Star Wars turns 40 on 25 May. The film changed cinema history and went on to spawn numerous sequels, prequels, spin-offs, novels, fan art and merchandising. To celebrate this anniversary – as well as marking May the 4th – here are 40 of the greatest pearls of wisdom the space saga has given us.
40. “Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognised your foul stench when I was brought on board.”
Princess Leia insults Tarkin in the opening scenes of Star Wars (1977).
39. “So this is how liberty dies – with thunderous applause.”
Padme Amidala laments the march of history as she witnesses the birth of the Empire, in Revenge of the Sith (2005).
38. “Who’s the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?”
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s pithy put-down to Han Solo, in Star Wars.
37. “Show me again the power of the darkness … And I’ll let nothing stand in our way.”
Kylo Ren addresses his creepy Vader shrine in, The Force Awakens (2015).
36. “He’s holding a thermal detonator!”
C3PO alerts Jabba the Hutt to imminent danger from a disguised Leia, in Return of the Jedi (1983).
35. “You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness.”
Not content with lopping off several limbs and leaving him to die in the lava flows of Mustafar, young Obi-Wan also feels the need to point out what a mess Anakin Skywalker has made of things following their climactic battle, in Revenge of the Sith.
34. “We’ll take the next chance. And the next. On and on until we win … or the chances are spent.”
Jyn Erso hypes up her troops for the mission to Scarif, in Rogue One (2016).
33. “When 900 years old you reach, look as good, you will not, hmm?”
Yoda laments Luke Skywalker’s ageism, in Return of the Jedi.
32. “Crazy thing is, it’s true. The Force. The Jedi ... All of it. It’s all true.”
A soulful moment from Han Solo after he first meets Rey and Finn in The Force Awakens.
31. “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Yoda’s best quote from the prequels, delivered to young Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi council, in The Phantom Menace (1999).
30. “If you end your training now – if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did – you will become an agent of evil.”
More Yoda wisdom as he encourages Luke not to try and rescue Han and Leia, in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
29. “When did that ever help? And don’t say the Death Star.”
Leia and Han banter it out, in The Force Awakens.
28. “Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father, so I destroyed him.”
Kylo Ren hints to Han Solo that this is not going to be a father-and-son bonding session, in The Force Awakens.
27. “Congratulations. You are being rescued. Please do not resist.”
Imperial enforcer droid K-2SO makes his entrance in Rogue One.
26. “Now, young Skywalker, you will die.”
The Emperor gets ready to hit Luke with the full freaky power of his Force lightning, in Return of the Jedi.
25. “Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, Nerf-herder!”
Leia is unimpressed by Han’s cocky attitude, in The Empire Strikes Back.
24. “Ready are you? What know you of ready? For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. On what he was doing.”
Yoda dispatches more swampy wisdom to Luke, in The Empire Strikes Back.
23. “My father’s revenge. He built a flaw in the Death Star. He put a fuse in the middle of your machine and I’ve just told the entire galaxy how to light it.”
Jyn Erso revels in Orson Krennic’s final failure, in Rogue One.
22. “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
Obi-Wan warns Luke to keep his wits about him as they arrive in Mos Eisley Spaceport, in Star Wars.
21. “What do you know? We don’t all have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care about something. Suddenly the rebellion is real for you? Some of us live it. 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.”
Cassian Andor’s stirring speech to Jyn Erso after she accuses him of planning to shoot down her father, in Rogue One.
20. “You can’t win, Darth. Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
Obi-Wan predicts his own immortality during that first lightsaber battle, in Star Wars.
19. “There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?”
Supreme Leader Snoke’s question to Kylo Ren, in The Force Awakens.
18. “The Force is strong with this one.”
Vader vies to halt Luke’s assault on the Death Star, in Star Wars.
17. “I’ll tighten those restraints, scavenger scum.”
Stormtrooper JB-007 (a cameoing Daniel Craig) dismisses Rey’s attempts to mind-trick him into submission, in The Force Awakens.
16. “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”
Leia meets a disguised Luke, in Star Wars.
15. “Chewie, we’re home.”
Han and Chewbacca arrive back on the Millennium Falcon after decades away, in The Force Awakens.
14. “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
Vader makes ready with the force choke on sneering imperial officer Conan Antonio Motti, in Star Wars.
13. “Never tell me the odds!”
Han berates C3PO as the Millennium Falcon plunges into an asteroid field, in The Empire Strikes Back.
12. “Be careful not to choke on your aspirations.”
Vader’s triumphant return (and an immediate force choke on Krennic), in Rogue One.
11. “It’s not my fault!”
Han Solo laments his own bad luck as the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive fails, in Star Wars.
10. Leia: “I love you” Han: “I know”
Harrison Ford famously improvised this wonderful line in The Empire Strikes Back, as he is about to be frozen in carbonate.
9. Obi-Wan: “That boy is our last hope” Yoda: “No, there is another.”
The revelation that another Jedi might still be living as Luke leaves Dagobah, in The Empire Strikes Back.
8. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…”
Obi-Wan uses that old Jedi mind trick, in Star Wars.
7. “Remember – the Force will be with you, always.”
A ghostly Obi-Wan’s final line to Luke, in Star Wars.
6. “Jyn, if you’re listening, my beloved, so much of my life has been wasted. I try to think of you only in the moments when I’m strong, because the pain of not having you with me. Your mother. Our family. The pain of that loss is so overwhelming I risk failing even now. It’s just so hard not to think of you. Think of where you are. My stardust.”
A ruined Galen Erso speaks directly to his daughter Jyn via hologram, in Rogue One.
5. “It’s a trap!”
Admiral Ackbar works out the obvious during the final space battle, in Return of the Jedi.
4. “I have a bad feeling about this!”
Spoken in all of the first seven Star Wars movies, and almost in Rogue One, in which K-2SO is interrupted just before he can utter the line.
3. “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda encourages Luke to stop messing about and make with the telekineses already, in The Empire Strikes Back.
2. “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”
Leia’s hologramatic introduction, in Star Wars.
1. “No, I am your father!”
The greatest twist in Hollywood history. Vader reveals to Luke that his daddy is a terrifying, shiny black death-cyborg, in The Empire Strikes Back.
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