The Maltese Falcon Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, in the movie The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston (1941).

Humphrey Bogart wrote the book on how to play a hardboiled detective with his depiction of Sam Spade. Don't believe us? Check out the clip where he says the quote, and tells us he doesn't still sound cool.

As you could probably tell from the credits rolling after the clip, the line comes at the tail end of the movie. Sam says it of the infamous Maltese Falcon, which everybody in the film has been after—all to learn that it wasn't as big a deal as they thought it was. Sam is also kinda referring to a romance that's just not going to work out with the movie's femme fatale.

Okay, that's enough spoilers from us. Watch the whole movie for all the twists and turns.

Oh, and before we go, we've gotta mention that the quote is a riff on a line from Shakespeare's The Tempest, in which Prospero talks about "the stuff that dreams are made on." Click here for more.

Where you've heard it

Most recently, the line was spoofed on an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine as "The stuff that drumps are made of."

The line also popped up in an episode of Castle, when Castle refers to a fake diamond necklace as "the stuff that dreams are made of."

If anybody out there is into 90s video games, you might've heard the quote in Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, when the hero drops the line when stealing a black falcon figurine.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

A Bogey/Shakespeare combo definitely nudges you up the scale of pretention.