Ernie Bishop: Just a minute! Quiet everybody! Quiet, quiet. Now get this, it's from London. Ma Bailey: Oh! Ernie Bishop: [Reading the telegram in his hand] Mr. Gower cabled you need cash, stop. My office instructed to advance you up to twenty-five th...
George Bailey: Now, you listen to me! I don't want any plastics, and I don't want any ground floors, and I don't want to get married - ever - to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you're... and you're... [runs out of wor...
George Bailey: Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter! Mr. Potter: And Happy New Year to you, in jail! Why don't you go on home? They're waiting for you!
Uncle Billy: [drunk] Where's my hat? Where's my hat? [George takes it off Billy's head and hands it to him] Uncle Billy: Oh, oh thankyou, George. Which is mine? George Bailey: The middle one.
Bert: Isn't there any romance in you? Ernie Bishop: Sure, I had it... but I got rid of it.
Mr. Potter: George, I am an old man, and most people hate me. But I don't like them either so that makes it all even.
George Bailey: [yelling at Uncle Billy] Where's that money, you silly stupid old fool? Where's that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison! That's what it means! One of us is going to jail; well, it's not go...
Mr. Potter: [to George Bailey] Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me a warped, frustrated, old man! What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling ...
Nick: Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer? George Bailey: [interven...
George Bailey: Well, maybe I left the car up at Martini's. Well, come on, Gabriel. Clarence: Clarence! George Bailey: Clarence. Right... Clarence.
Mr. Potter: What have you been doing lately, George? Playing the market with the company's money? George Bailey: No, of course not. Mr. Potter: Or is it a woman you're involved with? It's all over town that you've been giving money to Violet Bick. Ge...
George Bailey: You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little s...
George Bailey: [on Mary being caught naked in the bushes] This is a very interesting situation!
George Bailey: Clarence? Clarence: Yes, George? George Bailey: Where's Mary? If this is all real and I was never born, what became of Mary? Clarence: [hesitates] Well... I don't... I can't... George Bailey: [grabs Clarence by his collar] Look, I don'...
George Bailey: I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. ...
House owner: I mean Pottersville. Don't you think I know where I live? What's the matter with you? [He proceeds toward his house. George is completely bewildered] George Bailey: Oh, I don't know. Either I'm off my nut, or he is... [to Clarence] Georg...
Man at Bar: Why do you drink so much? Please go home, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Welch: [sitting right beside George] Bailey? Which Bailey? Giuseppe Martini: This is Mr. George Bailey. [Mr. Welch angrily pulls George Bailey up to his face by the lapels with one...
Bert: Come on, we gotta' get this up. He's coming. Ernie Bishop: Who? Bert: The groom, you idiot. This is they're honeymoon. Ernie Bishop: What are they, ducks?