For such a heartwarming movie, it’s surprising that the film’s production was so full of drama. For starters, there were four directors, although Victor Fleming directed most of the film before ducking out to work on another future classic, Gone With the Wind. Then there were the hospitalizations. During filming, both Margaret Hamilton (who played the Wicked Witch of the West/Almira Gulch) and Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man, had to seek urgent medical attention because of their makeup. Hamilton’s copper makeup was so toxic that she had to stay on a liquid diet, but even worse, while filming an escape from Munchkinland, she suffered second and third degree burns that took weeks to recover from. Ebsen had to be in an oxygen tent because of his reaction to his aluminum makeup and was ultimately replaced (don’t worry, he went on to leave his mark in The Beverly Hillbillies). The cast also had a grueling filming schedule. “They’d take us to the studio hospital and knock us out with sleeping pills,” JudyGarland (Dorothy) once recalled later. “After four hours they’d wake us up and give us the pep pills again so we could work 72 hours in a row. Half of the time we were hanging from the ceiling, but it was a way of life for us.” Garland was not yet the star she would become, even though she’d been in a few MGM films up to that point. Producer Mervyn LeRoy said, “I fixed all her teeth in front.She had big wide spaces. That was the first thing I did with Judy Garland.” It’s now widely known that Garland had an especially difficult time throughout filming. She was on a very strict diet, dealt with sexual harassment on set and was even slapped by Fleming for catching a case of the giggles—even though reportedly, she didn’t mind much and spoke positively about him for the rest of her life. Garland, 16 at the time, wasn’t even meant to be the star of the film at first. Persistent rumors say that cherub-faced, 10-year-old box-office darling ShirleyTemple was the expected first choice, but she either didn’t have the singing chops or the contract freedom to be in the movie. Still, what remains today is the gorgeous film itself, which is colorful, delightful and easily watchable time and time again. The yearning described in the song “Over the Rainbow” (a song that was almost cut from the film) leads to discoveries that have resonated with fans for decades—most notably, “There’s no place like home,” and Oprah Winfrey’s purported favorite, “You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it yourself.” All of the film’s heroes were seeking qualities they had inside them all along, and perhaps viewers hope there’s some magic inside them that will help when they need it most. When you feel like following the yellow brick road, relive the famous movie’s magic with these 50 The Wizard of Oz quotes and lines that will tickle your fancy, encourage your inner child and leave you feeling happily nostalgic.
The Wizard of Oz Quotes
The Wizard of Oz quotes from Glinda, the Good Witch of the North
- “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”
- “You’ve no power here! Begone, before someone drops a house on you too!”
- “You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it yourself.”
The Wizard of Oz quotes from Dorothy
- “Someplace where there isn’t any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be.”
- “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
- “My! People come and go so quickly here!”
- “Don’t be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don’t talk.”
- “My goodness, what a fuss you’re making! Well naturally, when you go around picking on things weaker than you are. Why, you’re nothing but a great big coward!”
- “Lions, and tigers and bears! Oh my!"
- “Run, Toto, run! Run Toto, run! He got away! He got away!”
- “Oh, Auntie Em, don’t go away! I’m frightened! Come back! Come back!”
- “I didn’t mean to kill her. Really, I didn’t. It’s just that he was on fire.”
- “Oh please, Professor, why can’t we go with you and see all the Crowned Heads of Europe?”
- “I think I’ll miss you most of all.”
- “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?”
- “There’s no place like home.”
- “Toto, we’re home. Home! And this is my room, and you’re all here. And I’m not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and - oh, Auntie Em - there’s no place like home!”
The Wizard of Oz quotes from the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion
- “Of course, some people do go both ways.”
- “Come along, Dorothy. You don’t want any of those apples! Hmph!”
- “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?”
- “Don’t stand there talking! Put me together! We’ve got to find Dorothy!”
- “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side. Oh joy! Rapture! I got a brain! How can I ever thank you enough?”
- “I hope your tail holds out!”
- “Now I know I’ve got a heart, ‘cause it’s breaking.”
- “Put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!”
- “You’re right, I am a coward! I haven’t any courage at all. I even scare myself.”
- “I do believe in spooks, I do, I do, I do, I do!”
- “What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in apricot? What have they got that I ain’t got?”
- “Wait a minute, fellas. I was just thinking. I really don’t want to see the Wizard this much. I’d better wait for you outside.”
- “I’ll go in there for Dorothy. Wicked Witch or no Wicked Witch, guards or no guards, I’ll tear them apart. I may not come out alive, but I’m going in there. There’s only one thing I want you fellas to do… talk me out of it.”
The Wizard of Oz quotes from the Wicked Witch of the West
- “Here Scarecrow, wanna play ball?”
- “I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!”
- “These things must be done delicately, or you hurt the spell.”
- “See that? That’s how much longer you’ve got to be alive! And it isn’t long, my pretty, it isn’t long! I can’t wait forever to get those shoes!”
- “Leaving so soon? I wouldn’t hear of it! Why, my little party’s just beginning!”
- “Take special care of those ruby slippers, I want those most of all. Now fly! Fly!”
- “I’m melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I’m going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!”
The Wizard of Oz quotes from The Wizard of Oz and others
- “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “They have one thing you haven’t got: a diploma. Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitartus Committiartum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of ThD… That’s… Doctor of Thinkology.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “As for you, my fine friend, you’re a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate delusion that simply because you run away from danger, you have no courage. You’re confusing courage with wisdom.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “Back where I come from there are men who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called phila… er, phila… er, yes, er, Good Deed Doers.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “A heart is shown not by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “Oh, you liquidated her, eh? Very resourceful!” — The Wizard of Oz
- “Frightened? Child, you’re talking to a man who’s laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe. I was petrified.” — The Wizard of Oz
- “I can’t come back, I don’t know how it works! Good-bye, folks!” — The Wizard of Oz
- “For 23 years, I’ve been dying to tell you what I thought of you, and now… well, being a Christian woman, I can’t say it!” — Auntie Em
- “Well, how would you like to have someone come along and pick something off of you?” — Angry Apple Tree
- “Orders are nobody can see the Great Oz! Not nobody, not nohow!”— Doorman
- “That, my dear, is a ‘horse of a different color.’” — Carriage Driver Next, We’ve Got Chills! The 20 Most Memorable Quotes from Grease
