry Drummond: You know, Hornbeck, I'm getting damn sick of you.

    E. K. Hornbeck: Why?

    Henry Drummond: You never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something.

    E. K. Hornbeck: You know, that's a typical lawyer's trick - accusing the accuser.

    Henry Drummond: What am I accused of?

    E. K. Hornbeck: Contempt of conscience, sentimentality in the first degree.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Disillusionment is what little heroes are made of.

  • Henry Drummond: Ever been in love Hornbeck?

    E. K. Hornbeck: Only with the sound of my own words, thank God.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [about Drummond] The Athiest who believes in God.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: You look like you need a drink.

    Henry Drummond: What I need is a miracle.

    E. K. Hornbeck: Miracle, eh? Here's a whole bag of them,

    [tosses a Bible at Henry Drummond]

    E. K. Hornbeck: Courtesy of Matthew Harrison Brady.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: There's only one man in the whole town who thinks, and he's in jail.

    Henry Drummond: That's why I'm here

  • E. K. Hornbeck: [about Brady] How do you write an obituary about a man who's been dead for thirty years?

  • Rachel Brown: [to Bertram T Cates] What are you trying to prove anyway?

    Bertram T. Cates: Rach, I'm not trying to prove anything. All I want to do is teach my students that man just wasn't planted here like a geranium in a flowerpot. That life comes from a long miracle; it didn't just take seven days.

    Rachel Brown: But it's against the law. A school teacher's a public servant. He should do what the law and the school board want him to.

    E. K. Hornbeck: [Pounding his hand on the chair like a gavel] Has the accused have anything to say in his own defense? If not, I sentence you to life as a public servant. A silent butler in the service of your school board. Waste baskets for ideas on sale in the outer lobby.

    Rachel Brown: I don't see anything funny in this Mr. Hornbeck.

    E. K. Hornbeck: Objection sustained. Neither do I.

    Rachel Brown: Then why don't you just leave us alone? You newspaper people have stirred up enough trouble for Bert. What do you want anyway?

    E. K. Hornbeck: I came to tell Boy Socrates here that the Baltimore Herald is opposed to Hemlock and will provide a lawyer.

    Bertram T. Cates: Who?

    E. K. Hornbeck: Who? I don't know yet but what's the difference? A new lawyer with old tricks, an old lawyer with new tricks. Wake up Copernicus! The law is still on the side of the lawmakers and everything revolves around their terra firma.

    Bertram T. Cates: Then why bother, you and your newspaper?

    E. K. Hornbeck: [smiling] Because I know that the sunrise is an optical illusion. My teacher told me so.

  • E. K. Hornbeck: Hillsboro, heavenly Hillsboro - the buckle on the Bible Belt...

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