8 Impactful Quotes From It’s A Wonderful Life

"It's a Wonderful Life" was voted as the most-inspiring film by the American Film Institute. A beloved Christmas classic that can bring tears to your eyes with each watch, this movie has many memorable moments that make us appreciate the wonder of life.

"It's a Wonderful Life" Quotes

Here are some powerful quotes from "It's A Wonderful Life":

Clarence the Angel: “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives.  When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

This is so true.  Every one of us can make a great deal of difference in the lives of so many and that can be for good or for bad.  The question is, will we live like Christians and be light to a dark, sin-stained world or will we hide our light because never should “people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house” (Matt 5:15).  If the lost never see a light, they’ll never even know they’re still in darkness.

Clarence the Angel:  “Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”

How many “one another’s” are there in the New Testament?  There are almost one hundred “one another’s” in the New Testament alone, giving conclusive evidence that we need one another and the community of fellowship of the believers.   It’s no coincidence that the church is called the Body of Christ, “as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom 12:4-5) and “just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1st Cor 12:12).

Man on Porch: “Why don’t you kiss her instead of talking her to death?”

George Bailey: “You want me to kiss her, huh?”
Man on Porch: “Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people.”

Ah, love!  What it feels like to be young and in love.  I have one part left and it’s the permanent part; love!  Interestingly, my own love for my wife has grown with the years like a strong, sturdy oak tree.   God wants us to rejoice in our spouse and be passionately in love with her or him.  Solomon, as if almost wanting us to celebrate this, wrote “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Prov 5:18) and which we can just as easily say “rejoice in the husband of your youth” but know this; youth will pass, but love will remain.  We know that’s God’s will for marriages.  There comes a warning though; “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Heb 13:4).

Clarence the Angel: “You see, George, you’ve really had a wonderful life.  Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it all away?”

There are a few heroes of the faith that wanted God to take them home and many a Christian who wanted to end their life because of an incurable and highly painful disease but where God intends as a comma, we cannot make it a period.  God will use our sufferings, perhaps as a way to comfort others as the Apostle Paul wrote that it is God “who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2nd Cor 1:4) and so in this way, suffering is never wasted but used for God’s glory and other’s good.

George Bailey: Dear Father in heaven, I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can hear me, show me the way…show me the way.”

What a humble prayer and we know that God will resist the proud but only give His grace to the humble (James 4:6) and that “He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way” (Psalm 25:9) and when they fall, “The Lord lifts up the humble” (Psalm 147:6a).

Clarence the Angel: “Every man on that transport died.  Harry wasn’t there to save them, because you weren’t there to save Harry.”

This was Clarence telling George Bailey why his brother Harry’s gravestone was there in the cemetery, meaning that Harry died since George wasn’t on the ice that day to jump in and save him.  This shows us that every life matters.  God didn’t create you for no purpose.  God never creates anything without a purpose as even the heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1) and “Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:2).  Clarence was telling George how God uses us in the lives of others and can have a long-lasting impact.

George Bailey: “Isn’t it wonderful!?  I’m going to jail! ”

It’s almost as if Roman’s 8:28 leaps out at you that everything that’s going to happen or has already happened to George is going to work out for his ultimate best.  When George is given a second chance, he has returned to his “wonderful life” and nothing’s going to dampen his enthusiasm in life, even if it means he’s going to jail.  Paul would love this as he wrote that we should always be giving thanks because “this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1st Thess 5:18).

Pa Bailey: “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.”

This is where the wisdom, experience, and values of an obviously godly man, Pa Bailey, shows itself clearly.   Only those things that we do for others, including the souls we try to rescue, will pass from this earth to the next.   Everything else will burn up someday but those things done for Christ and for His glory will endure forever.  You can’t take it with you but you can certainly send it ahead and have it waiting for you when you use your time, talents, and treasure for the kingdom of God and for the glory of Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is among my favorite movies, not just at Christmas time, but of at any time.   It shows us human nature in the bitter Mr. Potter; the tight-fisted, money-grabbing man who is only interested in money and not in people but George sees what is most important and most precious and it’s certainly not in money or in possessions.  Our happiness is in God and we find our greatest joys is serving others for Christ because when we do it for others, we are actually doing it for Jesus, as He Himself says, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matt 25:40).

Article by Pastor Jack Wellman