Harry Mitchell Quotes in The Sum of Us (1994)

Harry Mitchell: Your grandmother said that to me once. 'The greatest explorers', she said, 'are the explorers of the human heart'.

Jeff Mitchell: Is that why she became a dyke?

Harry Mitchell: Your grandmother was not a dyke!

Jeff Mitchell: She was licking Aunt Mary's pussy for forty years, what else do you call it?

Harry Mitchell: She was not a dyke! A lesbian, perhaps... You shouldn't call her names! How would you like it if I went around and called you 'pansy', 'fairy', 'poofter'?

Jeff Mitchell: You do half the time!

Harry Mitchell: Only when I'm annoyed with you!

Harry Mitchell: I'm tired of living in sin with my own right hand.

Harry Mitchell: [about Jeff] He won't be meeting any girls tonight. He's what you'd call... *cheerful*. Can't bear that other word.

Jeff Mitchell: Of course, some people think it isn't very good manners to read at the dinner table.

Harry Mitchell: Some people hasn't lived with you for twenty-odd years.

Jeff Mitchell: Some people should be so bloody lucky.

Harry Mitchell: Emil, you're a civilized man. You can't throw me out. You can't let them get to me. Please, please, please... I beg of you!

Emil Dietrich: Stop it! Stop it! A man with your intelligence - he should not be reduced to blubbering like a child. You'll be given a gun, you have a passport, you have your wits... with no more than that men with less intelligence than yourself have not only survived, Mitchell, they've conquered! Now, things aren't as black as you've imagined. You have a brain - use it! You'll be all right, Mitchell. You'll survive. I'm sure of it.

[last lines]

Harry Mitchell: Most people live life on the path we set for them, too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize freewill is a gift that you'll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that's the chairman's real plan. That maybe one day, we won't write the plan, you will.

Harry Mitchell: Being early is just as bad as being late.

David Norris: Now what?

Harry Mitchell: [takes back his hat] Now... you can take the stairs.

David Norris: Whatever it takes.

Harry Mitchell: Your father used to say that.

Harry Mitchell: The minute you go through that first door, all hell will break loose. Assume everyone with a hat on is a threat. I don't care if it's a Yankee cap, a bowler, or even a yarmulke. Assume everyone in a hat is working with Thompson.

David Norris: I guess you're not supposed to identify with your subjects. You're not supposed to feel guilt.

Harry Mitchell: We're not built to lead with our emotions like you are, but that doesn't mean we don't have them.

David Norris: I'm gonna go for the blue door.

Harry Mitchell: Of course!

Harry Mitchell: [as David tries to write down various numbers that may belong to Elise] Your entire world has turned upside down, and you're thinking about a woman!

Harry Mitchell: [talks to David] You're going to look for her, aren't you? You won't find her. They'll make sure of it. Even if they weren't trying to stop you, there are nine million people in this city. You'll never find her. Forget about her. Move on with your life.

Richardson: You look exhausted. You should take a vacation when all this is finished. You've earned it!

Harry Mitchell: I'm not sure the kind of tired I am can be fixed by a vacation.

Richardson: Everyone needs a vacation... even us.

Harry Mitchell: [to David] We're not built to lead with our emotions like you, but that doesn't mean we don't have them.