Benjamin Button: My name is Benjamin Button, and I was born under unusual circumstances. While everyone else was agin', I was gettin' younger... all alone.
Daisy: You're so young.
Benjamin Button: Only on the outside.
Daisy - Age 7: Are you sick?
Benjamin Button: They said I was gonna die soon but, maybe not.
Daisy - Age 7: You're odd.
Benjamin Button: I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what a shame that is.
Daisy: Some things last.
Benjamin Button: Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people can dance.
Benjamin Button: Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss.
Daisy: Would you still love me if I were old and saggy?
Benjamin Button: Would you still love ME if I were young and had acne? When I'm afraid of what's under the bed? Or if I end up wetting the bed?
Thomas Button: I'm here. I came as soon as I could. The streets were wild. The war is over, Cary.
Caroline Button: [whispers] Promise me he'll have a place.
Thomas Button: [confused] I... I promise. [Caroline draws her last breath and dies]
Daisy: Will you sleep with me?
Benjamin Button: Absolutely.
Benjamin Button: It's a funny thing about comin' home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You'll realize what's changed is you.
Benjamin Button: I'm always lookin' out my own eyes.
Benjamin Button: I wanna remember us just as we are now.
Daisy: Goodnight Benjamin.
Benjamin Button: Goodnight Daisy.
Benjamin Button: What if I told you that instead of gettin' older, I was gettin' younger than everybody else?
Mr. Daws: Did I ever tell you I was struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was in the field, just tending to my cows: [brief footage of a man getting struck by lightning]
Mr. Daws: Did I ever tell you I been struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was just sittin' in my truck just minding my own business: [brief footage of a man getting struck by lightning]
Benjamin Button: Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it. A woman in Paris was on her way to go shopping, but she had forgotten her coat - went back to get it. When she had gotten her coat, the phone had rung, so she'd stopped to answer it; talked for a couple of minutes. While the woman was on the phone, Daisy was rehearsing for a performance at the Paris Opera House. And while she was rehearsing, the woman, off the phone now, had gone outside to get a taxi. Now a taxi driver had dropped off a fare earlier and had stopped to get a cup of coffee. And all the while, Daisy was rehearsing. And this cab driver, who dropped off the earlier fare; who'd stopped to get the cup of coffee, had picked up the lady who was going to shopping, and had missed getting an earlier cab. The taxi had to stop for a man crossing the street, who had left for work five minutes later than he normally did, because he forgot to set off his alarm. While that man, late for work, was crossing the street, Daisy had finished rehearsing, and was taking a shower. And while Daisy was showering, the taxi was waiting outside a boutique for the woman to pick up a package, which hadn't been wrapped yet, because the girl who was supposed to wrap it had broken up with her boyfriend the night before, and forgot.
Benjamin Button: When the package was wrapped, the woman, who was back in the cab, was blocked by a delivery truck, all the while Daisy was getting dressed. The delivery truck pulled away and the taxi was able to move, while Daisy, the last to be dressed, waited for one of her friends, who had broken a shoelace. While the taxi was stopped, waiting for a traffic light, Daisy and her friend came out the back of the theater. And if only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by. But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control - that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed.
Benjamin Button: [Voice over; letter to his daughter] For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
Mrs. Maple: Benjamin, we're meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us?
Captain Mike: You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.
Queenie: You never know what's comin' for ya.
Benjamin Button: Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.
Queenie: Poor child, he got the worst of it. Come out white.
Mr. Daws: Did I ever tell you I been struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was repairing a leak on the roof. [brief footage of a man getting struck by lightning]
Mr. Daws: Once I was just crossing the road to get the mail. [brief footage of a man getting struck by lightning]
Mr. Daws: Once, I was walking my dog down the road. [brief footage of a man getting struck by lightning]
Mr. Daws: Blinded in one eye; can't hardly hear. I get twitches and shakes out of nowhere; always losing my line of thought. But you know what? God keeps reminding me I'm lucky to be alive. [sniffles]
Mr. Daws: Storm's comin'.
Benjamin Button: Momma? Momma? Some days, I feel different than the day before.
Queenie: Everyone feels different about themselves one way or another, but we all goin' the same way.
Benjamin Button: Some nights, I'd have to sleep alone. I didn't mind, I would listen to the house breathin'. All those people sleepin'. I felt... safe.
Daisy: And in the spring, 2003, he looked at me. And I knew, that he knew, who I was. And then he closed his eyes, as if to go to sleep.
[last lines]
Benjamin Button: Some people, were born to sit by a river. Some get struck by lightning. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people, dance.
Benjamin Button: You never know what's coming for you.
Daisy: I promise you, I'll never lose myself to self-pity again.
Benjamin Button: [while the day begins] And I think, right there and then, she realized none of us is perfect forever.
Daisy: Have you slept with a woman before?
Benjamin Button: Never on a Sunday.
Daisy: We all end up in diapers.
Elizabeth Abbott: [after she has removed her shoes and left the elevator... Benjamin give her a quizzical look] I broke a heel! I don't make it a point to walk about in my stocking feet!
