Quotes

Anne of Green Gables

Anne Shirley: Please, Matthew. You need help. We've got to get a doctor.
Matthew Cuthbert: I've worked hard all my life. I'd rather just drop in the harness. I got old; I never noticed.
Anne Shirley: If I'd been the boy you sent for, I could have spared you in so many ways.
Matthew Cuthbert: I never wanted a boy. I only wanted you from the first day. Don't ever change. I love my little girl. I'm so proud of my little girl.

Helpful•48

Anne Shirley: Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.

Helpful•26

Marilla Cuthbert: I'm afraid for her, Matthew. She'll be gone so long. She'll get terrible lonesome.
Matthew Cuthbert: You mean, we'll get terrible lonesome.
Marilla Cuthbert: I can't help wishing that she'd stayed a little girl.
Matthew Cuthbert: Mrs. Spencer made a lucky mistake, I guess.
Marilla Cuthbert: It wasn't luck; it was Providence. He knew we needed her.
Matthew Cuthbert: Even with her queer little ways.
Marilla Cuthbert: I loved her for them.

Helpful•19

Aunt Josephine: I like people who make me like them. Saves me so much trouble forcing myself to like them.

Helpful•16

Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, you blessed girl. I know I ought to stick to it and make you go to college, but I've learned better than to stand in your way. Gilbert Blythe will be teaching, too. Won't he?
Anne Shirley: Yes.
Marilla Cuthbert: What a nice looking young boy he is. He looks a lot like his father did at that age. We used to be real good friends, he and I. People called him my beau.
Anne Shirley: And what happened?
Marilla Cuthbert: We quarreled and I wouldn't forgive him when he asked me to. I wanted to after a while, but I was stubborn and I wanted to punish him first. He never came back. I, uh, always felt rather sorry. I, uh, sort of wished that I'd forgiven him when I had a chance.

Helpful•14

Marilla Cuthbert: [rolling her eyes at Matthew's excessive purchase] Twenty pounds of brown sugar.

Helpful•14

Josie Pye: Hey, Anne! How do you spell freckles?
Diana Barry: Hey, Josie! How do you spell ugly?
Gilbert Blythe: Congratulations on the spelling test, Anne.
[Anne nods her head at Gilbert]
Gilbert Blythe: Oh, well at least you're acknowledging me now. That's an improvement.
Anne Shirley: It is impolite to pass a person without at least nodding, and so I nod out of elementary good breeding, nothing more.
Gilbert Blythe: Oh, why don't you get off your high horse?
Anne Shirley: Thank you for your heartfelt congratulations, Mr. Blythe. But allow me to inform you that next time I shall be first in every subject.
Diana Barry: Anne! You've got more nerve than a fox in a hen house.
Anne Shirley: I don't see any need in being civil to someone who chooses to associate with the likes of Josie Pye.
Diana Barry: You're just jealous.
Anne Shirley: I am not. You take that back, Diana Barry!
Diana Barry: She's jealous of you. Gilbert told Charlie Sloan that you're the smartest girl in school, right in front of Josie.
Anne Shirley: He did?
Diana Barry: He told Charlie that being smart was better than being good-looking.
Anne Shirley: I might have known he meant to insult me.
Diana Barry: No, he didn't.
Anne Shirley: It isn't better. I'd much rather be pretty than smart. But at least I don't have to cheat like Josie does.
Diana Barry: She doesn't have to cheat; she just does it because she's a Pye.

Helpful•14

Anne Shirley: Well, if you must know, I was in Diana's skiff but it sprang a leak and I had to climb onto the piling or sink. Now, if you'd be so kind as to row me to the landing.
Gilbert Blythe: Ah, I see. Well, then the fact is I rescued you.
Anne Shirley: Help was on the way and I was calmly waiting for it.
Gilbert Blythe: You're most welcome.
Anne Shirley: I am grateful for your assistance, Mr. Blythe, even though it was not required. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find my friends. They are likely overcome with fear for my life.
Gilbert Blythe: Well, Anne, wait. Wait a minute. I was just down at the post office to see if the Queens results had been printed.
Anne Shirley: Congratulations on coming first, Gilbert. I'm sure you're very proud of your achievements.
Gilbert Blythe: Wait a second, you ninny. We tied for first place. You and I. I figured you'd have it for sure. We all passed our entire class.
Anne Shirley: First of all two hundred?
Gilbert Blythe: I'm sorry you had to share it with me.
Anne Shirley: I never expected to beat you.
Gilbert Blythe: Can't we be friends now? This childishness has gone on long enough, don't you think?
Anne Shirley: The fact that you rescued me unnecessarily hardly wipes out past wrongs.
Gilbert Blythe: Look, I'm sorry I ever said anything about your hair. You have no idea how sorry. But it was so long ago. Aren't you ever going to forgive me?
Anne Shirley: You hurt my feelings excruciatingly.
Gilbert Blythe: I only said it because I Because I wanted to meet you so much.
Anne Shirley: Why did you turn your back on me at the Christmas ball?
Gilbert Blythe: Anne, that was over a year ago.
Anne Shirley: It was a deliberate humiliation.
Gilbert Blythe: And I knew exactly what you were thinking, too, Anne Shirley. You and Diana Barry. Look, can we be friends now?
Anne Shirley: Why don't you figure it out, if you're so clever?
Gilbert Blythe: Anne, wait a minute.
Anne Shirley: Everyone will think I've drowned.

Helpful•13

Anne Shirley: My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read once and I say it over to comfort myself in these times that try the soul.

Helpful•12

[Anne has just fallen from a roof]
Diana Barry: Just say one word and tell me if you're killed!
Anne Shirley: No but I think I've been rendered unconscious.

Helpful•12

Anne Shirley: Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?
Marilla Cuthbert: No I cannot. To despair is to turn your back on God.

Helpful•11

Anne Shirley: Anne Shirley. Anne with an "e."

Helpful•11

Anne Shirley: I know I chatter on far too much but if you only knew how many things I want to say and don't. Give me some credit.

Helpful•10

Gilbert Blythe: Well, I figured you can give me a hand with my work, and we'll call it a fair exchange.
Anne Shirley: Aren't you worried? I'm liable to break another slate over your head.
Gilbert Blythe: I'm more worried I might break one over yours, carrots.
[softly]
Gilbert Blythe: I'll walk you home.
[after Gilbert Blythe's remark, to Anne Shirley, the movie then concluded, showing closing credits]

Helpful•10

[Gilbert Blythe, rowing a boat, found Anne clinging to the post under a bridge]
Gilbert Blythe: Anne Shirley. What in heck are you doing here?
Anne Shirley: [trying to sound dignified] Fishing, for lake trout.

Helpful•9

Marilla Cuthbert: Anne Shirley, I've heard all about it. Now you open your door at once!
Anne Shirley: Please go away, Marilla. I'm in the depths of despair.
Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, fiddlesticks. Now, you open this door at once! Are you sick?
Anne Shirley: Go away. Don't look at me.
Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, don't play innocent with me. I'm so ashamed I don't know where to begin. What do you mean by breaking your slate over some boy's head?
Anne Shirley: He called me Carrots.
Marilla Cuthbert: I don't care what he called you. You have no reason to lose your temper. Anne Shirley, what have you done to your hair?
Anne Shirley: Marilla, I thought nothing could be as bad as red hair. Green is ten times worse. You don't know how utterly wretched I am.
Marilla Cuthbert: I little know how you got into this fix, but I demand that you tell me.
Anne Shirley: I dyed it.
Marilla Cuthbert: Dyed it? For mercy's sake, child.
Anne Shirley: But he positively assured me it'd turn my hair a beautiful raven black.
Marilla Cuthbert: Who did? Who are you talking about?
Anne Shirley: The peddler we met on the road today.
Marilla Cuthbert: I absolutely forbid you to. What's the use? Well, I hope that this has opened your eyes to see where your vanity has taken you.
Anne Shirley: What shall I do? I'll never be able to live this down. I can't face him again. Gilbert Blythe had no right to call me Carrots.
Marilla Cuthbert: You really smashed your slate over that boy's head?
Anne Shirley: Yes.
Marilla Cuthbert: Hard?
Anne Shirley: Very hard, I'm afraid.
Marilla Cuthbert: I know I should be angry. I should be furious. What a way to behave your first day at school! But, it you promise me that nothing of the sort will happen again, I won't say another word about it.
Anne Shirley: You're not going to send me back?
Marilla Cuthbert: I've come to a decision. Trial is over. You will stay at Green Gables.
Anne Shirley: Marilla!
Marilla Cuthbert: I think you may be a kindred spirit after all.

Helpful•9

Mrs. Cadbury: Tell me, what you know about yourself.
Anne Shirley: Well, it really isn't worth telling, Mrs. Cadbury but if you let me tell you what I imagine about myself you'd find it a lot more interesting.

Helpful•8

Anne Shirley: And I promise I'll never do it again. That's the one good thing about me. I never do the same wrong thing twice.

Helpful•8

Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, this is a fine kettle of fish.

Helpful•8

Anne Shirley: Would you please call me Cordelia?

Helpful•8

[Marilla meets with Mrs. Barry and Rachel after Anne accidentally got Diana drunk]
Mrs. Barry: Marilla, I don't believe a word. Anne Shirley is a conniving, manipulating child and she's pulled the wool over your eyes.
Rachel Lynde: I always warned you about making that currant wine, Marilla. You said it wouldn't have the least effect on anyone. Well, I ask you.
Marilla Cuthbert: It isn't meant to be drunk three tumbler fulls at a time! And if I had a child that was so greedy, I'd sober her up with a darn good spanking!
Mrs. Barry: Oh! So it's my Diana's fault, is it?
Rachel Lynde: It's the demon liquor's fault. And as I told you for years, if you didn't insist on making that current wine.
Marilla Cuthbert: [Marillla quickly then cuts in furious anger] My current wine is famous all over the island, Rachel Lynde, as you very well know. And the Reverend Allen himself is not opposed to taking a bit when he comes calling. And as for Christian virtue: making a little wine for a refreshment is far less sinful than meddling in other people's affairs!
Rachel Lynde: Oh!

Helpful•8

Anne Shirley: [after saying her prayers] Did I do alright?
Marilla Cuthbert: Yes, if you were addressing a business letter to the catalogue store.

Helpful•8

Anne Shirley: This is the most tragical thing that has ever happened to me.

Helpful•7

Anne Shirley: Don't you ever imagine things differently from what they are?
Marilla Cuthbert: No.
Anne Shirley: Oh Marilla, how much you miss.

Helpful•7

Diana Barry: I wish I were rich, and I could spend the whole summer at a hotel, eating ice cream and chicken salad.
Anne Shirley: You know something, Diana? We are rich. We have sixteen years to our credit, and we both have wonderful imaginations. We should be as happy as queens.
[gestures to the setting sun]
Anne Shirley: Look at that. You couldn't enjoy its loveliness more if you had ropes of diamonds.
Diana Barry: I don't know about that.

Helpful•7

Matthew Cuthbert: [Anne has come into the barn to thank Matthew for her dress] Puffed sleeves.
Anne Shirley: The puffiest!

Helpful•7

Anne Shirley: Laura Spencer is giving a comic recitation, but I prefer to make people cry.

Helpful•7

Josie Pye: [while Anne is taking to Diana, Marilla and Mrs. Barry] I saw you fawning over Anne Shirley.
Gilbert Blythe: Well, you sure couldn't get up there and give a recital like that.
Josie Pye: I could be up there on stage.
Gilbert Blythe: Well, I'd like to see that sometime, Josie Pye.

Helpful•7

Aunt Josephine: Make a little room in your plans for romance again, Anne, girl. All the degrees and scholarships in the world can't make up for the lack of it.

Helpful•6

[Marilla, commenting on whether or not she'll keep Anne]
Marilla Cuthbert: If she can avoid catastrophe two days in a row, I might have a chance to make up my mind.

Helpful•6

Anne Shirley: I don't think Mrs. Barry is a well bred woman. I don't believe God himself would entirely meet with her approval.
Marilla Cuthbert: Anne, you musn't say things like that especially in front of the minister's wife. But, if you left God out of it, you'd have it just about right.

Helpful•6

Anne Shirley: Wilt thou give me a lock of thy jet black tresses?
Diana Barry: But I don't have any black dresses.
Anne Shirley: Your hair.
Diana Barry: All right.

Helpful•6

Anne Shirley: [Reading "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson] Willows whiten, aspens quiver, Little breezes dusk and shiver Thro' the wave that runs forever By the island in the river Flowing down to Camelot. Four grey walls, and four grey towers, Overlook a space of flowers, And the silent isle imbowers The Lady of Shalott.

Helpful•6

Gilbert Blythe: Anne, wait! I'm sorry for teasing you about your hair. Don't be mad at me for keeps.
Diana Barry: Oh, Anne, how could you? Gilbert always makes fun of the girls. He calls me crow head all the time, but I've never heard him apologize before.
Anne Shirley: There's a world of difference between being called crow-head and being called carrots. I shall never forgive Gilbert Blythe. The iron has entered my soul, Diana. My mind is made up; my red hair is a curse.

Helpful•6

Anne Shirley: Mrs. Hammond told me that God made my hair red on purpose and I've never cared for Him since.

Helpful•5

Aunt Josephine: Wealth can be very empty when you don't have someone to share it with. But by the time I realized that, no one would have me except men who wanted my money more than I did.

Helpful•5

[Marilla, reading a letter from Anne away at college]
Marilla Cuthbert: As Rachel Lynde used to say, the sun will go on rising and setting whether I fail in Geometry or not. I think I'd rather it didn't go on if I failed.

Helpful•5

Marilla Cuthbert: [talking to Matthew] She could talk the hind leg of a mule. Hmm, wouldn't that be a change around here.
[Marilla, then chuckled]

Helpful•5

Marilla Cuthbert: Oh, stuff and nonsense.

Helpful•5

Miss Stacy: True friends are always together in spirit.

Helpful•5

Aunt Josephine: You amuse me and precious little amuses me in this world at my age.

Helpful•5

Anne Shirley: Marilla has given me strict instructions not to talk a head off. I do have a habit of chattering on so. Why, if I could imagine myself as a bird, a magpie would probably be the closest thing I could resemble. Oh, Diana, I've always dreamed of being in a three-legged race at a picnic. Would you do me the honor of being my patner?
Diana Barry: But there aren't any other girls in it.
Anne Shirley: You're a sturdy looking girl, and I'm fast. I know we'd stand a good chance.
Diana Barry: I guess so.
Anne Shirley: Come on!
Gilbert Blythe: Hey, Diana, who's your friend?
Diana Barry: Anne Shirely.

Helpful•5

[Anne, commenting on city life]
Anne Shirley: I think I would probably come to the conclusion that I'd like it for a while but in the end, I'd still prefer the sound of the wind in the firs across the brook more than the tinkling of crystal.

Helpful•4

[Rachel Lynde's comment, to Marilla, on Anne's insulting remarks, toward her]
Rachel Lynde: Mark my words, Marilla. That's the kind puts strychnine in the well.

Helpful•4