James Bond Film Quotes: A Compilation of the Most Famous Quotations From 1962-2021

Last updated on September 5th, 2023 at 07:25 pm

James Bond film quotes are quite profound and realistic. People, depending on their taste and expectations from a film, may find some catchphrases and quips fascinating, of course, they are. But when I started watching the James Bond films, starting from Dr. No (1962), there are some lines or quotations I could not help but write them down.

Step into the world of espionage and adventure with the best quotes from James Bond films. From Goldfinger to Skyfall, relive the thrilling moments with these memorable lines. I think some people will still find them intriguing. They appear in chronological order while a couple of films have been missed out intentionally. A summary of all the 007 films and about the leading Bond girls is here.

James Bond Film Quotes

1 . Dr. No-1962

You pick your right thing but your pick the wrong moment.

Dr. No-1962

2 . From Russia with Love -1963

Girls do fall in love with pictures of film stars.

Give a wolf a taste and keep him hungry.           

Training is useful. But there is no substation to experience.

3 . Goldfinger-1964

Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He has fired rockets to the moon, split the atom, achieved miracles in every field of human endeavour except crime!

4. You only live twice-1967

Birds never make nest on the bare trees.

5 . Casino Royal-1967

Eden without Eve is an absurdity.

You can break the glass but you can’t hold back the weather.

A quaint custom, but one is more humoured in breaching than in observance.

The more relaxed the muscles the more, the better synchronization between mind and body.

6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service-1969

People who want to stay alive play it safe.

But a license to kill is useless unless one can set up the target.

A good host supplies his guest’s needs.

I always thought that mistakes should be remedied. Especially between friends, Or lovers.

The methods of the great pioneers have often puzzled conventional minds.

James Bond Films Quotations

7 . Diamonds Are Forever-1971

If God wanted men to fly, he would have given them wings.

The great powers flexing their muscle like so many beach-boys

Humanity is the worst form of conceit.

8. Let Live and Let Die-1973

The physical violation cannot be undone

9. The Man With A Golden Gun 1974

Mr. Bond, bullets do not kill. It is the finger that pulls the trigger.

18. The Spy Who Loved Me-1977

When one is in Egypt, one should delve deeply into its treasures.

Every woman for herself, remember?

James Bond Films Quotations

10. Moonraker-1979

What he doesn’t own, he doesn’t want.

How would Oscar Wilde have put it? “To lose one aircraft may be regarded as a misfortune, “to lose two seems like carelessness.”

James Bond Films Quotations

You have arrived at a propitious moment, coincident with your country’s one indisputable contribution to Western civilization. Afternoon tea.

Even in death, my munificence is boundless.

11. For Your Eyes Only-1981

Before setting out on revenge, you must dig two graves.

Courage is no match for unfriendly shoes

12. Octopussy -1983

The West is decadent and divided. It has no stomach to risk our atomic reprisals.

World socialism will be achieved peaceably.  Our military role is strictly defensive.

13. Never Say Never Again -1983

I don’t think you got your reputation by living on a diet of wild rice.

Your weapons of deterrence did not deter us from our objective.

Bureaucrats running the old place, everything done by the book. Can’t make a decision unless the computer gives you the go-ahead.

14 . A View to Kill -1985

Intuitive improvisation is the secret of genius

15. The Living Daylights-1987

War has always been man’s main occupation. Fools say his greatest accomplishments were the wheel and the alphabet. I say it’s a battering ram and gunpowder.

“Duty has no sweethearts.”

16. License to Kill-1989

Loyalty is more important than money.

Field operatives must often use every means at their disposal to achieve their objectives.

17. Golden Eye-1995

The government changes, but the lies stay the same.

Because I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.

You have licence to kill, not to break the traffic laws. 

Nothing more than a common thief.

18. Tomorrow Never Die-1997

There is no news like bad news

The key to a great story is not who or what or when, but why.

Words are the new weapons, satellites the new artillery.

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

Great men have always manipulated the media to save the world.

Look at William Randolph Hearst, who told his photographers, “You provide the pictures. I’ll provide the war.”

You forgot the first rule of mass media, Elliot! Give the people what they want.

19. The World Is Not Enough-1999

There’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive.

What do you do to survive? I take pleasure in great beauty.

Revenge is not hard to fathom for a man who believes in nothing.

Life’s full of small challenges.

20 . Die Another Day-2002

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

The predators usually appear at sunset. It’s when their prey comes out to drink.

The pleasure of the kill is in the chase.

21. Casino Royal-2006

Being dead doesn’t mean one can’t still be helpful.

Why is it that people who can’t take advice always insist on giving it?

I can’t resist waking you. Every time I do, you look at me as if you haven’t seen me in years. It makes me feel reborn.

But sometimes we’re so focused on our enemies that we forget to watch our friends.

I wonder if that’s why I love you. You love me? Enough to quit and float around the world with you until one of us has to find an honest job. But I think that’s gonna have to be you. I’ve no idea what an honest job is.

 22. Quantum of Solace-2008

But I guess, when one’s young it seems very easy to distinguish between right and wrong. But as one gets older it becomes more difficult.

See you’re right to say Greene is a villain. If we refused to do business with villains, we’d have almost no one to trade with.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

23. Skyfall-2012

We’re a democracy, accountable to the people we’re trying to defend.

“We are not now that strength, which in old days Moved earth and heaven;
That which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time “and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find “and not to yield.”

Sometimes the old ways are the best

Regret is unprofessional.

Orphans always make the best recruits.

Age is no guarantee of efficiency. And youth is no guarantee of innovation.

24. Spectre-2015

In response to Max Denbigh, head of the Joint Security Service’s reason to terminate 00 operative M replied “A license to kill is also a license not to kill.

25. No Time to Die-2021

As long as we’re looking over our shoulders, the past is not dead.

“The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Conclusion

Whether people define it as patriotism or a jingoistic response from a British Secret Agent operative James Bond, I have found it very pitiful from Bond’s perspective. Because it seemed like he is the only hero to all but his problems most of the time were ignored and deserted by his authorities. Most of the time he had to handle the problems all on his own.

In Casino Royale (2006) he was shot and the authority maintained no trace of him or his dead body as if he was no one to care about. But once he returned to his country to report his duty, he was informed that his possessions were gotten rid of and M was preparing his obituary, and treated coldly.

His operations were condemned as extrajudicial and he was disarmed for that matter. However, watching James Bond films is like touring around the world, seeing the unseen, knowing the unknown. As a Bangladeshi, I expected to see Bangladesh’s name somewhere in any of the 27 films. But the name Pakistan came in the Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

Among the interesting features of 007 films are getting to know different cultures, festivals, exotic places, beautiful Islands, various actresses from various nations and new technological innovations and scientifically advanced ways of saving people’s lives. Every new leading female face in every new film kept us wondering and captivated for 60 years.

Whether 007 films were sexist or showed killing sprees by a licenced killer is purely a matter of perspective, I guess. But I love watching hard-hearted men’s romance as much as the elimination of evil power tended to rise to disturb the peace among the common people. The office secretary of M, Miss Moneypenny has been dreaming for Bond to do something for her. Even though Bond was seen to be sleeping with more or less 60 women, throughout all the 27 007 films James Bond was never seen to sleep with Miss Moneypenny, but only the professional flirts, except in Skyfall.

I have found Sean Connery the most passionate kisser, while Daniel Craig the most agile, swift and humorous man as Bond. Daniel Craig’s stunt and ruthless attitude thorough Casino Royale to No Time to Die. However, Roger More is the best and most articulate conversationist of all. As for female counterparts, I am fascinated by Diana Riggs and Lois Chiles’s soulful voices.