The Life of David Gale

"[Giving a lecture to his college students] Fantasies have to be unrealistic. Because the minute- the second- that you get what you want, you don't- you can't- want it anymore."

"[Giving a lecture to his college students] Living by your wants will never make you happy; what it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideas and ideals and not to measure your life by what you ever attain in terms of your desires but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self-sacrifice."

"This is what Pascal means when he says that we are only truly happy when daydreaming about future happiness."

"[while drunk] Socrates was ugly, Plato was fat, and, um, and Aristotle was a prissy dresser!"

"I fell off the wagon and hurt myself."

"They wanted me to die knowing the key to my freedom was out there somewhere!"

"Death is a gift."

"We spend our whole lives trying to stop death. Eating, inventing, loving, praying, fighting, killing. But what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back. But there comes a point in life - a moment - when your mind outlives its desires, its obsessions, when your habits survive your dreams, and when your losses... Maybe death is a gift. You wonder. All I can tell you is that by this time tomorrow I'll be dead. I know when. I just can't say why. You have 24 hours to find out."

"Alejandro, the woman with facial hair, has no job."

"Noemi, a shaved man, has given up on her English task."

"Of course he sympathizes with murderers... he is one!"

"Hate's no fun if you keep it to yourself."

"Braxton Belyeu: I'm no more afraid of the Grim Reaper than I am of a Presbyterian on Mother's Day."

"Constance Harraway: You work so hard not to be seen as a sex object. Before long, you're not seen at all."

"Zack: 73% of all serial killers vote Republican."