Doctor Who is one of the longest running TV shows in history, with a total of over 850 episodes over 37 seasons. It has been a cultural institution since its inception in 1963, introducing science fiction at its best to millions of viewers. The BBC show has also given viewers some of the best, heartfelt and smartest writing on television. The series has also given us David Tennant, Matt Smith, Bad Wolf, and the best love story this side of the galaxy. We won’t even name which ones because there were so many. So grab your Tardis cup, search the room for crying angels, and browse our collection of some of the best Doctor Who quotes from 1963.

  • “The universe is big. It’s huge and complicated and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, just impossible things happen and we call them miracles.”

  • “Do what I do. Hold on and pretend it’s a plan!”

  • “Rule 1: The doctor lies.”

  • “I am and always will be the optimist. The hopeful of far-off hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”

  • “The way I see it, every life is a bunch of good and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but conversely, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”

  • “Everyone knows that everyone dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days nobody dies at all. Every now and then, every day in a million days, when the wind is up and the doctor comes calling, everybody lives.”

  • “You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a boner! You say no! You have the courage to do what’s right, even when everyone else just walks away.”

  • “Some people live more in twenty years than others live in eighty. It’s not the time that counts, it’s the person.”

  • “You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don’t change their views to the facts; they change the facts to their views.”

  • “Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in.”

  • “Rest is for the weary, sleep is for the dead.”

  • “Hermits United. We meet every 10 years, swap stories about caves. It’s fun… For a hermit.”

  • “There are many things you need to get through this universe. Warp drive … Wormhole refractors … You know what you need most? You need a hand to hold.”

  • “People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective point of view – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly…. ”

  • “Amy Pond, there’s something you better understand about me because it’s important, and one day your life depends on it: I am definitely a crazy man with a box!”

  • “Don’t blink. Don’t even blink. Blink and you’re dead. Don’t turn back. Don’t look away. And don’t blink.”

  • “I’ll be a story in your head. That’s okay. We’re all stories in the end. Just make it good, huh? Because it was, you know. It was the best. The bloody old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I always meant to take it back.”

  • “You can tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel.”

  • “Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? I was like that.”

  • “Good men don’t need rules.”
  • “Never run when you’re scared.”
  • “If we die, let us die like a Peruvian folk band.”
  • “He is like fire and ice. He is like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He is old and forever. He burns in the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And … he is wonderful.”
  • “What’s the point in having two hearts if you can’t forgive a little now and then?”
  • “There’s no point in being an adult if you can’t be childish sometimes.”
  • “When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all…. Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much crazier. And so much better.”
  • “You want guns? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!”
  • “Let it come to you. You know what that means? To be alive. The best there is. Being alive right now is all that matters.”
  • “Superior intelligence and senseless cruelty just don’t mix.”
  • “A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.”
  • “Come on, Rory! It’s not rocket science, it’s just quantum physics!”
  • “When you step on a butterfly, you change the future of humanity.”
  • “The way I see it, every life is a bunch of good things and … bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but conversely, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.”
  • “The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, They define us, as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world or a relationship…. Everything has its time. And everything ends.”
  • “Big flashy things have my name written all over them. Well… Not yet, give me time and a crayon.”
  • “Never ignore coincidence. Unless you are busy. In that case, always ignore chance.”
  • “In 900 years of time and space, I have never met anyone who didn’t matter”
  • “Always take a banana to a party, Rose: bananas are good!”
  • “Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But you’re wrong. Because it’s not irrational.”
  • “Biting is excellent. It’s like kissing – only there’s a winner.”
  • “This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that matters is here and now, and that’s me!”
  • “Everything has to end at some point. Otherwise, nothing would ever get started.”
  • “There’s always something to see when you open your eyes!”
  • “Never be sure of anything. It’s a sign of weakness.”
  • “Courage is not just not being afraid. It’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.”
  • “The universe is big. It’s huge and complicated and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, just impossible things happen and we call them miracles.”
  • “Do what I do. Hold on and pretend it’s a plan!”
  • “Nine hundred years of time and space, and I’ve never been beaten by anyone’s mother.”
  • “I am and always will be the optimist. The hopeful of far-off hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”
  • “Let it come to you. You know what that means? To be alive. The best thing there is.
  • Being alive in the moment is all that matters.”
  • “This is a corner… of a country, on a continent, on a planet that is a corner of a galaxy that is a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never staying the same for a single millisecond. And there’s so much, so much to see.”
  • “There’s something that doesn’t make sense. Let’s stick it with a stick.”
  • “Fly is cool.”
  • “You know when sometimes you meet someone who’s so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they’re boring as a brick. But then there’s other people, and you meet them, and you think ‘not bad, they’re okay,’ and then you get to know them, and their face becomes them, like their personality is written all over it, and they just turn into something so beautiful…”
  • “I don’t know. I can’t tell the future that I’m just working there.”
  • “You know when adults tell you everything’s going to be okay, but you really think they’re lying to make you feel better? Everything will be fine.”
  • “Never use force, you’re just embarrassing yourself. Unless you are cross, in which case …. always use force!”
  • “You should always waste time when you have none. Time is not the boss of you. Rule 408.”
  • “Has no one ever told you anything? There’s one thing you’ll never trap if you’re smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have plans to see tomorrow, there’s one thing you never trap. Me.”
  • “Go to your room! Go to your room! I mean it. I’m very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross! GO! CLOSE! YOUR! ROOM! [The children stitch removed and obeyed him.] I’m really glad it worked. Those would have been terrible last words.”
  • “You don’t want to take over the universe. You wouldn’t know what to do with it except yell at it.”
  • “Never be knowingly serious. Rule 27.”
  • “You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?”
  • “So that’s how it works doctor? You never interfere with the affairs of other peoples or planets unless children are crying?”
  • “I’ve traveled the world. From the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of China, across the radiation pits of Europe. And everywhere I went, I saw people like you, living as slaves! But if Martha Jones became a legend, that’s wrong because my name doesn’t matter. There is someone else. The man who sent me there, the man who told me to walk the earth. And his name is The Doctor. He saved your life so many times and you never knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I’ve seen him, I know him … I love him… And I know what he can do.”
  • “Though the man upstairs might say hello, don’t expect love from the beast downstairs.”
  • “When I was your age-about a thousand years ago-I loved a good bedtime story. The Three Little Sontarans. The Emperor Dalek’s new clothes. Snow White and the Seven Keys to the End of the World, huh? All the classics.”
  • “I saw the fall of Troy! World War Five! I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party! Now I’m going to die in a dungeon…. [disgusted off] in Cardiff!”
  • “The only water in the forest is the river.”
  • “Because every time you see them happy, you remember how sad they’ll be. And it breaks your heart. Because what’s the point of them being happy now if they’re going to be sad later? The answer, of course, is because they will be sad later.”
  • “We all change when you think about it. We’re all different people throughout our lives. And that’s OK, that’s good, you have to keep moving as long as you remember all the people you used to be.”
  • “When we learn from each other, we learn about ourselves.”
  • “I had forgotten that not all victories are about saving the universe.”
  • “Don’t play games with me! You just killed someone I like, this is not a safe place to
  • stand! I’m the Doctor and you’re in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.”
  • “I’ve lived a long life, and I’ve seen some things. I walked away from the last great time war. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the Universe, and watched time pass from moment to moment until there was nothing left; no time, no space. Just me. I walked into universes where the laws of physics were evolved by the mind of a madman. I saw universes freeze and creations burn. I’ve seen things you won’t believe, I’ve lost things you’ll never understand. And I know things, secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that makes parasite gods glow! So come then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You got it all!”
  • “I am the bad wolf. I create myself. I take the words. I scatter them … In time and space. A message that leads me here.”
  • “Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.”
  • “Why do men never do as they are told? Someone should replace you all with robots. No, on second thought, they shouldn’t, bad idea.”
  • “I love people. Always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.”
  • “Well, we went through the fair a bit – we did the roller coaster, now we’re on the ghost train.”
  • “One of these days I’ll be back. Yes, I’ll be back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no fears. Just go ahead in all your convictions and prove to me that I am not wrong in mine.”
  • “You think you’ve seen it all? Think again. Outside these doors, we could see everything. We could find new worlds, horrible monsters, impossible things. And if you come with me…nothing will ever be the same!”
  • “The fourth great and rich human empire. And there it is: planet Earth at its height. Covered with megacities, five moons, population 96 billion. The hub of a galactic domain spanning a million planets, a million species. With humanity at its center.”
  • “Oh, that shows again. They’re screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet on them?”
  • “Rose wasn’t ‘ordinary. What was I supposed to do? Wrap you in wool? Tell her ‘ Here, I could give you the universe, but I won’t, in case you get hurt? There’s all this stuff out there, all these planets, all these wonders, but I want you to stay home and work in a store?”
  • “I remembered that my name is Smith. Almost definitely. Good old English name. It means “noble brave warrior” and not ” who hits kittens with a hammer. “You’d be surprised at the derivations of common surnames in the English countryside…”
  • “I’m about to do something very smart and a little bit against the rules of the universe. It’s important that I’m dressed right.”
  • “The secret is not just being stunning, which I find comes pretty easily, to be honest. The tricky thing is getting just the right level of stunning for the occasion.”
  • We’re dealing with a psycho-temporal entity that manifests through a critical mass of its sentient shell…. Magic sounds more fun.”
  • “Good is good in the last hour, in the deepest pit – without hope, without testimony, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis.”
  • “Everything ends and it’s always sad, but everything begins again, too. And that is always happy. Be happy.”
  • “I’m going to tell you a story about a man who travels, and everywhere he goes he makes everyone’s life better. I am not that man. That man doesn’t exist. I wish he did. I would believe in him.”
  • “Don’t worry, I’ll shield you. When we crashed here and it first attacked me, I was caught with my mental pants down. Not anymore. The psychic force field is intact. Belts and braces. Braces are very cool, by the way.”
  • “I don’t run from things,I run to them. Before they flare up and fade away forever.”
  • “It’s hard to know what will be a waste of time until after time is wasted, at which time it’s too late. So predicting what will be a waste of time is a waste of time. Unless, of course, you enjoy it, when it’s probably not considered a waste of time.”
  • “Something pretty bad is happening nearby in the space-time continuum. The TARDIS is a terrible gummer – like a little old lady, it can’t resist slowing down for a gawp in a car crash in the next lane. Bless.”
  • “I think there’s always a way to make things right. If I didn’t think I would get up in the morning, I wouldn’t eat breakfast; I would never leave the TARDIS. I would never have left the house. There’s always something we can do.”
  • “That brings me to you, Prince Boris. And I’m sorry, but here’s the thing…. I think you’re one of the nicest Russian aristocrats I’ve ever met that I haven’t been forced into an arranged marriage with.”
  • “How come” burbled “is in the Oxford English Dictionary,” but tulgy ” is not? Huh?”
  • “We might as well start. Help to pass the timey-wimey. Do you have to talk like children? What is it about being an adult that makes you so ashamed? Oh. The way you’re both looking at me. I’m trying to think of a better word than “afraid.””

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