The Remains Of The Day Quotes
"It is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it."
"You realize, Stevens, I don’t expect you to be locked up here in this house all the time I'm away. Why don't you take the car and drive off somewhere for a few days? You look like you could make good use of a break."
"It has been my privilege to see the best of England over the years, sir, within these very walls."
"This was not the first time my employer had raised such a question; indeed, it seems to be something which genuinely troubles him."
"What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it."
"The ability to draw up a good staff plan is the cornerstone of any decent butler's skills."
"But there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition merely for its own sake."
"How often have you known it for the butler who is on everyone's lips one day as the greatest of his generation to be proved demonstrably within a few years to have been nothing of the sort?"
"The factor which distinguishes them from those butlers who are merely extremely competent is most closely captured by this word 'dignity'."
"Dignity, to me, has to do crucially with a butler's ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits."
"A great butler, the sort who is recognized by the world at large as being truly great, is the one who can wear his professionalism genuinely."
"It is a matter of 'dignity' that is beyond the reach of those who are not born with a certain grace."
"If one looks at the great butlers, the ones who are renowned, it is their dignity that sets them apart from the merely competent."
"This 'dignity' is something one can meaningfully strive for throughout one's career."
"It is the ability to maintain one's sense of self amidst the chaos of the world that is the key to true dignity."
"The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to the utmost."
"To wear one's professionalism like a suit - elegantly and unobtrusively - is the mark of true dignity."
"The essence of true dignity lies in the ability to maintain one's composure and self-respect in all situations."
"I am very busy. I am surprised you have nothing better to do than stand in corridors all day."
"What would employees below think to hear us shouting at the top of our voices about what is and what is not the correct Chinaman?"
"These errors may be trivial in themselves, Mr. Stevens, but you must yourself realize their larger significance."
"Whatever your father was once, Mr. Stevens, his powers are now greatly diminished."
"I fought that war to preserve justice in this world."
"It was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has new standards by which to judge oneself."
"I can declare that he was a truly good man at heart, a gentleman through and through."
"It is unbecoming to go on hating an enemy like this once a conflict is over. Once you've got a man on the canvas, that ought to be the end of it. You don't then proceed to kick him."
"All living creatures will be relevant to our forthcoming discussion."
"I hope I've been a good father to you. I suppose I haven't."
"To do otherwise, I feel, would be to let him down."
"What you describe as 'amateurism', sir, is what I think most of us here still prefer to call 'honour'."
"It appears to mean getting one's way by cheating and manipulating. It means ordering one's priorities according to greed and advantage rather than the desire to see goodness and justice prevail in the world."
"For all its sad associations, whenever I recall that evening today, I find I do so with a large sense of triumph."
"We were ambitious, in a way that would have been unusual a generation before, to serve gentlemen who were furthering the progress of humanity."
"Professional prestige lay most significantly in the moral worth of one's employer."
"The great decisions of the world are not arrived at simply in the public chambers...but in the privacy and calm of the great houses of this country."
"It was the aspiration of all those of us with professional ambition to work our way as close to this hub as we were each of us capable."
"To serve the great gentlemen of our times in whose hands civilization had been entrusted."
"A 'great' butler can only be, surely, one who can point to his years of service and say that he has applied his talents to serving a great gentleman - and through the latter, to serving humanity."
"One has a right, perhaps, to feel a satisfaction those content to serve mediocre employers will never know."
"It is essential, then, to keep one's attention focused on the present; to guard against any complacency creeping in on account of what one may have achieved in the past."
"I had continued to proceed swiftly out of the room, returning without undue delay bearing a satisfactory fork."
"For much of the summer of 1932, she was a regular presence at Darlington Hall, she and his lordship often spending hour after hour deep in conversation, typically of a social or political nature."
"It's for the good of this house, Stevens. In the interests of the guests we have staying here."
"These were, let me say, overwhelmingly professional in tone - though naturally we might discuss some informal topics from time to time."
"It was a difficult task, but as such, one that demanded to be carried out with dignity."
"I am outraged that you can sit there and utter what you have just done as though you were discussing orders for the larder."
"Our professional duty is not to our own foibles and sentiments, but to the wishes of our employer."
"There is one situation and one situation only in which a butler who cares about his dignity may feel free to unburden himself of his role; that is to say, when he is entirely alone."
"A butler of any quality must be seen to inhabit his role, utterly and fully; he cannot be seen casting it aside one moment simply to don it again the next as though it were nothing more than a pantomime costume."
"Why, Mr Stevens, why, why, why do you always have to pretend?"
"In my experience, too many people believe themselves capable of working at these higher levels without having the least idea of the exacting demands involved. It is certainly not suited to just anybody."
"It occurs to me you must be a well-contented man, Mr. Stevens. Here you are, after all, at the top of your profession, every aspect of your domain well under control."
"As far as I am concerned, Miss Kenton, my vocation will not be fulfilled until I have done all I can to see his lordship through the great tasks he has set himself."
"I am sorry, Miss Kenton, but I see little point in our continuing. You simply do not seem to appreciate the importance of this discussion."
"I have occasionally wondered to myself how things might have turned out in the long run had I not been so determined over the issue of our evening meetings."
"There is, after all, a real limit to how much ordinary people can learn and know, and to demand that each and everyone of them contribute 'strong opinions' to the great debates of the nation cannot, surely, be wise."
"But life being what it is, how can ordinary people truly be expected to have 'strong opinions' on all manner of things - as Mr. Harry Smith rather fancifully claims the villagers here do?"
"Please accept my apologies. It was quite dreadful. We'd all had rather too good a dinner, I fancy."
"Other great nations know full well that to meet the challenges of each new age means discarding old, sometimes well-loved methods. Not so here in Britain."
"We're always the last, Stevens. Always the last to be clinging on to outmoded systems. But sooner or later, we'll need to face up to the facts."
"Democracy is something for a bygone era. The world's far too complicated a place now for universal suffrage and such like."
"If your house is on fire, you don't call the household into the drawing room and debate the various options for escape for an hour, do you?"
"It occurs to me in recalling these words that, of course, many of Lord Darlington's ideas will seem today rather odd - even, at times, unattractive."
"A butler's duty is to provide good service. It is not to meddle in the great affairs of the nation."
"What is there 'undignified' in this? One is simply accepting an inescapable truth: that the likes of you and I will never be in a position to comprehend the great affairs of today's world."
"I do hope you have a pleasant evening. Now if you will excuse me."
"Events of great importance are unfolding upstairs and I can hardly stop to exchange pleasantries with you."
"At first, my mood was- I do not mind admitting it - somewhat downcast. But then as I continued to stand there, a curious thing began to take place; a deep feeling of triumph started to well up within me."
"Who would doubt at that moment that I had indeed come as close to the great hub of things as any butler could wish?"
"It is now fully two days since my meeting with Miss Kenton in the tea lounge of the Rose Garden Hotel in Little Compton."
"You spend so much time with someone, you find you get used to him."
"One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful."
"We must each of us, as you point out, be grateful for what we do have."
"The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it."
"What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took?"
"Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy."
"It is curious how people can build such warmth among themselves so swiftly."
"Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically."