The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Diane Grayson: Jenny

Photos 

Quotes 

• Jean Brodie : Can anyone tell me: who is the greatest Italian painter?

  Jenny : Leonardo da Vinci, Miss Brodie.

  Jean Brodie : That is incorrect, Jenny.

  [Miss Brodie unrolls a print of Giotto's painting "Flight Into Egypt"] 

  Jean Brodie : The answer is Giotto. He is my favourite.

  [Miss Brodie walks to the back of the classroom where there is a picture of Stanley Baldwin] 

  Jean Brodie : Observe, little girls, Stanley Baldwin, who got in as Prime Minister... and got *out* again ere long. Our head mistress, Miss Mackay, retains him on the walls because she *believes* in the slogan 'safety first!'

  [Miss Brodie triumphantly pins Giotto's painting on top of the picture of Baldwin] 

  Jean Brodie : But safety does not come first: goodness, truth, and beauty come first. One's prime brings one's insight into these things. One's prime is the moment one is born for. You little girls must be on the alert to recognize your prime, at whatever time it may occur, and live it to the full - 'season of mist and mellow fruitfulness... '

  [Miss Brodie continues on with this descriptive anecdote of prose] 

• Jenny : Miss Brodie never got married like our mothers and fathers.

  Sandy : They don't have primes.

  Jenny : They have sexual intercourse.