Mr. Robinson Quotes in The Graduate (1967)

Mr. Robinson: Do you ummm... do you want to tell me *why* you did it

Benjamin: Mr. Robinson!

Mr. Robinson: Do you have a special grudge against me? Do you feel a particularly strong resentment? Is there something I've said that's caused this contempt, or is it just things I stand for that you despise?

Benjamin: Listen to me. What happened between Mrs. Robinson and me was nothing. It didn't mean anything. We might just as well have been shaking hands.

Mr. Robinson: Shaking hands? Well, that's not saying much for my wife, is it?

Mr. Robinson: [after Ben has driven Mrs. Robinson home, Mr. Robinson unexpectedly comes home early] Is that Ben's car in front?

Benjamin: [nervously] Yes, sir. I drove... I drove Mrs. Robinson home. She wanted me to drive her home so I drove her home.

Mr. Robinson: Swell. I appreciate.

Benjamin: She's upstairs. She wanted me to wait down here till you got home.

Mr. Robinson: Standing guard over the old castle, are you?

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. Robinson: All right, come on, let's have a nightcap together.

Mr. Robinson: [reaches for a bottle] Scotch?

Benjamin: Bourbon.

Mr. Robinson: Ben... How old are you now?

Benjamin: Twenty. I'll be 21 next week.

Mr. Robinson: [as he fixes drinks for both of them] That's a hell of a good age to be.

Benjamin: Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.

Mr. Robinson: I, uh... I wish I was that age again. Because, Ben...

Benjamin: Sir?

Mr. Robinson: You'll never be young again.

Benjamin: I know.

Mr. Robinson: Ben, can I say something to you?

Benjamin: What?

Mr. Robinson: Uh, how long have we known each other now? How long have you and I known each other? How long have your dad and I been partners?

Benjamin: Quite a while.

Mr. Robinson: I watched you grow up, Ben.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. Robinson: In many ways, I feel as though you were my own son.

Benjamin: Thank you.

Mr. Robinson: So I hope you won't mind my giving you a friendly piece of advice.

Benjamin: I'd like to hear it.

Mr. Robinson: Ben, I think... I think you ought to be taking it a little easier right now than you seem to be. Sow a few wild oats. Take things as they come. Have a good time with the girls and so forth.

Mrs. Robinson: [Mrs. Robinson joins them; Ben abruptly stands up] Don't get up.

Mr. Robinson: I was just telling... Ben. Ben, here, that he ought to sow a few wild oats. Have a good time while he can. You think that's sound advice?

Mrs. Robinson: Yes, I do.

Benjamin: I've got to go.

Mr. Robinson: You have yourself a few flings this summer. I bet you're quite a ladies' man, huh?

Benjamin: Oh, no.

Mr. Robinson: [taken aback] What?

Mr. Robinson: You look to me like the kind of guy who has to fight 'em off.

Mr. Robinson: [to his wife] Now, doesn't he look to you like the kind of guy who has to fight them off?

Mrs. Robinson: Yes, he does.

Mrs. Robinson: Benjamin, I thought I made myself perfectly clear about this...

Benjamin: Look, I have no intention of taking your precious daughter out again in her life, so don't get upset about it!

Mrs. Robinson: I am. I'm *extremely* upset about it, Benjamin.

Elaine: [Mr. Robinson comes in with Elaine next to him] Hello.

Benjamin: Hello.

Mr. Robinson: [playfully giving advice to Elaine about Benjamin] Well, I want you to keep your wits about you tonight. You never know what *tricks* Ben picked up back there in the east. Heh heh...

Mr. Robinson: [in Ben's boarding house room] All right, now listen to this. I don't know whether I can prosecute, but I think I can. I think I can get you behind bars if you ever *look* at my daughter again. Now, I've seen Elaine, and I've made damn sure you can't get to her. Stay away from me, Ben!

Mr. Robinson: [heading for the door] I don't want to mince words with you. As far as Elaine is concerned, you're to get her out of your filthy mind right now! Is that *perfectly* clear to you? And that's all, Ben. You'll pardon me if *I* don't shake hands with you.

Mr. Robinson: I think you are filth. I think you are scum. You are a degenerate!

[heads down the stairs, brushes past Mr. McCleery]

Mr. Robinson: [in anger for ruining Elaine's wedding] You punk! You crazy punk! I'll kill you!

Mr. Robinson: Get out of my chair.

Tony Baker: Okay, baldy. You better sit down anyway before you fall down.

Mr. Robinson: [finding Ruth in his church] Come on there's no need to be frightened. No need for you to hide. I don't mind little children coming into my church. But I-I was a bit surprised to find someone here this time of the morning.

Ruth: I couldn't help being here. I came in last night when the door was open. Fell asleep my mistake.

Mr. Robinson: Do you mean you've been here all night? Whatever is your mother thinking?

Ruth: It's not my mother it's my Aunt. I wouldn't have done it with my mother.

Mr. Robinson: [as Ruth is having breakfast] What are you going to do now? Do you *really* think your Aunt would send you to Boarding School if you went back to her?

[Ruth notices a portrait on the opposite wall]

Mr. Robinson: Do you like it?

Ruth: Reminds me of a shepherd at home. He lost one of his lambs and was looking for it. I went too. Do you know we wouldn't have found it if it hadn't started crying. Mr. Tandy heard it, and there it was all caught up in the bushes. It couldn't get out. The poor little thing must've gone an awful long way.

Mr. Robinson: That was a daft thing for it to do wasn't it? Got itself into a whole pile of trouble. It reminds me a bit of you.

Ruth: What do you mean?

Mr. Robinson: Well you looked cold and lost when I found you in my church this morning. You'd run as far as you could, you didn't want to go home, you were stuck, and you don't know what to do now do you? Do you know who that shepherd is?

[Ruth shakes her head]

Mr. Robinson: It's Jesus, the Good Shepherd. And we're, we're like the sheep. We all run off, do what we want to do, and it lands us in trouble. Sometimes much worse trouble than you're in. But like your friend Mr. Tandy, the Good Shepherd doesn't forget us, and all we have to do is, is cry out.

Ruth: [puts the breakfast tray on a table] Then what?

Mr. Robinson: I know you can't see Him, but He's here, now with you and me, waiting for you to be found. If you ask the Good Shepherd to go home with you, He will. And He'll start to mend things for you.

Mr. Robinson: Ruth, he loves you so much.

[meaning Jesus]

Mr. Robinson: You know all those naughty things you said to your Aunt and, and all the times she was angry with you, He's taken all the hurt for that onto Himself, so that He could say to you, "Come on Ruth, put all that behind you. Make a fresh start." I think it's wonderful. Don't you?

Ruth: [opening a parcel containing a picture of Jesus with a flock of sheep] Mr. Robinson it's lovely!

Terry: [lying in bed] Where are they going?

Mr. Robinson: He's taking him home.

Terry: [weakly] Where's home?

Mr. Robinson: It's where the Shepherd lives. Would you like me to read you something about it? What it's like there?

[Terry nods and Mr. Robinson opens his Bible and reads Revelation 21:4]

Mr. Robinson: [reading] "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain."

Terry: [weakly] No more pain. Cor, that would be smashing. Can anyone go?

Mr. Robinson: [wisely] Yes. *Anyone.* Anyone who belongs to him. Anyone who comes to the Good Shepherd.

[Ruth and Terry look at each other, then at the picture of Jesus]

[last lines]

Terry: [voice only as Ruth climbs over a fence and stops in a field to think] No more pain. Cor, that would be smashing. Can anyone go?

Mr. Robinson: [voice only, wisely] Yes. *Anyone*. Anyone who belongs to him. Anyone who comes to the Good Sheperd.

Mr. Tandy: [voice only, wisely] Your Terry is growing strong up there, with his Saviour.

[Ruth realizes what it all means and excitedly looks at the sky as the Sun shines brighter]

Ruth: [running happily through the fields to tell Philip the good news] Philip! Philip! Philip? Philip! Philip! Philip!