These Inglourious Basterds quotes from Quentin Tarantino’s masterful movie about Nazi Germany and World War II are some of the most compelling words written for the big screen. You can almost see Brad Pitt (Lt. Aldo Raine) saying them as you read through them.

There are several quotes from Lt. Raine that are funny, witty, and shocking. There are also many quotes from him specifically about Nazis.

Hans Landa also delivered quite a litany of humorous, chilling, and shocking lines. The quotes about his analogy between the rat and the hawk depict one of the greatest movie scenes ever.

Now you might have a lot of questions about this movie, but let’s start with the obvious one…why the heck is “basterds” spelled wrong. Well, there are few theories, but no one (other than Quentin Tarantino) knows for sure.

The first theory is that Tarantino did it intentionally to distinguish his movie from the 1978 film The Inglourious Bastards. When asked about it once on the David Letterman show, Tarantino replied it was, “Quentin Tarantino spelling.” He did not give any more information though.

Keep reading for more theories!

Don’t forget to also check out these Apocalypse Now quotes on the double standards of war.

Inglourious Basterds quotes from Lt. Aldo Raine

1. “You didn’t say the goddamn rendezvous was in a fuckin’ basement.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

2. “I’m gonna give you a little somethin’ you can’t take off.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

3. “You know how you get to Carnegie Hall, don’t ya? Practice.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

4. “Well, you don’t got to be Stonewall Jackson to know you don’t want to fight in a basement!” – Lt. Aldo Raine

5. “Yeah, we got a word for that kind of odd in English. It’s called suspicious.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

6. “You know somethin’, Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

7. “That’s a pretty exciting story. What’s next, Lies on Ice?” – Lt. Aldo Raine

8. “Well, I speak the most Italian, so I’ll be your escort. Donowitz speaks the second most, so he’ll be your Italian cameraman. Omar speaks third most, so he’ll be Donny’s assistant.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

9. “Nah, I don’t think so. More like chewed out. I’ve been chewed out before.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

10. “Long story short, we hear a story too good to be true – it ain’t.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

Inglourious Basterds quotes from Hans Landa

11. “Oooh, that’s a bingo!” – Hans Landa

12. “What’s that English saying about shoes and feet?” – Hans Landa

13. “What’s that American expression? ‘If the shoe fits, you must wear it.’” – Hans Landa

14. “So, gentlemen, let’s discuss the prospect of ending the war tonight” – Hans Landa

15. “I, on the other hand, love my unofficial title, precisely because I’ve earned it.” – Hans Landa

16. “I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing.” – Hans Landa

17. “I’m aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity.” – Hans Landa

18. “Tell me, Aldo- if I were sitting where you’re sitting, would you show me mercy?” – Hans Landa

19. “I’m officially surrendering myself over to you, Lieutenant Raine. We’re your prisoners.” – Hans Landa

20. “Are you mad? What have you done? I made a deal with your general for that man’s life!” – Hans Landa

Inglourious Basterds quotes from some of the other characters

21. “Down with Hitler” – Ed Fenech

22. “My name is Shosanna Dreyfus and this is the face of Jewish vengence.” – Shosanna Dreyfus

23. “Can you Americans speak any other language besides English?” – Bridget von Hammersmark

24. “Say ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to your Nazi balls!” – Hugo Stiglitz

25. “Extraordinary, my dear. Simply extraordinary. This is your finest film yet.” – Hitler

26. “I am going to burn down the cinema on Nazi night. And if I’m going to burn down the cinema, which I am, we both know you’re not going to let me do it by myself.” – Shosanna Dreyfus

27. Because you love me. And I love you. And you’re the only person on this earth I can trust.” – Shosanna Dreyfus

28. “Fenway Park on its feet for Teddy f***in’ Ballgame! He went yardo on that one, out to f***in’ Lansdowne Street!” – Donny “the Bear Jew” Donowitz

29. “It’s only the offspring of slaves that allows America to be competitive athletically. American Olympic gold can be measured in Negro sweat.” – Joseph Goebbels

30. “Now, gentlemen, around this time you could ask whether you’re real or fictitious. I, however, think that’s too easy, so I won’t ask that yet.” – Major Dieter Hellstrom

Inglourious Basterds quotes from Lt. Aldo Raine about Nazis

31. “You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

32. “Actually, Werner, we’re all tickled to hear you say that. Quite frankly, watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to goin’ to the movies.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

33. “And I want my scalps. And all y’all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin’.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

34. “I’m putting together a special team. We’re gonna be doing one thing, and one thing only. Killing Nazis.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

35. “Nazi ain’t got no humanity, they’re the foot soldiers of a Jew-hating, mass-murdering maniac and they need to be destroyed.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

36. “Yeah, that’s what we thought. We don’t like that. You see, we like our Nazis in uniform. That way you can spot ’em just like that. But you take off that uniform, ain’t no one ever gonna know you were a Nazi.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

37. “We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty, they will know who we are, and they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

38. “And the German won’t be able to help themselves but imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands and our boot heels and the edge of our knives and the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us, and when the German closes their eyes at night and they’re tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

39. “Well, now Werner, that’s where you’re wrong, because that’s exactly what I expect. I need to know about Germans hiding in them trees, and you need to tell me, and you need to tell me right now. Now, just take that finger of yours and point out on this here map where this party’s being held, how many’s coming, and what they brought to play with.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

40. “He bashes their brains in with a baseball bat, what he does. Now, Werner, I’m gonna ask you one last god-damn time. If you still respectfully refuse, I’m calling the Bear Jew over. He’s gonna take that big bat of his, and he’s gonna beat your ass to death with it. Now, take your wiener schnitzel lickin’ finger and point out on this map what I want to know.” – Lt. Aldo Raine

Inglourious Basterds quotes about the hawk and rat from Landa

41. “Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that’s some time ago. I propose to you, any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Would you agree?” – Landa

42. “But they’re both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they even rather look alike, don’t they?” – Landa

43. “Consider, for a moment, the world a rat lives in. It’s a hostile world, indeed. If a rat were to scamper through your front door right now, would you greet it with hostility?” – Landa

44. “What a tremendously hostile world that a rat must endure. Yet not only does he survive, he thrives.” – Landa

45. “Because our little foe has an instinct for survival and preservation second to none… And that, Monsieur, is what a Jew shares with a rat.” – Landa

46. “Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk.” – Landa

47. “But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat. If a rat were to walk in here right now as I’m talking, would you treat it to a saucer of your delicious milk?” – Landa

48. “A German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere he would hide. But there’s so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide.” – Landa

49. “A detective. A damn good detective. Finding people is my specialty, so naturally, I work for the Nazis finding people, and yes, some of them were Jews. But ‘Jew Hunter?’ It’s just a name that stuck.” – Landa

50. “I didn’t think so. You don’t like them. You don’t really know why you don’t like them; all you know is you find them repulsive. Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews.” – Landa

Quentin Tarantino’s hopes for Inglourious Basterds

The other theory about the movie’s incorrect spelling of the word bastard references a scene in the movie. We get a glimpse of Aldo Raine’s rifle and he had carved the words “Inglourious Basterds” on it.

This was meant to show that he couldn’t spell and tie it into the title of the movie. The theory about Tarantino’s reasoning being to differentiate between the earlier movie could still be true, and this was just another attempt at justifying the spelling.

Tarantino didn’t just want Inglourious Basterds to stand apart from the earlier movie with a similar title. He wanted it to be his masterpiece; his life’s work. You might look at a few of the quotes on this with a more meta context now. Tarantino is the king of meta!

Do you think Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino’s best film? Let us know in the comment section below.

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