Top 100 Villain Quotes That Hit Hard
Here is a curated collection of the most memorable and thought-provoking lines delivered by iconic fictional villains that go really deep. Enjoy the best villain quotes from movies and TV series by the Joker, Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, Voldemort, and others.
You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight (2008)
Your problem is you have spent your whole life thinking there are rules. There aren’t. We used to be gorillas. All we had is what we could take and defend.Lorne Malvo, Fargo, S1.Ep1: The Crocodile's Dilemma
People think in terms of good and evil, but really, time is the true enemy of us all. Time kills everything.Kaecilius, Doctor Strange (2016)
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?V.M. Varga, Fargo, S3.Ep9: Aporia
An empire topple by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That’s dead, forever.Helmut Zemo, Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish, Game of Thrones, S3.Ep6: The Climb
Human emotions are a gift from our animal ancestors. Cruelty is a gift humanity has given itself.Hannibal Lecter, Hannibal, S1.Ep5: Coquilles
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.Elliot Carver, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
It’s not the fall that kills you. Of all people, you should know that, it’s not the fall, it’s never the fall. It’s the landing!Jim Moriarty, (to Sherlock), Sherlock, S4.Ep0: The Abominable Bride
When we allow ourselves to be consumed by anger, the only victim is ourself.Gellert Grindelwald, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
If you don’t protect what belongs to you, then sooner or later, it belongs to someone else.Negan, The Walking Dead, S10.Ep3: Ghosts
Lies are necessary, when the truth is too difficult to believe.Pablo Escobar, Narcos, S1.Ep8: La Gran Mentira
It’s when you start to become really afraid of death that you learn to appreciate life.Norman Stansfield, Léon: The Professional (1994)
Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.Richard Onslow Roper, The Night Manager, S1.Ep3
In faith, there is light enough to see, but darkness enough to blind.Blackbeard, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
How you expect to run with the wolves come night, when you spend all day sporting with the puppies?Omar Little, The Wire, S4.Ep3: Home Rooms
Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse for some.Fred Waterford, The Handmaid's Tale, S1.Ep5: Faithful
Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.The Merovingian, The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
It’s just sad, how a little bit of knowledge can become so powerful when surrounded by ignorance.Lincoln Potter, Mayans M.C., S1.Ep8: Rata/Ch'o
Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.Walter E. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now (1979)
All books add up to one essential truth, which is, if your IQ is above a certain number, life is pretty much unbearable. And the number is not even that high.Joe Goldberg, You, S1.Ep1: Pilot
We’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw, but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch.Norman Bates, Psycho (1960)
Life is a long journey where maps were drawn by a fool.Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, Narcos: Mexico, S2.Ep5: AFO
As long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be.Thanos, Avengers: Endgame (2019)
All my life, people have tried to control me. My whole life. Rich people, powerful people have tried to muzzle me, cancel me, keep me impotent and obedient, like I’m a f***ing puppet. You know what? It worked. Because I allowed it to work. And guess what. If they can control me, then you can bet your ass they can control you. They already do. You just don’t realize it.Homelander, The Boys, S3.Ep2: The Only Man in the Sky
Politicians, ugly buildings, and wh**es all get respectable if they last long enough.Noah Cross, Chinatown (1974)
Do you know what people who have no money have in common with people who have too much money? Living is no fun.Oh Il-nam, Squid Game, S1.Ep9: One Lucky Day
Time. It’s not what you think it is. It’s a cage. And it does everything it can to break you. It’s not until you free yourself from it that you see just how small it always was.Kang the Conqueror, (to Janet), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
You cannot live your life in fear, or you will forsake the best parts of it.Daemon Targaryen, (in High Valyrian), House of the Dragon, S1.Ep4: King of the Narrow Sea
The thing that no one wants to admit is that most people want things to happen to them. We tell each other lies about the fight for free will and independence, but we don’t really want that. We want to be told how to live, and then die when we are not looking. People want oblivion, and a few of us are born to build it for them.Lyutsifer Safin, No Time to Die (2020)
Power, real power, doesn’t come to those who were born strongest, or fastest, or smartest. No. It comes to those who will do anything to achieve it.Silco, Arcane, S1.Ep2: Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved
It’s easy to fool people when they’re already fooling themselves.Quentin Beck, Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Before you accept any cash from someone, always ask what they might want in exchange.Corbell Pickett, (to Jasper), The Peripheral, S1.Ep3: Haptic Drift
Steal an apple and you’re a thief, steal a kingdom and you’re a statesman. Only weak men stop there. You’re either the most powerful man in the room, or you’re nothing.Jafar, Aladdin (2019)
The more people you love, the weaker you are. You’ll do things for them that you know you shouldn’t do. You’ll act the fool to make them happy, to keep them safe. Love no one but your children. On that front, a mother has no choice.Cersei Lannister, Game of Thrones, S2.Ep7: A Man Without Honor
When you look into the eyes of a child you have raised, no mask in the world can hide that.General Dreykov, Black Widow (2021)
Nothing is worthless. Even nothing is worth something.Carmine Falcone, Gotham, S1.Ep7: Penguin's Umbrella
People do need a villain to believe in, so I’m happy to fit the bill.Cruella de Vil, Cruella (2021)
Be careful. Love is a weapon, dearie. The most dangerous weapon of all, which means the pain you should worry about isn’t the kind inflicted by a broken sword, but the kind that comes from a broken heart.Rumplestiltskin, Once Upon a Time, S5.Ep4: The Broken Kingdom
Intelligence is not a privilege, it’s a gift. And you use it for the good of mankind.Otto Octavius, Spider-Man 2 (2004)
To doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination. It is a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity, the nascency of our science, the rudiment of our tools.Cigarette Smoking Man, The X-Files, S11.Ep1: My Struggle III
There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it.Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
The more complicated a person is, the more interesting he is. But at the same time, the more dangerous he is.King Ecbert, Vikings, S3.Ep2: The Wanderer
Do you know the oldest lie in America, Senator? It’s that power can be innocent.Lex Luthor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
People lie to themselves about three things. They view themselves in implausibly positive ways, they think they have far more control over their lives than they actually do, and they believe the future will be better than the evidence of the present can possibly justify.Alice Morgan, Luther, S1.Ep6
In a war, you go from point A to point B. Sometimes, you spill a little beer along the way.Jimmy Hoffa, The Irishman (2019)
The worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.Arthur Fleck, (written in his notebook), Joker (2017)
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Everyone’s a wh**e, Grace. We just sell different parts of ourselves.Thomas Shelby, Peaky Blinders, S1.Ep3
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.Roy Batty, Blade Runner (1982)
Intelligence is a very valuable thing, innit, my friend? And usually it comes far too f*****g late.Alfie Solomons, Peaky Blinders, S2.Ep2
It can be cruel, poetic, or blind, but when it’s denied, it’s violence you may find.Edward Nygma, The Batman (2022)
Power belongs to the people that take it. Nothing to do with their hard work, strong ambitions, or rightful qualifications, no. The actual will to take is often the only thing that’s necessary.Tyrell Wellick, Mr. Robot, S1.Ep2: eps1.1_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg
You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f*****’ fingers and say, “That’s the bad guy.” So what that make you? Good? You’re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie.Tony Montana, Scarface (1983)
Winning doesn’t mean anything unless someone else loses.Man in Black, Westworld, S1.Ep1: The Original
All who gain power are afraid to lose it.Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
A man is only ever as strong as the people around him: The community he serves and the family he is sworn to protect. Whatever strength he has, he draws from them. And for them, he must be prepared to give everything. His life for his blood, or else everything he has done, has been for nothing. He is nothing.John Smith, The Man in the High Castle, S2.Ep7: Land O' Smiles
Fear, it’s the strongest human emotion bred into us for one purpose, to keep us alive. But it can also kill us, if we let it.Quinn, Into the Badlands, S2.Ep3: Red Sun, Silver Moon
You know what makes us miserable? The expectation that the world is something other than what it is.The Broker, Quarry, S1.Ep2: Figure Four
Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!Immortan Joe, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
A father’s first responsibility to their kids is to provide a beautiful lie for them to live in.Harold Meachum, Iron Fist, S1.Ep10: Black Tiger Steals Heart
I have spent my whole life scared. Frightened of things that could happen, might happen, might not happen. Fifty years I spent like that. Finding myself awake at three in the morning. But you know what? Ever since my diagnosis, I sleep just fine. And I came to realize it’s that fear that’s the worst of it. That’s the real enemy. So, get up, get out in the real world and you kick that bastard as hard as you can right in the teeth.Walter White, Breaking Bad, S2.Ep8: Better Call Saul
A man who only talks business is a failure in all aspects of life.Camino Del Rio, Ozark, S1.Ep8: Kaleidoscope
Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart, you will know peace.Loki Laufeyson, The Avengers (2012)
Thinking you can stop the bad thing from happening, that’s ego. The bad is coming for all of us. We’re just things on the devil’s to-do list.Milo Sunter, (to Mike), Mayor of Kingstown, S2.Ep10: Little Green Ant
A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. Vito Corleone, The Godfather (1972)
Behind every milestone of human history stands a monster.Caroline Warner, Yellowstone, S4.Ep4: Winning or Learning
It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.Tyler Durden, Fight Club (1999)
People are oblivious to reality. They only see what they want to see. Imprisoned by their mind’s restrictions. When all they have to do is shift their perspective to see the full scope of things.Henry Singleton, 1899, S1.Ep6: The Pyramid
If you’re part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they’re going to kill you. It doesn’t happen that way. There weren’t any arguments or curses like in the movies. See, your murderers come with smiles. They come as your friends, the people who’ve cared for you all of your life, and they always seem to come at a time when you’re at your weakest and most in need of their help.Henry Hill, Goodfellas (1990)
True wealth is generational. I could never spend all the money I’ve made. What I do now ensures that my great-grandchildren can’t either. If you think about it, generational wealth is the closest thing a man can have to immortality. When a building has your name on it, that’s immortality.Donald Whitfield, (to Banner), 1923, S1.Ep8: Nothing Left to Lose
When you have children, you always have family. They will always be your priority, your responsibility. And a man, a man provides. And he does it even when he’s not appreciated or respected or even loved. He simply bears up and he does it. Because he’s a man.Gustavo 'Gus' Fring, Breaking Bad, S3.Ep5: Más
The guy who’s a slave to money holds a whip, and pretends to be the master of the slave he bought with his money. He just doesn’t realize it himself. Everyone is a slave to something.Askeladd, (about Gorm), Vinland Saga, S1.Ep8: Beyond the Edge of the Sea
What sick ridiculous puppets we are, and what gross little stage we dance on. What fun we have, dancing and f*****g. Not a care in the world. Not knowing that we are nothing. We are not what was intended.John Doe, Se7en (1995)
My fellow Americans, what do humans love the most? To what do we give our highest value? Is it family, friends, our homes, money, notoriety? No. Above all, humans love fear. The fear that over time we have honed and polished and built up, brick by brick, until it stands before us every day as tall as the Trump Tower. How do I know we love fear more than our children? Because we are willing to ruin their lives in service of some irrational fear of losing them.Kai Anderson, American Horror Story, S7.Ep1: Election Night
A man can’t change what he is. He can convince anyone he’s someone else, but never himself.Roger 'Verbal' Kint, The Usual Suspects (1995)
If we only elected good men, we’d never have leaders.Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson, (to Margaret), Boardwalk Empireb, S1.Ep9: Belle Femme
Psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings the catharsis we hope for.Harley Quinn, Birds of Prey (2020)
Every kitten grows up to be a cat. They seem so harmless at first, small, quiet, lapping up their saucer of milk. But once their claws get long enough, they draw blood, sometimes from the hand that feeds them.Francis Underwood, House of Cards, S2.Ep1: Chapter 14
There are no secrets in life, just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface.Dexter Morgan, Dexter, S1.Ep2: Crocodile
Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director.Darth Vader, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
True evil is, above all things, seductive. When the Devil knocks at your door, he doesn’t have cloven hooves. He is beautiful, and offers you your heart’s desire in whispered airs. Like a siren, beckoning you to ruinous shore.The Creature, Penny Dreadful, S2.Ep9: And Hell Itself My Only Foe
The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That’s pride f*****g with you. F*** pride. Pride only hurts. It never helps. You fight through that s***.Marsellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction (1994)
There are no second chances. We get one shot at loving and raising our kids.Gemma Teller Morrow, Sons of Anarchy, S6.Ep11: Aon Rud Persanta
Man is a strange creature. All his actions are motivated by desire, his character forged by pain. As much as he may try to suppress that pain, to repress the desire, he cannot free himself from the eternal servitude to his feelings. For as long as the storm rages within him, he cannot find peace. Not in life, not in death. And so he will do what he must, day in, day out. The pain is his vessel, desire his compass. It is all that man is capable of.Adam, Dark, S2.Ep7: The White Devil
The man who pulls the lever, that breaks your neck will be a dispassionate man. And that dispassion is the very essence of justice. For justice delivered without dispassion, is always in danger of not being justice.Oswaldo Mobray, The Hateful Eight (2015)
Life’s not knights on horseback. It’s a number on a piece of paper. It’s a fight for a knife in the mud.Logan Roy, (to Kendall), Succession, S3.Ep8: Chiantishire
Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you were meant to be.Kylo Ren, (to Rey), Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Hate is nature’s most perfect energy source. It’s endlessly renewable.Bobby 'Axe' Axelrod, Billions, S2.Ep3: Optimal Play
Keep your friends rich, and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which.Ultron, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)