The Quiet American (1958)

Audie Murphy: The American

Quotes 

• The American : [Somewhat sarcastically, after Fowler has advised him it would be wiser to give the two ARVN guards in the tower their two remaining cigarettes]  I wouldn't have thought you suggest using economic aid to but friends...

  Thomas Fowler : [Referring to the two young guards]  They're scared. I wouldn't blame them if they handed us over to the Communists. They don't believe in anything either. They just want enough rice. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want.

  The American : You're telling them what they don't want, which is the same thing.

• The American : I'm from a country that's been in existence for less than two hundred years, in a very old world. That same fifty years ago, we were barely taken seriously as a nation, much less a great force for wisdom and decision. But suddenly now, a watch tick of history later, the world waits angrily for us to provide the answers it hasn't been able to find in fifty centuries.

• Thomas Fowler : Do you got a cigarette?

  The American : Keep the pack. I've got some more.

  Thomas Fowler : [Angrily]  I asked for one cigarette, not economic aid. I don't want to be impressed by how many packs you've got!

  [He slaps the pack away]