The Man from Earth Quotes
An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he never ages and has walked the earth for 14,000 years.
Dan: Time... you can't see it, you can hear it, you can't weigh it, you can't... measure it in a laboratory. It is a subjective sense of... becoming, what we... are, in stead of what we were a nanosecond ago, becoming what we will be in another nanosecond. The whole piece of time's a landscape existing, we form behind us and we move, we move through it... slice by slice.
Linda Murphy: Clocks measure time.
Dan: No, they measure themselves, the objective referee of a clock is another clock.
Edith: All very interesting, but what has it got to do with John?
Dan: He, he might be man who... lives... outside of time as we know it.
Linda Murphy: Clocks measure time.
Dan: No, they measure themselves, the objective referee of a clock is another clock.
Edith: All very interesting, but what has it got to do with John?
Dan: He, he might be man who... lives... outside of time as we know it.
Dan: There's absolutely no way in the whole world for John to prove his story. Just like there's no way for us to disprove it. No matter how outrageous we think it is, no matter how highly trained some of us think we are, there's absolutely no way to disprove it! My friend is either a caveman, a liar, or a nut. So while we're thinking about that, why don't we just go with it.
John Oldman: I suspect I saw the British Isles from what is now the French coast. Huge mountains on the other side of an enormous deep valley that was shadowed by the setting sun. This was before they were separated from the continent by the rising seas as the glacier was melting.
Harry: That happened?
Dan: Yes, the end of the Plasticine Period. So far what he says fits.
Art: [incredulous] Oh get... from any textbook...
John Oldman: And that's where I found it. How can I have knowledgeable recall if I didn't have knowledge? It's all retrospective. All I can do is integrate my recollections with modern findings.
Harry: That happened?
Dan: Yes, the end of the Plasticine Period. So far what he says fits.
Art: [incredulous] Oh get... from any textbook...
John Oldman: And that's where I found it. How can I have knowledgeable recall if I didn't have knowledge? It's all retrospective. All I can do is integrate my recollections with modern findings.
Dan: A medical test might be a way of proving of what you're saying
John Oldman: I don't wanna prove it.
Art: So, you're telling us this the yarn
[?]
Art: of the century and you don't care if we believe it or not?
John Oldman: I guess I should've expected you to... You're not as crazy as you think I am.
Edith: Amen!
Sandy: I've always liked you.
Edith: Well, thank you dear.
Sandy: Well, that's changing.
John Oldman: I don't wanna prove it.
Art: So, you're telling us this the yarn
[?]
Art: of the century and you don't care if we believe it or not?
John Oldman: I guess I should've expected you to... You're not as crazy as you think I am.
Edith: Amen!
Sandy: I've always liked you.
Edith: Well, thank you dear.
Sandy: Well, that's changing.
Dr. Will Gruber: When did you begin to believe you were Jesus?
John Oldman: When did you begin to believe you were a psychiatrist?
Dr. Will Gruber: Since I graduated from Harvard Medical School and finished my residency, I've had that feeling. Why I sometimes dream about it.
John Oldman: Have you acted upon this belief?
John Oldman: When did you begin to believe you were a psychiatrist?
Dr. Will Gruber: Since I graduated from Harvard Medical School and finished my residency, I've had that feeling. Why I sometimes dream about it.
John Oldman: Have you acted upon this belief?
Harry: [insistent] *You* are creating the mystery here obviously y'have something you'd like to say. Say it.
John Oldman: [Hesitant] Maybe... I...
Harry: [sing-song] Ten, nine, eight, seven, si...
Sandy: [Chiding] Harry, stop.
John Oldman: There is something I'm tempted to tell you I think, I've never done this before, I wonder how it will pan out. I wonder if I could ask you a silly question?
Art: [Scoffing] John, we're teachers, we answer silly questions all the time
Linda Murphy: [Teasing] Hey!
John Oldman: What if a man from the upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?
John Oldman: [Hesitant] Maybe... I...
Harry: [sing-song] Ten, nine, eight, seven, si...
Sandy: [Chiding] Harry, stop.
John Oldman: There is something I'm tempted to tell you I think, I've never done this before, I wonder how it will pan out. I wonder if I could ask you a silly question?
Art: [Scoffing] John, we're teachers, we answer silly questions all the time
Linda Murphy: [Teasing] Hey!
John Oldman: What if a man from the upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?
Edith: My God, what is this? It looks like a genuine Van Gogh, but I've never seen it before...
Dan: Is that an original, John?
John Oldman: No, it's just a gift someone gave me.
Edith: Still, it's a superb copy. Contemporaneous I think, may I take a closer look?
John Oldman: Please, yeah.
Edith: Yes, it's the same stretcher Van Gogh used.
Dan: Hey, there's writing on the back. It's in French.
Edith: To my friend Jacques Bon. Wonder who that was?
John Oldman: Someone he knew, I guess.
Dan: Is that an original, John?
John Oldman: No, it's just a gift someone gave me.
Edith: Still, it's a superb copy. Contemporaneous I think, may I take a closer look?
John Oldman: Please, yeah.
Edith: Yes, it's the same stretcher Van Gogh used.
Dan: Hey, there's writing on the back. It's in French.
Edith: To my friend Jacques Bon. Wonder who that was?
John Oldman: Someone he knew, I guess.
Dan: Wouldn't you have some relic, an artifact, to remind you of your earlier life? Like this maybe.
[holding up bone tool]
John Oldman: Thrift shop. Really.
John Oldman: [lecturing now] If you lived a hundred, a thousand years, would you still have this?
[holds up ballpoint pen]
John Oldman: What would cause you to keep it? As a memento to your beginnings, even if you didn't have a concept of beginnings? It would be gone. Lost. No. I don't have artifacts. Keep that.
[tosses the ballpoint pen to Harry]
Dan: Interesting. You could have lied about that.
John Oldman: [totally serious] Don't talk about me while I'm gone.
[holding up bone tool]
John Oldman: Thrift shop. Really.
John Oldman: [lecturing now] If you lived a hundred, a thousand years, would you still have this?
[holds up ballpoint pen]
John Oldman: What would cause you to keep it? As a memento to your beginnings, even if you didn't have a concept of beginnings? It would be gone. Lost. No. I don't have artifacts. Keep that.
[tosses the ballpoint pen to Harry]
Dan: Interesting. You could have lied about that.
John Oldman: [totally serious] Don't talk about me while I'm gone.
