Harold Hill Quotes in The Music Man (1962)

Marian Paroo: No, please, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

Harold Hill: Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering.

Marian Paroo: Oh, so would I.

Harold Hill: I always think there's a band, kid.

Charlie Cowell: Don't believe I caught your name.

Harold Hill: Don't believe I *dropped* it.

Marian Paroo: The librarian hasn't felt much like doing research lately, but she did plenty when you first came here.

Harold Hill: What about?

Marian Paroo: Professor Harold Hill. Gary Conservatory of Music, gold medal class of '05. Harold, there wasn't any Gary Conservatory of Music in '05.

Harold Hill: Why, there most certainly w...

Marian Paroo: Because the town wasn't even built until '06. I tore this page out of an Indiana Journal. I was going to use it against you, but now I give to you with all my heart.

Marcellus Washburn: Thar she blows.

Harold Hill: [winces] Well, I'll do it, but I won't like it.

Marcellus Washburn: [amused] No, that's not the librarian. That's Mrs. Shinn, the mayor's wife.

Harold Hill: A man can't turn tail and run just because a little personal risk is involved. What did Shakespeare say? "Cowards die a thousand deaths, the brave man... only 500"?

Harold Hill: [Marian and Winthrop are urging the Professor to leave before the crowd arrives] I can't go, Winthrop.

Winthrop Paroo: Why not?

Harold Hill: Well, for the first time in my life, I got my *foot* caught in the door.

Harold Hill: Mothers of River City, heed that warning before it's too late! Watch for the telltale signs of corruption! The minute your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime-novel hidden in the corncrib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang? Are certain words creeping into his conversation? Words like "swell" and "so's your old man"? If so my friends, ya got trouble!

Harold Hill: Ladies and gentlemen, either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community!

Harold Hill: So now I'm back at the old stand.

Marcellus Washburn: Not boys' bands? Well, ain't no call for a boys' band in this town. Anything these Iowa people don't have already, they do without.

[in song]

Harold Hill: I cheer, and I rave, for the virtue I'm too late to save, the sadder but wiser girl for me... I smile, I grin when the gal with a touch of sin walks in / I hope and I pray for Hester to win just one more "A" / The sadder but wiser girl's the girl for me / The sadder but wiser girl for me.

Constable Locke: That was pretty good, Professor, but you made a couple of mistakes.

Harold Hill: Oh?

Constable Locke: Yeah, the billiard hall and that pool table belong to Mayor Shinn.

Harold Hill: Oh

[looks thoughtful]

Harold Hill: What was my other mistake?

Constable Locke: That Zaneta, she's the mayor's oldest girl.

Marcellus Washburn: I heard you was in steam automobiles.

Harold Hill: I was... till someone actually 'invented' one!

Marcellus Washburn: This is where I work.

Harold Hill: You mean you *live* in this town?

Marcellus Washburn: Yeah, I like it, too. I mean it's not Brooklyn, New York. It's not the City of Homes and Churches and...

Harold Hill: [amazed] "Brooklyn"? Marce, this isn't even *Dubuque*!

Salesman on train: How far you going, friend?

Harold Hill: Wherever the people are as green as the money... friend.

[in song]

Harold Hill: Seventy-six trombones led the big parade / with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand / They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos / the cream of every famous band!

Harold Hill: Think, boys. Think!

Harold Hill: Oh this is a refined operation son, and I've got it timed down to the last wave of the brakeman's hand on the last train outta town.