Maudisms:
“A lot of people enjoy being dead, but they’re not dead really; they’re just backing away from life. Reach out, take a chance, get hurt even, but play as well as you can. Go team go!!! Give me an 'L.' Give me an 'I.' Give me a 'V.' Give me an 'E.' L-I-V-E. Live! Otherwise, you’ve got nothing to talk about in the locker room.”
Maude: I should like to change into a sunflower most of all; they're so tall and simple. What flower would you like to be?
Harold: I don't know. One of these, maybe. [he says while gesturing toward the multitude of daisies around them]
Maude: Why do you say that?
Harold: Because they're all alike.
Maude: Oh, but they're NOT! Look. See, some are smaller; some are fatter; some grow to the left, some to the right; some even have lost some petals. All kinds of observable differences! You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sorrow comes from people who are this (pointing to one daisy), yet allow themselves to be treated as that (gesturing toward the whole field of daisies). [listen]
"Look at it, oh; it's suffocating. It's the smog. You know people can live with it, but, trees, it give them asthma; they can't breathe. The leaves, look, they're turning brown." [listen]
“You go to funerals often, don’t you? Yeah, so do I, they’re such fun aren’t they?”
“If some people get upset because they feel the have a hold on some things, I’m merely acting as a gentle reminder, ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ so, don’t get attached to things. Now with that in mind, I’m not against collecting stuff…but it’s [all] incidental not integral.”
“Ah me, free as a bird.”
“Zoos are full, prisons are overflowing. Oh my, how the world still dearly loves a cage.”
“Try something new each day. After all, we're given life to find it out. It doesn't last forever."
"I like to watch things grow. They grow and bloom, and fade, and die, and change into something else.”
“Consistency is not really a human trait.”
Harold: "What were you fighting for?"
Maude: "Big issues, liberty, rights, justice. Kings died, kingdoms fell. I don’t regret the kingdoms. What sense in borders and nations and patriotism?"
Harold: "So, no more revolts?"
Maude: “Oh yes, oh everyday, but I don’t need a defense anymore; I embrace. Still fighting for the big issues, but now in my small individual ways."
“Everybody should be able to make some music, that’s the cosmic dance.”
"The earth is my body. My head is in the stars." [listen]
“Isn't it wonderful? All around us, living things!”
To a police officer who pulls her over:
“Don’t get officious; you’re not yourself when you’re officious. That’s the curse of a government job.”
“Vice? Virtue? It's best not to be too moral. You cheat yourself out of too much life. Aim above morality. If you apply that to life, then you’re bound to live it fully.”
Harold: "Maude, they’re going to draft me."
Maude: "Don’t go!"
Harold: "They’ll put me in jail."
Maude: "Well, historically you’d be in very good company."
Harold: "Maude, do you pray?"
Maude: "Pray? No, I communicate."
Harold: "With God?"
Maude: "With life."
Harold: "You certainly have a way with people."
Maude: "Well, they’re my species."
“Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You can’t let the world judge you too much.” [listen]
“Dreyfus once wrote from Devil’s Island that he had seen the most glorious birds. Many years later, in Brittany, he realized they ‘had only been sea gulls.’ To me, they will always be glorious birds.” [listen]
Harold gives Maude a gift, upon which is printed, 'Harold loves Maude.' Maude replies, "and Maude loves Harold." Then she throws the gift into the air and it lands in the water in front of them. Harold looks at Maude in a very puzzled way, and she says, “So, I’ll always know where it is.”
Harold: "Don’t die Maude, for Christ’s sake."
Maude: "Oh Harold, don’t upset yourself so."
Harold: "I love you, I love you!"
Maude: "Oh, Harold that’s wonderful. Go and love some more!
