The Wire Quotes (Season 4)

The thing about the old days, they the old days.[to Bodie]

You play in dirt, you get dirty.

A man learns best when he get burned.

You think I have time to ask a man why he giving me money? Or where he gets his money from? I’ll take any motherf***er’s money if he giving it away!

You hang around and you can see me preach on some young’uns. Solemn left and sanctified right.[to the Deacon]

How you expect to run with the wolves come night, when you spend all day sporting with the puppies?

You put a textbook in front of these kids, put a problem on the blackboard, teach them every problem in some statewide test, it won’t matter. None of it. ‘Cause they’re not learning for our world, they’re learning for theirs. They know exactly what it is they’re training for and what it is everyone expects them to be.

You know what he is? He is a vandal. He is vandalizing the board. He is vandalizing this unit. He is a Hun, a Visigoth, a barbarian at the gate, clamoring for noble Roman blood and what’s left of our clearance rate.[about Freamon, who is discovering bodies in the vacant houses]

This game is rigged, man. We like the little bitches on a chessboard.[to McNulty]

Shame is some tricky s***, ain’t it? Makes you feel like you want to change, and then beats you back down when you think you can’t.

Money ain’t got no owners, only spenders.

Man gotta live what he know, right?