Memorable quotes for
The Haunting (1963/I) More at IMDbPro »

Dr. John Markway: It was an evil house from the beginning - a house that was born bad.

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Eleanor Lance: Can't you feel it? It's alive... watching.

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Luke Sanderson: I haven't seen a damn thing! I just don't like the way it looks.

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Eleanor Lance: I'm still so terrified from last night.
Dr. John Markway: You shouldn't be. It's silly to be frightened...
Eleanor Lance: Silly? You haven't been through it! This horrible unknown thing!
Dr. John Markway: 'Unknown.' That's the key word. 'Unknown.' When we become involved in a supernatural event, we're scared out of our wits just because it's unknown. The night cry of a child. A face on the wall. Knockings, bangings. What's there to be afraid of? You weren't threatened. It was harmless, like a joke that doesn't come out.
Eleanor Lance: But the child...
Dr. John Markway: There was no child, remember? Just a voice.
Eleanor Lance: A voice.
Dr. John Markway: Look, Eleanor, put it this way. When people believed the Earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.
Eleanor Lance: Supposing it is in my imagination. The knocking, the voices. Everything! Every cursed bit of the haunting. Suppose the haunting is all in my mind.
Dr. John Markway: Well, you can't say that, because there are three other people here. We all resist the idea that what ran through the garden that first night was a ghost. What banged on the door was a ghost. What held your hand was a ghost. But there is certainly something going on in Hill House. We're getting closer, very close to finding out what it is.

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Mrs. Dudley: [Eleanor has just been shown her room after she arrives] I can't keep the rooms the way I'd like, but there's no one else they could get that would help me.
Eleanor Lance: How very nice.
Mrs. Dudley: I set dinner on the dining room sideboard at 6. I clear up in the morning. I have breakfast for you at 9. I don't wait on people. I don't stay after I set out the dinner, not after it begins to get dark. I leave before the dark.
Eleanor Lance: Your husband?
Mrs. Dudley: We live over in town, miles away.
Eleanor Lance: Yes.
Mrs. Dudley: So there won't be anyone around if you need help.
Eleanor Lance: I understand.
Mrs. Dudley: We couldn't hear you. In the night.
Eleanor Lance: Do you have any idea when Dr. Markway...
Mrs. Dudley: [cuts her off] No one could. No one lives any nearer than town. No one will come any nearer than that.
Eleanor Lance: I know.
Mrs. Dudley: In the night. In the dark.
[Mrs. Dudley grins and leaves]

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Mrs. Sanderson: The dead are not quiet in Hill House.

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Dr. John Markway: Ghosts make the papers along with celebrities every day of the week.

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Dr. John Markway: Look, I know the supernatural is something that isn't supposed to happen, but it does happen.

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Theodora: Haven't you noticed how nothing in this house seems to move until you look away and then you just... catch something out of the corner of your eye?

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Theodora: Is this another one of your crazy ideas?
Eleanor Lance: I'm not crazy!
Theodora: Crazy as a loon! You really expect me to believe that you're sane and the rest of the world is mad?
Eleanor Lance: Well why not? The world is full of inconsistencies. Full of unnatural beings, nature's mistakes they call you for instance!

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Luke Sanderson: Doc, let's sell the house cheap!

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Dr. John Markway: When people believed the earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.

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Eleanor Lance: God! God! Whose hand was I holding?

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Dr. John Markway: Now. Which door?
Theodora: [pointing to her right] That one.
Dr. John Markway: Wrong. I've studied the map, it's this one.
[goes to his right and walks straight into the broom cupboard]

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Dr. John Markway: It has taken 60 million years to develop the carnivorous biped you see before you, Luke Sanderson.
Theodora: Let's see what kind of martinis it makes.
Luke Sanderson: They should be pretty good. I majored in them at college.

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Theodora: What would you call this place? Fun-o-rama?

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Theodora: I don't think you killed your mother.

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Dr. John Markway: That's very good, Eleanor. You catch on quickly.
Theodora: [gets jealous and stands up] I'm hungry. Let's go.

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Luke Sanderson: [when the group compares themselves to four statues] Which one am I?
Theodora: You're the dog.

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Theodora: Poor Nell. You look like Death.

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[after either nearly falling off a high balcony - or being pushed off - she is saved by John Markway]
Eleanor Lance: Oh! This house! You have to watch it every minute!

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Eleanor Lance: Human nature could certainly stand some improvement.

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Eleanor Lance: What scares you, Theodora?
Theodora: Knowing what I really want.

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Dr. John Markway: You wait here, Grace. I'll go in and get your things, and then call the police.
Grace Markway: No, no, no! No one must go back into that house again. Whatever's there might...
Dr. John Markway: I'll be all right. The house has what it wants... for a while.

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Luke Sanderson: [referring to Hill House] It ought to be burned down... and the ground sowed with salt.

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[first lines]
Dr. John Markway: [voice-over] An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there... walked alone.

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[last lines]
Eleanor Lance: [voice-over] Hill House has stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut. Silence lies steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. And we who walk here... walk alone.

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