Nicholas Nickleby (2002)

Charlie Hunnam: Nicholas Nickleby

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Quotes 

• Nicholas : Weakness is tiring, but strength is exhausting.

• John Browdie : Wait. I say Wait. I've come from the schoolhouse. Mr Squeers says he was attacked. Beaten, and nearly sensless. When he said it was thee who did it, I knew thee must nor be allowed to leave...

  Nicholas : We will not be stopped.

  John Browdie : ...without my shaking your hand and saying to thee, "Job well done". Give us thee hand, will you?

• Nicholas : [Smike has consumption]  Father, I know I am stronger than when you left, but not strong enough to lose Smike. If this is what that strength is for, then I do not want it.

  [cries] 

  Nicholas : Not Smike.

• [At the assembly to see Smike flogged for running away] 

  Mr. Squeers : Is every boy here? Get back! You too Nickleby!

  [to Smike] 

  Mr. Squeers : And you. Have you anything to say?

  Smike : [Crying]  Please, sir, spare me.

  Mr. Squeers : I'll spare you. I'll flog you to within an inch of your life, and I'll spare you then.

  [Squeers strikes him once, Smike cries out in pain] 

  Nicholas : Stop! This must not go on. I will not allow it.

  Mr. Squeers : You dare to challenge my authority! Stay back!

  Nicholas : Touch him at your peril! I will not stand by and see it done.

  Mr. Squeers : You will do as you're told!

  Nicholas : If you raise the devil within me, the consequences shall fall on your own head! Once I begin, God help you!

  [Nicholas grabs the stick and starts hitting Squeers with it] 

  Mr. Squeers : Stop! No, please, wait!

  Nicholas : I do not know why, but I am going to show you what you have never shown any boy in this room... Pity.

  [Nicholas cuts down Smike and helps him out] 

• Nicholas : Does your friend think I'm in love with her?

  Tilda : Does she think so? Of course.

  Nicholas : But I have made no such declaration.

  Tilda : Your eyes said what your mouth could not.

  Nicholas : Perhaps my mouth should say what my eyes have not. I have scarcely seen the lady three times but should I have seen her 30 or 30,000, it would be the same. I have not one thought, hope or wish connected with her unless it is part of the picture I keep in my mind of one day being able to turn my back upon this accursed place and never to think of it again with any feeling but loathing and disgust.

• Nicholas : [to Sir Mulberry Hawk]  I am your equal in education and birth and, I trust, your superior in everything otherwise!

• Nicholas : That's John Browdie.

  Newman Noggs : Is he good or bad.

  Nicholas : He gave me money when he heard I'd beaten Squeers.

  Newman Noggs : Oh, than he's good.

• Nicholas : See I cannot save you. For I need saving too.

• Nicholas : [to Ralph Nickleby]  Your curse has no power over me. The structures you raised all through your misspent life are crumbling into dust. This day, this very day, 10000 pounds of your hoarded wealth are gone in one great crash. Your day is done. Night is coming fast for you.

• Mrs. Nickleby : We feel he died of a broken heart.

  Ralph Nickleby : Pooh, there's no such thing.

  Nicholas : [resentfully]  Indeed, if you have no heart to break.

• John Browdie : [of the kidnapped Smike]  He's in the schoolmaster's room, next to Tilda's and my room.

  Nicholas : What is the way in?

  John Browdie : You must go through the inn, but the schoolmaster is sitting in the front room just by the stairs.

  Newman Noggs : Oh dear. It's impossible.

  John Browdie : I could distract the schoolmaster, you could slip past and go to my room, there is a door adjoining the schoolmaster's, go through it, get the lad. I'll watch the stairs and again try to disrtact him when you come out.

  Newman Noggs : If I could offer an opinion in regards to this scheme? It seems, uh, foolhardy, riddled with danger, and doomed to failure. Otherwise I can find no fault with it.

  Nicholas : It is for Smike.

• Smike : Though I would have died to make her happy it broke my heart to see. I know he loves her dearly.

  Nicholas : Kate.

  Smike : I love her.

• Mrs. Nickleby : [Nicholas' father, Ralph's brother, died]  Mine was no common loss.

  Ralph Nickleby : I was no uncommon loss. Husbands die every day. And wives.

  Nicholas : Brothers also.

  Ralph Nickleby : Yes, and puppies, too.

• Smike : Tomorrow where will you go?

  Nicholas : Perhaps to Liverpool. I could find work on a ship. Do not be anxious. Before I do anything I will get you to your home. Where is it?

  Smike : You are my home.

  Nicholas : [affectionately]  Smike.

  Smike : Please may I go with you to sea? I will be your faithful, hardworking servant, I will. Promise I will. I want only to be near you.

  Nicholas : Smike, the wall that separates us shall never be set by me. And I promise you, from this night forward, the world shall deal by you as it does by me.

• Nicholas : [on the Squeers treating Smike badly because he is friends with Nicholas]  You will do better when I am gone.

  Smike : [alarmed]  Gone? When are you going?

  Nicholas : I would go tomorrow if I could.

  Smike : Tell me, is the world as bad as this place?

  Nicholas : [smiles]  Oh no.

  Smike : Should I ever meet you there?

  Nicholas : Well, yes I'm sure at...

  Smike : No, no tell me. Tell me that I should be sure to find you.

  Nicholas : [affirmatively]  You would and I would help you and aid you. I would not bring fresh sorrow on you as they have done here.

• Nicholas : [on why he must leave the theatre troupe]  Tis a family drama.

  Mrs. Crummles : Those are always popular.

• Mr. Crummles : But there is tragedy in the family.

  Nicholas : The pony's family?

  Mr. Crummles : Yes... the father drank. Ended up in the circus, drinking port wine with the clowns. Got greedy, couldn't quit and choked on the bottle.

  [Gasps] 

  Mr. Crummles : At any rate, I'd Iove to bring you and your friend out.

• Mr. Crummles : And this is the infant phenomenon. She is but 10 years old.

  Nicholas : [the Infant Phenomenon is clearly older]  Not... older?

  Mr. Crummles : [Raises eyebrow]  Not a day.

• Nicholas : My father told me that the great journey of my life would be to find such a person. But, I am nearly 20 years of age and I fear he may be wrong.

• Nicholas : BIess you both. Goodbye. Someday, we will once again share the protection of the same roof and revive the happiness denied to us now. I promise.

• Nicholas : Father, please don't Iet them find him. If they do, let him be dead - his last breath a free one.

• Nicholas : We have fallen on strange times.

  Smike : Yes - but wondrous strange.

• Nicholas : My name is Nicholas Nickleby.

• Nicholas : Mother, this is Smike.

  Mrs. Nickleby : How do you do, Mr. Pike?

  Nicholas : No, Mother, "Smike," with an "S."

  Smike : How do you do?

  Mrs. Nickleby : Very well, thank you, Mr. Spike.

• Nicholas : You have but to hint at a wish, and I would hazard my life to gratify it.

• Nicholas : Have you ever had the sensation of looking at someone for the first time and ever so quickly, the past and future seem to fuse?

• Nicholas : I come to offer aid to the unhappy subject of your treachery.

• Madeline Bray : This web is of my own weaving. I know what I am doing and why.

  Nicholas : I know why, too. It only deepens my esteem for you. But you cannot degrade yourself in your esteem.

• Nicholas : My life collapsed like a house of sticks the day my father died. I clung to my mother and sister, then Smike and Noggs, hoping, waiting for I knew not what. I knew not what, until that day when I opened my eyes and the darkness was replaced with the sight of your face. It was the island towards which I'd been sailing, unguided, my whole life - the dream my father had promised me before I could even imagine its existence. I have been happy for times, little times, since he died, but never at peace. Not until I looked at your face - and saw the universe in order behind it.

• Nicholas : You are the one who is so admirably able and strong.

  Madeline Bray : I am tired of being strong.

• Nicholas : My temper alone, my impatience - perhaps I should not list all my faults, in case I am too persuasive.