Citizen Kane (1941)

Everett Sloane: Mr. Bernstein

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mr. Bernstein : Old age. It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of.

• Mr. Bernstein : A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.

• Mr. Bernstein : There's a lot of statues in Europe you haven't bought yet.

  Kane : You can't blame me. They've been making statues for some two thousand years, and I've only been collecting for five.

• Jerry Thompson : He made an awful lot of money.

  Mr. Bernstein : Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money... if all you want is to make a lot of money.

• Mr. Bernstein : [on Kane finishing Leland's critical review of Susan's opera singing]  Everybody knows that story, Mr. Leland. But why did he do it? How could a man write a notice like that?

  Jedediah Leland : You just don't know Charlie. He thought that by finishing that notice he could show me he was an honest man. He was always trying to prove something. The whole thing about Susie being an opera singer, that was trying to prove something. You know what the headline was the day before the election, "Candidate Kane found in love nest with quote, singer, unquote." He was gonna take the quotes off the singer.

• Kane : Mr. Carter, here's a three-column headline in the Chronicle. Why hasn't the Inquirer a three-column headline?

  Herbert Carter : The news wasn't big enough.

  Kane : Mr. Carter, if the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough.

  Mr. Bernstein : That's right, Mr. Kane.

• Mr. Bernstein : Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Switzerland... he was thrown out of a lot of colleges.

• Mr. Bernstein : President's niece, huh? Before Mr. Kane's through with her, she'll be a president's wife.

• Kane : Read the cable.

  Mr. Bernstein : "Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery, but don't feel right spending your money. Stop. There is no war in Cuba, signed Wheeler." Any answer?

  Kane : Yes. "Dear Wheeler: you provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war."

• Jedediah Leland : [about Kane's "Declaration of Principles"]  I'd like to keep that particular piece of paper myself. I have a hunch it might turn out to be something pretty important. A document...

  Mr. Bernstein : Sure!

  Jedediah Leland : ...like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and my first report card at school.

• Mr. Bernstein : Isn't it wonderful? Such a party.

  Jedediah Leland : Yeah.

  Mr. Bernstein : What's the matter?

  Jedediah Leland : Bernstein, these men who are now with the Inquirer, who were with the Chronicle until yesterday...

  [Jedediah pauses] 

  Jedediah Leland : Bernstein, Bernstein, these men who were with the Chronicle, weren't they just as devoted to the Chronicle policies as they are now to our policies?

  Mr. Bernstein : Sure they are just like anybody else. They got work to do, they do it. Only they happen to be the best men in the business.

  Jedediah Leland : Do we stand for the same things the Chronicle stands for, Mr. Bernstein?

  Mr. Bernstein : Certainly not. Listen, Mr. Kane will change them to his kind of newspapermen in a week.

  Jedediah Leland : There's always a chance, of course, that they will change Mr. Kane without his knowing it.

• Mr. Bernstein : We never lost as much as we made.

• Jedediah Leland : Bernstein, am I a stuffed shirt? Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England school marm?

  Mr. Bernstein : Yes. If you thought I'd answer you any differently than what Mr. Kane tells you...

• Mr. Bernstein : [to Leland]  Mr. Kane is finishing the review you started - he's writing a bad notice. I guess that'll show you.

• Mr. Bernstein : Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money if all you want is to make a lot of money.

• Stagecoach Driver / Hauler : There ain't no bedrooms in this joint, that's a newspaper building!

  Mr. Bernstein : You're getting paid, Mister, for opinions or for hauling?

• Mr. Bernstein : Sentimental fellow, aren't you?

  Raymond : Hmmm... yes and no.

• Mr. Bernstein : Who's the busiest man? Me? I've got nothing but time! What do you wanna know?