People Will Talk (1951)

Cary Grant: Dr. Noah Praetorius

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Quotes 

• Doctor Noah Praetorius : I consider faith properly injected into a patient as effective in maintaining life as Adrenaline, and a belief in miracles has been the difference between living and dying as often as any surgeon's scalpel.

• Doctor Noah Praetorius : And whose fault is it my fine atomic friend. You can't go around smashing everything you see, you know. Everything isn't atoms!

  Professor Barker : Yes it is!

• Doctor Noah Praetorius : How old were you when you learned to walk?

  Arthur Higgins : I could get around alright at four.

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : And how old were you when you left the farm?

  Arthur Higgins : Sixteen.

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : Surely it didn't take you twelve years to make up your mind!

• Shunderson : The dog is frightened and unhappy.

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : He has that in common with most of humanity.

• Doctor Noah Praetorius : Professor Elwell, you are the only man I know who can say 'malignant' the way other people say 'Bingo!'.

• Prof. Rodney Elwell : Doctor Praetorius, won't you admit that your practice flourished in Goose Creek because you took advantage of the ignorance of its backward inhabitants? Of the pathetic willingness of those poor people to rely upon a belief in miraculous cure rather than scientific knowledge? And because of the readiness with which so many people will prefer the glamorous quack to the licensed practitioner?

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : Despite your definition of a quack as someone who does not practice medicine according to your rules, Professor Elwell, the fact remains that a quack is an unqualified person who pretends to be a doctor. I was a licensed practitioner and therefore not a quack. And as to the willingness of those so-called ignorant and backward people to rely upon the curative powers of faith and possibly miracles too, I consider faith properly injected into a patient as effective in maintaining life as adrenaline. And the belief in miracles has been the difference between living and dying as often as any surgeon's scalpel.

  Prof. Rodney Elwell : That is not the issue under discussion.

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : That is precisely the issue. Whether the practice of medicine shall become more and more intimately involved with the human beings it treats, or whether it's to go on in its present way of becoming more and more a thing of pills, serums and knives until eventually we shall undoubtedly evolve an electronic doctor.

• Doctor Noah Praetorius : Suppose I told you all. Could it affect our friendship?"

  Professor Barker : Of course not.

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : I'm glad to hear that. You know, it's not much to have a friend who knows all about you, but one who's a friend even though he's not quite sure... That's worth having.

• Arthur Higgins : [referring to his dog]  I wondered what Beelzebub was barking at...

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : Beelzebub? Beasts like that are usually called 'Pal.'

  Arthur Higgins : I call him Beelzebub because he's an evil dog.

  Doctor Noah Praetorius : Well, I am delighted to meet someone courageous enough not to love all dogs.