Yes,' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely.

I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.

Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.

I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.

My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.

Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.

I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel.

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

Against the State, against the Church, against the silence of the medical profession, against the whole machinery of dead institutions of the past, the woman of today arises.

Help yourself, then God will also help you!

On our crowded planet there are no longer any internal affairs!

Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of self-exaltation.

Once an innovation is implemented it is no longer innovative.

The well-known old remark of Cato, who used to wonder how two soothsayers could look one another in the face without laughing.

It's hard to argue against cynics - they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side.

If you don't keep giving customers reasons to buy from you, they won't

Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life.

But just because you’re strong and resilient doesn’t mean you never need someone to be there for you, to take care of you.