The Best Laszlo Kreizler Quotes

Laszlo: I suspect your compassion stems from a bereavement, Mrs. Carlisle.
Mrs. Carlisle: My William departed this earth when he was six months old. Nothing compares to losing an infant.

J.P. Morgan: Gentlemen, you have made yourself a very wide variety of very powerful enemies in a very short period of time. Now, I can offer you no public support, but a quick resolution to this sordid affair is in everyone's best interest. Therefore, if you should find yourself in need of any resources in your quest to find this man...
Dr. Laszlo Kreizler: Thank you, Mr. Morgan... but there would be no advantage to our investigation to have your financial involvement, especially if it were ever to be made public.
J.P. Morgan: [pauses in disappointment] I see.
[pauses again]
J.P. Morgan: You gentlemen have yourselves a good day.

Laszlo: [to guest at engagement ball] It's more than somewhat depressing. Such wanton extravagance fills me with melancholia.

Stevie: [waiting on carriage] Dr. Kreizler, ain't we wastin' our time?
Laszlo: Time is never wasted when one is thinking. That is what is wondrous about the human mind.
[pauses]
Laszlo: We may appear still, yet all the time, in here
[points to his head]
Laszlo: , we're conducting symphonies, solving the most arduous mathematical problems, and contemplating the mysteries of the universe.

John: Why would you turn down his offer if he wants to help you?
Dr. Laszlo Kreizler: Men such as J.P. Morgan are only capable of doing what they perceive to be in their best interest. You don't take something from people like that without them expecting something in return.
John: But what could a man like J.P. Morgan want from you?
Dr. Laszlo Kreizler: I don't know, but I'm most unwilling to find out.

Laszlo: I'm certain cold-blooded killers walk among us. They're out there now, hidden, yet their motives are understandable, but this one is different. His acts are so wretched, so evil that... only if I become him, if I cut the child's throat myself... if I run my knife through the helpless body and pluck innocent eyes from a horrified face, only then will I come to truly understand what I am. Only then will I recognize that what drives me is not an absence of emotion at all. Rather, a torrent of feeling. The kind that gives meaning and purpose to my own blackened soul. I must see life as he sees it. Feel pain as he feels it. Take the same path he takes. Yes. I must follow this wherever it goes... even if it leads me to the darkest pit of Hell.

Laszlo: I believe we all possess the raw material required to commit horrible acts. We just need the right or wrong combination of events to make the raw material combustible.

Laszlo: Saliva contains a natural coagulant. That means it clots the blood and allows for hemostasis. It's why animals lick their wounds.

Laszlo: The events earlier this evening were simply a distraction. There's a phenomenon common in visual perception that when something is drawing the eye's attention, an object, a source of light, we become almost blind to surrounding objects.
Marcus: The human eye cannot help but fixate on certain stimuli.
Lucius: And in such cases the person isn't even aware that their perception is limited, so subtle is the effect.
Laszlo: The same can be true of the mind. And so it is with us we have gone off-course.

Laszlo: Of all of Spain's painters, I think I admire Francisco Goya the most. He was able to turn his gaze inward and depict his subconscious desires and horrors.

John: V, this is Dr. Kreizler.
Violet: The famous Dr. Kreizler? The alienist?
Laszlo: I hazard that I'm more derided than acclaimed.
Violet: I fear if I spoke with you at any great length you would know the deep recesses of my mind.
[chuckles]
Laszlo: Or the shimmering shadows.
John: Laszo... Sometimes you go too far.
[shakes his head]

Laszlo: [to Osgood] The three agencies of action within human nature are appetite, spirit, and reason. Before *me* I see appetite has vanquished both spirit, and reason.

Laszlo: Every mind is like the ocean, Miss Hayward. There's surface and depth in all of us.