Lebowski Quotes

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man...

Fuck it, Dude.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Life does not start and stop at your convenience, you miserable piece of shit.

he looked like Gandalf Lebowski, ready for entombment in the catacombs of a bowling alley.

Yeah? Well, you know, that's just uh like, your opinion man. ~The Dude~ The Big Lebowski

If you didn’t like The Dude and Lebowski you could be a friend, but would never be a good friend. Ever.

While eating our feast, we watch The Big Lebowski, which is sort of bizarre, because Alex was trying to get me to watch this a couple of months ago. And the Roths have it on DVD, so they are all amazed I’ve never seen it. Turns out, it’s really good. And what’s even better, in addition to Porter preparing me for the sound of gunshots in the movie—so I won’t be caught off guard—and quoting lines along with the actors, which makes me smile despite the dreary events of the day, is when he leans close and whispers into my ear, “You belong here with me.” And for that moment, I believe that I do.

This is not 'Nam, this is bowling there are rules

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. —Bertrand Russell

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. —Steven Wright

Well that's like, your opinion, man.

Nietzsche wrote, "One often contradicts an opinion when it is really only the tone in which it has been presented that is unsympathetic". Or, as The Dude put it: "You're not wrong, Walter - you're just an asshole". Less quotable, and often overlooked, is Walter's response: "Okay, then." The Walters of the world don't mid being assholes; what matters to them is being right.

Outside of severe hallucinogens like PCP, by far the most “dangerous” drug of all is alcohol, and aside from the fistfights, car accidents and karaoke it causes, society still celebrates it.

Let me explain something to you. Um, I'm not "Mr. Lebowski." You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that, or, uh His Dudeness, or, uh, Duder, or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. —Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Forgive me my nonsense as I forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense. —Robert Frost

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa

It’s a male myth about feminists that we hate sex.

practice is just another word for “play.

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. —Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell. —Bertrand Russell

The 20th century linguistic revolution is the recognition that language is not merely a device for communicating ideas about the world, but rather a tool for bringing the world into existence in the first place. —Misia Landau

Erik Erikson coined the term “pseudo-speciation” to describe our xenophobic instinct. It is as if we rejected out of hand the unity of the species, setting up in its place a thousand egregious dichotomies. —Melvin Konner, Why the Reckless Survive

The Kevster’s a friend,” I shared with Ren. At my words, Ren’s brows shot together and he asked, “The Kevster?” “His preferred handle,” I explained. Ren looked to the ceiling. I figured he did this because Ren might be a member of a crime family but he reeked class. He likely had no friends with “handles.” Or that smoked doobies. And I didn’t ask because I was scared of the answer, but there was a high probability Ren would not like The Big Lebowski and that might mean I’d have to question his taste. Since he very much liked the taste of me, I didn’t want to do that.

My choice is what I chose to do And if I’m causing no harm, it shouldn’t bother you. Your choice is who you chose to be And if you’re causing no harm, then you’re alright with me. If you don’t like my fire, then don’t come around ‘Cause I’m gonna burn one down. —Ben Harper, “Burn One Down

Beware of the pursuit of the Superhuman: it leads to an indiscriminate contempt for the Human. To a man, horses and dogs and cats are mere species, outside the moral world. Well, to the Superman, men and women are mere species too, also outside the moral world. —George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

It’s not that the Dude believes in nothing—he’s no nihilist. It’s just that he entertains ideas so gingerly. Since he’s never angling from any fixed position, he can examine each new conceptual element without trying to chisel it into some concrete pillar of belief. Taoism calls this approach the “state of the uncarved block.

Goodman, a friend of the Coens since he worked with them on their second movie, Raising Arizona, laughed about the scene where William Macy tried to escape out of a motel window, only to be dragged back inside by the cops. “Macy in his underwear,” Goodman said, giggling. “That’s our answer to everything,” Ethan said. “You need a dramatic fall, put a character in his undies.

In the split second where you understand a joke you experience a moment of “enlightenment.” This cannot be achieved by “explaining” the joke, i.e. by intellectual analysis. This must be well known to enlightened men and women, since they almost invariably show a great sense of humor. In the Tao Te Ching we read, “If it were not laughed at it would not be sufficient for the Tao.” —Fritjov Capra, The Tao of Physics

They talked about Brando. Bridges said that his brother, Beau, once worked with Brando and the great actor said, “I want to have eye contact with you, do you mind putting the lines on your forehead?

Oh boy, how you gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus? -Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski

Blessed are the goofballs, the crazies, for they refuse to take things seriously. —Rick Stanley

A surprisingly good case could be made that much of culture is hallucination. The whole intent and function of ritual appears to be a group wish to hallucinate reality. —Weston La Barre

Indeed it’s well known that many people don’t “get” The Big Lebowski because they find the plot wanting. Yet what makes the film such a treasure is not the story itself, nor even its characters, but the mind-blowing verbal pleasure they afford us.

The nap also has a deserved reputation for its spiritual benefits. The founders of the great world religions were dedicated nappers, and indeed, it was during their roadside dozes that their visions often came. The nap is a sort of easy version of meditation. Jesus was an idler. Buddha was definitely an idler. —Tom Hodgkinson, How to be Idle

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense. —Mark Twain

In order for the wheel to turn, for life to be lived, impurities are needed, and the impurities of impurities in the soil, too, as is known, if it is to be fertile. Dissention, diversity, the grain of salt and mustard are needed. Fascism does not want them, forbids them…it wants everyone to be the same, and you’re not. —Primo Levi, The Periodic Table

The three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality, and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous. —Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. —Oscar Wilde

Shut the fuck up Donnie.

The Stranger: Darkness warshed over the Dude - darker'n a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night. There was no bottom.

Michael Gambon, the British actor best known in the States for Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective (and later for playing professor Albus Dumbledore in the final six Harry Potter movies), was a contender for the role of the Big Lebowski. Joel had met him in New York, Ethan said, “Yeah, he’s … a good actor and we have a mutual friend and he’s supposed to be perfectly pleasant to work with …” “But?” “But …” Gambon was British. The idea didn’t seem … right, not for a real Pasadena guy.

Fargo was a vicious little crime drama shot on a shoestring budget. Ethan’s college friend, William Robertson, begged the brothers not to make it: You’ve just had a huge flop, now you want to make a crime drama set in North Dakota? Nobody will watch it,

To paraphrase Jesus from The Big Lebowski, ‘I’m going to shove this gun up her ass and pull the trigger until it goes click.

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. —Henry Adams

There ain’t no answer. There ain’t going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer. —Gertrude Stein

While the process of evolution is often characterized in terms of dog-eat-dog competition and the “survival of the fittest,” this new research also reveals that, in fact, nice guys often finish first. Our species’ success over the eons is due to the fact that we are the most cooperative creatures on earth. —William Allman, The Stone Age Present

Winning came so easy to all these bastards. The private school chess dilettantes, the imperial occupiers of my neighborhood, the smug CEO types who sometimes showed up at assemblies to lecture us about success. No, I thought: This will not stand. Maybe I was channeling Lebowski, but the feeling was real, and very deep. I could do something to recapture my dignity. Maybe, just once, I could give those preening power jocks a taste of defeat. If not on the street, then over the board.

Turturro is coming in to play the pederast," Joel said. "He said he’d do his best F. Murray Abraham.

As Epicurus maintained, “A man is wealthy in proportion to the things he can do without.

Nihilists... F#$% me. I mean say what you will about the tenets of national socialism dude, at least it's an ethos

This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? —Epicurus

As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue. —Albert Einstein