Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Robert Donat: Mr. Chips
Photos
Quotes
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[dying words]
Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : I thought I heard you saying it was a pity... pity I never had any children. But you're wrong. I have. Thousands of them. Thousands of them... and all boys.
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Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : I know the world's changing, Dr. Ralston. I've seen the old traditions die, one by one. Grace, dignity, feeling for the past - all that matters here today is a fat banking account. You're trying to run the school like a factory, for turning out money-making machine-made snobs. You've raised the fees. And in the end, the boys who really belong at Brookfield will be frozen out, frozen out. Modern methods, intensive training - poppycock! Give a boy a sense of humor and a sense of proportion and he'll stand up to anything. I'm not going to retire, you can do what you like about it.
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Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : Well, remember me sometimes. I shall always remember you. "Haec olim meminisse iuvabit." I need not translate it for you.
[the phrase is from Virgil's Aeneid, circa 30-19 B.C.: "In the future, it will be pleasing to remember these things." Alternatively, "One day, we will look back on this and smile"]
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[on his first day at Brookfield School, Mr. Chipping is attempting to bring his unruly class under his control]
Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : Silence! Silence! I'll have no more of it!
John Colley : No more silence, sir?
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Ralston : A year ago, I told you I wanted the new style of Latin pronunciation taught. And you totally ignored it.
Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : Oh, that. Nonsense, in my opinion. Nonsense. What's the good of teaching boys to say 'Kikero', when, for the rest of their lives, they'll say 'Sissero'
[Cicero]
Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : ? If they say it a'tall. Instead of 'vy-sissum', you'd make them say 'we-kiss-'em
[vicissim, adverb; in turn, again]
Ralston : There you are. I'm trying to make Brookfield an up-to-date school and you insist on clinging to the past. The world's changing, Mr. Chipping.
Mr. Chipping 'Mr. Chips' : [Chips then states his theory on the loss of grace and manners, quoted above, herein]
