"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."
There, now that we've got that Anakin classic out of the way, we can move on to the fifty-two best Star Wars quotes! In honor of May the 4th, we're looking at some of the most memorable lines from Star Wars movies, TV series, and books. Memorize them now so you can be extra prepared when Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters in December.
"Use the force, Luke."
This iconic A New Hope line delivered by Force Ghost Obi-Wan to Luke is instrumental in helping Luke destroy the first Death Star.
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"Always in motion is the future."
Ahhh, Yoda. Always so wise. This Empire Strikes Back line is delivered by Yoga on Dagobah to Luke as a warning of caution about rushing off to Cloud City.
"These aren’t the droids you’re looking for."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Nobody knows how to Jedi mind trick their way through a Stormtrooper checkpoint like Ben Kenobi. This classic line is delivered in A New Hope as Luke and Ben make their way to Mos Eisley.
"Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?"
Leia has some thoughts about Stormtrooper height requirements, and she's not afraid to share them with Luke when he arrives at her Death Star cell in A New Hope.
“A tyrant can make anything seem to be ‘the will of the people.”
This line from the excellent Claudia Gray Star Wars novel Bloodline, set several years before The Force Awakens, encapsulates a lot of Leia's concerns about the political situation within the Galactic Senate during the very early days of the First Order.
"To defeat your enemy, you have to understand them."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Ahsoka Tano shares this bit of strategic wisdom in the season 2 Star Wars Rebels finale, "Twilight of the Apprentice."
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"Into the garbage chute, fly boy!"
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Leia knows the best way to hide on a Death Star in A New Hope.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."
While doling out a fatal force choke with his 'sorcerer's ways,' Vader delivers this sinister line to some dubious Moffs in A New Hope.
"I am altering the deal, pray I do not alter it further."
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- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
After Lando Calrissian objects to Vader taking Leia and Chewie from Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back, Vader has this snappy response.
"Yub nub!"
An Ewok phrase very loosely translated as "celebration," Yub Nub is a lyric in the rousing song heard during the final scene in the Ewok village of Return of the Jedi. Whip this line out for any Ewok haters out there.
"It’s a trap!"
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Heed this warning from Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi.
"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
An iconic line from Princess Leia, delivered by way of a hologram on R2-D2, and the first thing Luke ever hears his sister Leia say.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
A chilling line from Obi-Wan, about the sensation he experienced when Vader demonstrated the power of the Death Star on Leia's home planet of Alderaan.
"The garbage will do."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Finn makes the call to run for a "garbage ship" on Jakku while under attack by the First Order. Of course, that garbage ship also turns out to be the Millennium Falcon...
“Leadership is a role and a task that should never be aspired to lightly. Neither should loyalty be given without reason.”
Wise words from Timothy Zahn's 2017 book Thrawn.
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate ... leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Yoda delivers an unflattering but accurate assessment of Anakin's character in The Phantom Menace.
"So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Senator Padme Amidala expresses her horror at watching Palpatine rise, virtually unchecked, from senator to chancellor in Revenge of the Sith.
"Be careful not to choke on your aspirations."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
The ultimate Vader dad joke, delivered in Rogue One as he Force chokes Director Krennic.
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"So who talks first, you talk first, I talk first?"
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Captured rebel pilot Poe Dameron sasses Kylo Ren—and expresses my thoughts about every social interaction—during a raid on a Jakku village in The Force Awakens.
"That's not how the Force works!"
Han Solo reminds Finn that the force isn't a catch-all during The Force Awakens.
"Traitor!"
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
An epic battlecry delivered by Stormtrooper FN-3181 (or TR-8R, as he's frequently referred to on the Internet) upon seeing defected Stormtrooper Finn outside of Maz's tavern on Takadana.
"I love that Wookie!"
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Maz Kanata is shameless about her affection for Chewie in The Force Awakens, and we love her for it. Someone find Maz's boyfriend for her! She loves that Wookie!
"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
The mantra of Guardian of the Whills monk Chirrut Îmwe during times of strife in Rogue One is epic and unyielding.
"Save the rebellion. Save the dream."
Saw Gerrera's final words to his adopted daughter Jyn Erso before NaJheda is destroyed are a haunting reminder of the struggle between fascism and freedom that is at the heart of Star Wars.
"To defeat an enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history, philosophy, art."
The Thrawn trilogy, also known as the Heir to the Empire trilogy, is no longer canon, although Thrawn himself is. Regardless, this quote from the first book in the trilogy perfectly encapsulates Grand Admiral Thrawn's tactical brilliance, and deserves a spot on this list.
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"When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not.”
A mortally ill and ridiculously old Yoda still has sass in Return of the Jedi.
"I love you." "I know."
This iconic exchange between Leia and Han immediately before Han is frozen in carbonite in The Emperor Strikes Back warms the hearts of nerds everywhere.
"Never tell me the odds."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Han has no use for C-3PO's pessimistic calculations in A New Hope.
"No! I don't think he likes you at all. No, I don't like you either."
C-3PO is characteristically snooty to R2-D2 soon after meeting Luke on Tatooine in A New Hope.
"I'm Luke Skywalker and I'm here to rescue you!"
Moisture farm boy Luke is full of swagger when he arrives at Leia's cell to save her from captivity on the Death Star. Of course, she's the one who really wound up saving Luke.
"I am your father."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
One of the most iconic lines in movie history, period.
"You probably do not recognize me because of the red arm ..."
One of my personal favorite lines in Star Wars, C-3P0 says this on reuniting with Han and Chewie in The Force Awakens. But why would having a red arm render him unrecognizable? What happened to the arm? Why does 3P0 think anyone cares about the arm with the First Order wreaking havoc across the galaxy? All these questions are answered in Star Wars books and comics, but they make for a pleasingly bizarre moment of comedy in the movie.
"The Force is strong in my family, my father had it, I have it, my sister has it."
Luke delivers this line while in the Ewok village on Endor, subtly revealing to Leia that she is his own flesh and blood.
“Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.”
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Leia is full of nothing but piss and vinegar for her tormentors while captured on the Death Star in A New Hope.
"That's a name I've not heard in a long time."
'Old Ben' pauses upon hearing himself referred to as Obi-Wa Kenobi in A New Hope.
"Then I'll see you in Hell."
Han, such a maverick! Upon being cautioned not to go outside at night on Hoth in search of Luke, Han heads out on a lone tauntaun, telling a rebel guard 'I'll see you in hell' when warned the rescue mission will mean certain death. Bad. Ass.
"I’ve been in this fight since I was six years old. You’re not the only one who lost everything. Some of us just decided to do something about it.”
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Cassian Andor, reminding Jyn in Rogue One that she isn't the only one who has lost people she loves.
"I have a bad feeling about this!"
Said by the majority of characters, in the majority of the movies.
"Do or do not, there is no try."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Yoda challenges Luke to lift an X-Wing out of a Dagobah swamp inThe Empire Strikes Back.
“How you get so big eating food of this kind?”
I love everything about the scene where Yoda and Luke first meet on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back, before Luke realizes he is in fact talking to revered Jedi master Yoda and not an irreverent tiny swamp grubber. This line is particularly absurd.
"Who's scruffy looking?"
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Han takes objection to Leia's description of him as a "half-wit, scruffy-looking nerf herder" in The Empire Strikes back.
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"Let the Wookie win."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
That's just good advice. As Han says in A New Hope, when playing Dejarik (or in any contest, really) it's best to let the Wookie win.
"What an incredible smell you've discovered."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Han has some sarcastic words for Leia after she urges them to escape stormtroopers by fleeing into the garbage chute in A New Hope.
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"But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!"
Listen, when you've spent your life bulls-eyeing womp rats and helping out around a moisture farm, I'm sure picking up power converters sounds like a wild time. This is a quintessential whiney Luke line from A New Hope, and I love it.
"It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Han's boast about the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope has inspired countless nerd debates over parsecs as a unit of measurement vs. distance.
“I am no Jedi.”
This Ahsoka Tano quote from the Season 2 Star Wars Rebels episode "Twilight of the Apprentice" is a powerful representation of her self-awareness and commitment to her own ideals. When the Jedi Order fails her, she leaves it, but remains loyal to the Rebellion.
"Chewie, we're home."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
If you didn't get misty-eyed at the moment Chewie and Han step back onto the Falcon in The Force Awakens, then I don't know what to say to you.
"An elegant weapon for a more civilized age."
Obi-Wan Kenobi's iconic review of lightsabers in A New Hope.
"Hope."
The final line from Rogue One, spoken by Leia, encapsulates the spirit of the entire Rebellion and the appeal of the Star Wars universe.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
This Kylo Ren line demonstrates his commitment to abandoning allegiance to the past and ruling the galaxy as his own person — not simply as a retread of his martyred grandfather Darth Vader, or as a crony of Snoke. With this decree, Kylo has nothing left to lose, and he's not afraid to scorch the galaxy around him and destroy old faces from his past on his quest for power.
"Pages turners, they were not."
- Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
In a line that is representative of the refreshing irreverence for Star Wars tradition seen throughout The Last Jedi, Force Ghost Yoda delivers this bit of wisdom to Luke after destroying the Jedi temple and library on Ahch-To. Here, Yoda is reminding Luke that Rey has everything she needs to learn the ways of the Jedi, even without tradition.
"Everything you've heard about me is true."
With this swagger-filled line from young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Donald Glover immediately proved he had the charisma and charm to capture the character originated by Billy Dee Williams. Calrissian is one of the most magnetic, but least-explored, characters in the Skywalker trilogies. This line nods to Lando's confidence, and to his knack for exaggerating his own exploits to create a useful mystique around himself and his various shady enterprises.
"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."
Oh, look at that. It made the list anyway.
Featured still from "The Empire Strikes Back" via LucasFilm
