Hannibal Lecture/Quotes

""You'd like to quantify me, Officer Starling. You're so ambitious, aren't you? Do you know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. You're a well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Your eyes are like cheap birthstones - all surface shine when you stalk some little answer. And you're bright behind them, aren't you? Desperate not to be like your mother. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation out of the mines Officer Starling. Is it the West Virginia Starlings or the Okie Starlings, Officer? It was a toss-up between college and the opportunities in the Women's Army Corps, wasn't it? Let me tell you something specific about yourself, Student Starling. Back in your room, you have a string of gold add-a-beads and you feel an ugly little thump when you look at how tacky they are now, isn't that so? All those tedious thank-yous, permitting all that sincere fumbling, getting all sticky once for every bead. Tedious. Tedious. Bo-o-o-o-r-i-ing. Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn't it? And taste isn't kind. When you think about this conversation, you'll remember the dumb animal hurt in his face when you got rid of him. If the add-a-beads got tacky, what else will as you go along? You wonder, don't you, at night?""

- Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs (book)

"Don't talk like one of them, you're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak. Like me. They need you right now. When they don't, they'll cast you out. Like a leper. Y'see, their morals, their code: it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. You'll see, I'll show you. When the chips are down, these, uh, "civilized people"? They'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."

- The Joker to Batman, The Dark Knight

"Why do they always talk so much?"

- Bruce, Batman Beyond

"Tell me this, Doctor Freeman, if you can. You have destroyed so much... what is it, exactly, that you have created? Can you name even one thing? I thought not."

- Dr. Breen, Half-Life 2

"Such tears... what beauty they hold, these tears of sorrow. Surely, they are the most precious substance in the world... but, are you worthy to shed such tears? The act of mourning the dead belongs to the realm of humans... The human race, fearful in its weakness, built this world in a futile attempt to elude the abyss they call mortality. Culture, civilization, all delusions created by a powerless race, and of little use, like a barren woman. But amidst all this, you continue to exist as an unfettered soul, free from the shackles of flesh and blood. A completely pure consciousness. An eternal spiral undefiled by impurities. A fusion of fire, breath, and spirit! What can we call you, but angels? New, unadulterated psyches, but what you lack is reality, and that is what I shall provide you with!"

- Albedo, Xenosaga, Episode I

"Malefor: Ignitus should have warned you. You are alone here, young dragon. You have always been alone. Still, here you are, trying so desperately to save this miserable world. Refusing to accept the true role of the purple dragon. I’m sure you’ve been told that I was the first of our kind…but I assure you, there have been many. It has been the duty of our predecessors to resurrect the Destroyer and Golems of the deep, to bring about the great cleansing! This is the true nature of our kind! Your destiny is to destroy the world! Spyro: No! I don’t believe that! Malefor: Of Course you don’t! But you have fulfilled your destiny nonetheless! In my time, I was stopped…prevented from completing my quest! But you…you have carried the flame! Be it through your own will or not! And soon, the world will be destroyed, you along with it! (Evil Laugh)"

- The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of The Dragon

"''"Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever, and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do; Devise reason later. Born from Oblivion, bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into Oblivion. There is nothing else. ''Existence is random; has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not Fate that butchers them or Destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It's us. Only us. Does that answer your question, doctor?""

-, Watchmen

""Rock...look at me. "Justice" - I can't think of a word more loved by the people. It does have a nice ring to it...however. Without ever using your own strength, you seek the death of others at the hands of someone else. Well, your justice sound pretty rotten to me. The stench of a bloodbath...wouldn't you agree? Don't look at me like that, Rock. After all, I'm not upset with you! It's just that of all people, I never expected to hear those words from you. I'm...amused. That's all this is. In the grand scheme of things, our lives are meaningless. They're light as air, much like a candy wrapper...There's two things to keep in mind when begging for your life. The first is to try and entertain the person holding a gun to your head, and the second is to give that person a convincing reason not to kill you. So far, you've managed to do neither of those things. SO LET'S HEAR IT! What reason could you possibly have to try and save her?""

- Balalaika, Black Lagoon

"The Doctor: The Beast is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that sort of stuff. Danny: But that's how the devil works! The Doctor: Or a good psychologist."

- Doctor Who, "The Satan Pit"