"You know, it would be nice if children could be born into this world with an absolute guarantee that they were going to have just the right kind of bringing up and all lead happy, normal lives. Well, I guess when we get born, we just all have to take our chances."

"[voiceover, quoting Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality] Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not; rather find Strength in what remains behind."

"Phyllis Diller - Texas Guinan"

"[Having successfully lit a fire, putting more wood onto it] There we go! Light it up, c'mon! [singing] "The time to hesitate is through!" [throws more wood in the fire and gets briefly burned] Ouch! Haha, ouch! "No time to wallow in the mire. Try now, we can only lose. 'Cause girl, we can't get much higher. C'mon, baby, light my firrrrre!" [takes a palm branch, lighting the end, then holding it up] There you go. There you go! It's a signal fire! And it spells out S.O.S! [embers start falling around him] Woah! It's a meteor shower! [drops the branch back into the fire] Fireflies, go! Run! You're free, you're free! [the fire burns bigger] Yes! YES! Look what I've created! I have made FIRE! I...have made fire!"

"[talking to Wilson, the volleyball] Hey, you want to hear something funny? Back home in Memphis, my dentist's name is James Spaulding."

"[to Wilson] You wouldn't have a match by any chance, would you?"

"[first lines, addressing Russian workers at FedEx hub in Moscow] Time rules over us without mercy, not caring if we're healthy or ill, hungry or drunk, Russian, American, beings from Mars. It's like a fire. It could either destroy us or keep us warm, that's why every FedEx office has a clock. Because we live or we die by the clock. We never turn our back on it, and we never, ever allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time! Locally, it's 1:56, that means we've got 3 hours and 4 minutes before the end-of-the-day's package sort; that's how long we have, that's how much time we have, before this pulsating, accursed, relentless taskmaster tries to put us out of business! [sees Nicolai] Hey, Nicolai. Hey. Nicolai, good to see you. How are you, kid? Look what you did. You just delivered you just delivered your very first FedEx package. That deserves something special, like a Snickers bar, and a CD player. And something to listen to, a CD. [hands Nicolai a Snickers bar, a CD player and an Elvis CD from his duffel bag] There, Elvis Presley, 50 million fans, can't be wrong. [holds up package, to workers] You all recognize this, don't you? I took the liberty of sending this to myself, I FedEx'd it before I left Memphis. You're probably wondering what could be in here. [opening the package] What could it possibly be? Is it architectural plans? Maybe technical drawings? Is this the wallpaper for the-- for the bathroom? It is... [pulls out a timer] a clock, which I started at absolute zero, and is now at 87 hours, 22 minutes and 17 seconds. From Memphis, America to Nicolai in Russia, 87 hours. 87 hours is a shameful outrage! This is just an egg timer! What if it had been something else, like your paycheck? Or fresh boysenberries, or adoption papers? 87 hours is an eternity! The cosmos was created in less time! Wars have been fought and nations toppled in 87 hours! Fortunes made and squandered."

"Geoffrey Blake - Maynard Graham"

"Vince Martin - Albert "Al" Miller"

"Lari White - Bettina Peterson"

"Chris Noth - James Spaulding"

"Jenifer Lewis - Becca Twig"

"Nick Searcy - Stan"

"Helen Hunt - Kelly Frears"

"Tom Hanks - Chuck Noland"

"Jerry Lovett: I'm Kelly's husband. Jerry Lovett. Kelly wanted... Kelly wanted to be here... Look, this is very hard for everyone. I can't even imagine how hard it is for you. Kelly, uh... she's had it rough. First when she thought she lost you, and now dealing with all of this, it's confusing, it's very emotional for her. She's... she's... sort of lost. Maybe you could just give her a little more time. Anyway, uh... I'm sorry that..."

"Fred Smith: Four years ago, the FedEx family lost five of our sons. That was a terrible and tragic day. But today, one of those sons, Chuck Noland, has been returned to us. Chuck, welcome home."

"We both have done the math. Kelly added it all up and...knew she had to let me go. I added it up, and knew that I had...lost her. Because I was never going to get off that island. I was going to die there, totally alone. I was going to get sick, or get injured or something. The only choice I had, the only thing I could control was when, and how and where it was going to happen. So...I made a rope and I went up to the summit, to hang myself. I had to test it, you know? Of course, you know me. And the weight of the log, snapped the limb of the tree, so I-I-I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over nothing. And that's when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow that I had to stay alive. Somehow. I had to keep breathing. Even though there was no reason to hope. And all my logic said that I would never see this place again. So that's what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And one day, the logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I'm back in Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass...And I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I got to keep breathing. Because tomorrow, the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"

"[to Kelly] I should've never gotten on that plane. I should've never gotten out of the car."

"[to Kelly] So, let me get one thing straight here...we have a football team but they play in Nashville?"

"I'm always going to keep this on Memphis time. Kelly time."

"[to Wilson] Do you have to keep bringing that up, can't you just forget it? Huh? You were right. You were right, it was a good thing we did a test, 'cause it wasn't going to be just a quick snap. I would have landed on the rocks. Broken my leg, or my back or my neck, bled to death, but it was the only option I had at the time though, okay? It was what, a year ago? So let's just forget it. And what is your point? Well... we might just make it. Did that thought ever cross your brain? Well, regardless, I would rather take my chance out there on the ocean, than to stay here and die on this shithole island spending the rest of my life talking TO A GODDAMN VOLLEYBALL!"

"This is it. That's all that's left. I checked over the whole island, and that is all that's left. So we're gonna be short. Short. We'll just have to make some more out of videotape. Yes. No, we have time. We do, we have time! Look, the wind's still blowing in from the west. I know. Yeah, I know! I know where there's 30 feet of extra rope! But... but I'm not going back up there."

"Here we are today. That gives us another month and a half until we're into March and April, which is our best chance for the high tides and the offshore breezes. We need... we need 424 feet of good rope, plus another 50 feet, say, for miscellaneous, that, round that off to 475 feet of good rope. Now, if we average 15 feet a day, plus, we have to build it, we have to stock it, we have to launch it. That's gonna be tight. That's not much time. But, we... we live and we die by time, don't we? Now, let's not commit the sin of turning our back on time. [chuckles] I know, I know."

"We were enroute from Memphis, for eleven and a half hours, for 475 miles an hour, so they think that we're right here. But, we went out of radio contact, then flew around that storm for about an hour, so that's a distance of what, 400 miles? Four hundred miles squared, that's 160,000 times pi, 3.14... 502,400. That's a search area of 500,000 square miles. That's twice the size of Texas. They may never find us."

"Gotta love crab. In the nick of time too. I couldn't take much more of those coconuts. Coconut milk is a natural laxative. That's something Gilligan never told us."

"Michael D. Roberts - Vern"

"Keiichiro Katsumoto - Lt. Miura"

"Heihachiro Okawa - Capt. Kanematsu"

"Ann Sears - Nurse at Siamese hospital"

"Geoffrey Horne - Lt. Joyce"

"James Donald - Maj. Clipton"

"Sessue Hayakawa - Col. Saito"

"Jack Hawkins - Maj. Warden"

"William Holden - Cmdr. Shears"

"Alec Guinness - Col.Nicloson"

"Is this your soldier's code? Murdering unarmed men?"

"The fact is, what we're doing could be construed as, forgive me sir, collaboration with the enemy. Perhaps even as treasonable activity...Must we work so well? Must we build them a better bridge than they could have built for themselves?"

"I hate the British! You are defeated, but you have no shame. You are stubborn, but have no pride. You endure, but you have no courage. I hate the British!"

"[after Nicholson objects to the above speech by trying to point out what the Geneva Convention specifies] You speak to me of code? What code?! The Coward's Code! What do you know of the Soldier's Code? Of Bushido? Nothing! You are unworthy of command!"

"Attention, English prisoners! Notice I do not say "English soldiers". From the moment you surrendered, you ceased to be soldiers. You will finish the bridge by the twelfth day of May. You will work under the direction of a Japanese engineer, Lieutenant Miura. Time is short. All men will work. Your officers will work beside you. This is only just. For it is they who betray you by surrender. Your shame is their dishonour. It is they who told you: 'Better to live like a coolie than die like a hero.' It is they who brought you here, not I. Therefore, they will join you in useful labour. That is all."

"[speaking to Nicholson for the first time] I am Colonel Saito. [to the British prisoners] In the name of His Imperial Majesty, I welcome you. I am the commanding officer of this camp, which is Camp 16 along the great railroad which will soon connect Bangkok with Rangoon. You British prisoners have been chosen to build a bridge across the River Kwai. It will be pleasant work, requiring skill, and officers will work as well as men. The Japanese Army cannot have idle mouths to feed. If you work hard, you will be treated well, but if you do not work hard, you will be punished! A word to you about escape: there is no barbed wire, no stockade, no watch tower. They are not necessary. We are an island in the jungle. Escape is impossible. You would die. Today you rest. Tomorrow you will begin. Let me remind you of General Yamashita's motto: be happy in your work. Dismissed!"

"[watching the British prisoners walk into the camp] We're going to be a busy pair of gravediggers."