Philadelphia
Philadelphia

[Andrew transcendentally describes his favorite opera,slowly walking around his apartment, closing his eyes, looking up]
Andrew Beckett: Do you like opera?
Joe Miller: I'm not that familiar with opera.
Andrew Beckett: This is my favorite aria. This is Maria Callas. This is "Andrea Chenier", Umberto Giordano. This is Madeleine.

She's saying how during the French Revolution, a mob set fire to her house, and her mother died... saving her. "Look, the place that cradled me is burning." Can you hear the heartache in her voice? Can you feel it, Joe? In come the strings, and it changes everything. The music fills with a hope, and that'll change again. Listen... listen..."I bring sorrow to those who love me." Oh, that single

cello! "It was during this sorrow that love came to me." A voice filled with harmony. It says, "Live still, I am life. Heaven is in your eyes. Is everything around you just the blood and mud? I am divine. I am oblivion. I am the god... that comes down from the heavens, and makes of the Earth a heaven. I am love!... I am love."

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Librarian: [standing next to his table] Sir, wouldn't you be more comfortable in a study room?
[Andrew looks up and sees people in the library staring at him]
Andrew Beckett: No. Would it make you more comfortable?

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Judge Garrett: In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation.
Joe Miller: With all due respect, your honor, we don't live in this courtroom, do we?

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: Have you ever felt discriminated against at Wyatt Wheeler?
Anthea Burton: Well, yes.
Joe Miller: In what way?
Anthea Burton: Well, Mr. Wheeler's secretary, Lydia, said that Mr. Wheeler had a problem with my earrings.
Joe Miller: Really?
Anthea Burton:

Apparently Mr. Wheeler felt that they were too..."Ethnic" is the word she used. And she told me that he said that he would like it if I wore something a little less garish, a little smaller, and more "American."
Joe Miller: What'd you say?
Anthea Burton: I said my earrings are American. They're African-American.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [in a bar, to Filko, after seeing Andy being interviewed by reporters] Some of these people make me sick. But a law's been broken here. You do remember the law, don't you?

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: What do you love about the law, Andrew?
Andrew Beckett: [from the witness stand] I... many things... uh... uh... What I love the most about the law?
Joe Miller: Yeah.
Andrew Beckett: It's that every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That

really is quite a thrill when that happens.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: Now, explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [sitting on opposite sides of the table in the library, reading to each other from their text books] The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against otherwise qualified handicapped persons who are able to perform the duties required by their employment. Although the ruling did not address the specific issue of HIV and AIDS

discrimination...
Andrew Beckett: Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law, not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precede... which precedes the actual physical one.
Joe Miller: This is the essence of discrimination:

formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits, but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [while being interviewed by reporters] We're standing here in Philadelphia, the, uh, city of brotherly love, the birthplace of freedom, where the, uh, founding fathers authored the Declaration of Independence, and I don't recall that glorious document saying anything about all straight men are created equal. I believe it says all men are created equal.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

[his last lines, while lying on a hospital bed]
Andrew Beckett: Miguel, I'm ready.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [to Jamey Collins on the witness stand] are you gay?
Jamey Collins: [confused] what?
Joe Miller: [gradually raising his voice] are you gay?, You know a faggot?, A, a punk, a fruit, a queen, a fairy a booby snatcher, rump roaster, pillow biter, ARE YOU GAY?

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Bud Beckett: [to Andrew, during a family gathering, celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary for his parents] Uh, Andy, the way, the way that you handled this whole thing - uh, you and Miguel with, with so much courage - I don't believe there's anything that, that anyone could say that could make us feel anything but... incredibly proud of you.
Sarah

Beckett: Well, I didn't raise my kids to sit in the back of the bus. You get in there and you fight for your rights, okay?
Andrew Beckett: Gee, I love you guys.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: What's wrong with your face?
Andrew Beckett: [upon entering Joe's office] I have AIDS.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Andrew Beckett: [while lying on a hospital bed] What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?
Joe Miller: [amused,sitting next to him on the hospital bed] I don't know.
Andrew Beckett: A good start.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Andrew Beckett: [in Joe's office] That's their story. Wanna hear mine?
Joe Miller: How many lawyers did you go to before me?
Andrew Beckett: Nine.
Joe Miller: Go on.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [standing next to his table] Who did you get?
Andrew Beckett: [sitting down at his table] What?
Joe Miller: Did you find a lawyer?
Andrew Beckett: I'm a lawyer.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [part of his opening statement to the jury] Forget everything you've seen on television and in the movies.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Andrew Beckett: I appreciate your faith in my abilities.
Charles Wheeler: Faith, Andy, is the belief in something for which we have no evidence. It doesn't apply to this situation.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Belinda Conine: [to her colleagues, after having held a mirror in front of Andy to show the court his skin lesions] I hate this case.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia

Joe Miller: [after being propositioned] What, you think I'm gay?
Young Man in Pharmacy: [confused] Aren't you?
Joe Miller: [irritated, looks down at his clothes] Do I look gay to you?
Young Man in Pharmacy: [looks down at his clothes] Do I look gay to you?