Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street quotes help reveal the darkly comic crime epic that tells the true story of stockbroker Jordan Belfort’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) rise to power and fall from grace. While the movie opened to positive reviews, it was criticized by some viewers who felt it glamorized Belfort’s white-collar criminal lifestyle. The film’s sense of humor and accurate depiction of Wall Street antics do make that lifestyle look fun, but it all becomes too much. That’s the message – a life of excess, as the name would suggest, is too much to handle.
The best Wolf of Wall Street quotes do not glamorize but rather satirize a lifestyle of greed. The real Jordan Belfort is ultimately a fool within his own story, destroying his own life out of little more than self-hatred. The film also perfectly satirizes the culture that enables Jordan’s self-destructive lifestyle, with him endangering the lives of those around him in his relentless pursuit of getting everything that he wants and more. As dark as that premise is, the dialogue in the film still finds ways to make the audience laugh while also making them think.
21“But Of All The Drugs Under God’s Blue Heaven, Here Is One That Is My Absolute Favorite.”
Jordan Belfort
even with the heavy drug use, it is money that he will ultimately give up everything for
While there are other Martin Scorsese movies with more violence, The Wolf of Wall Street likely has more drug use than any film in the director’s career. Jordan lives a life of excess, doing all the drugs he can daily. It is wild to hear him describe his drug regimen but Jordan admits the one thing that he is addicted to more than anything else is money.
It is a funny yet thought-provoking idea that, even with all the heavy drug use, it is money that he will ultimately give up everything for. That also came back to haunt him as he, like so many others, got so involved in heavy drug use that it destroyed them, often leading to their deaths. For Belfort, he did a lot of drugs, but that was not what he was really addicted to. At the same time, his addiction to money was what led to his eventual downfall, making it just as dangerous as any illegal drug.
20“Fun Coupons!”
Jordan Belfort
One of the most interesting things about seeing Jordan’s gradual downfall is that he was warned about it constantly and did nothing to prevent it. He knew the FBI was looking into him and that his entire operation was in jeopardy of being torn down. But instead of addressing these issues, Jordan maintains his juvenile behaviors by not taking anything seriously.
When first meeting with FBI agents, Jordan mocks them with his extravagant wealth and showers them in cash, calling them “fun coupons.” Belfort only cares about money because it gives him power. The more money he has, the more powerful he feels, because it changes how people treat him. When he calls his money “fun coupons,” it is his way of making light of the fact that money is what buys him happiness, and he feels that as long as he has money — and the power that comes with it — the fun will never stop.
19“The Only Thing Standing Between You And Your Goal Is The Bulls**t Story You Keep Telling Yourself As To Why You Can’t Achieve It.”
Jordan Belfort
There is a lot of talk about whether the movie is going too easy on Jordan Belfort. This seems to miss the point that the movie is being told from his perspective and even in his warped view of his actions, he cannot fully hide that he’s the villain. This quote sums it up nicely as Jordan sees himself as the poster child for self-made success and praises that he had the determination few others did.
However, he doesn’t see that his “never give up” attitude came down to not caring about the damage he caused. There are many movies where the narrator of the story is completely unreliable. Fight Club is a perfect example, and nothing the narrator says in that movie is really true. Even the life lessons that he claims he lives by are often skewered by his dark half. Fight Club is open about that fact, while The Wolf of Wall Street is more nuanced, and that is where people don’t understand that Jordan is oblivious to his own dark half.
18“The Real Question Is This: Was All This Legal? Absolutely F**king Not.”
Jordan Belfort
Jordan is a criminal and does a lot of bad things
The real-life fraud case in The Wolf of Wall Street is a complex situation and the movie knows how much information is necessary to enjoy the movie. Through his fourth-wall-breaking narration to the audience, Jordan begins to explain their operations but quickly gives up and acknowledges that the average viewer will not be following along with this. Instead, he decides to cut to the core of the situation and address the most obvious question: none of it was legal.
While Jordan Belfort is an unreliable narrator, this is the one place where he is actually honest with the viewer — as well as himself. Jordan is a criminal and does a lot of bad things. However, even after he admits that everything he did to make all this money and make all these people rich, he still won’t accept that it was wrong. He feels righteous in breaking the law and getting rich because he just wants the power that comes with wealth. This Wolf of Wall Street quote shows he knows it is illegal — he just doesn’t care.
17“So I Was Selling Them S***, But The Way I Looked At It, The Money Was Better Off In My Pocket.”
Jordan Belfort
This Wolf of Wall Street quote is another example of how Jordan’s delusions about the kind of person he is only going so far. He doesn’t see himself as a crook but rather someone who is working the system like a genius. He has no respect for the people he is selling to yet still maintains some vague insistence that he is helping them. As he explains himself, he arrives at the inevitable conclusion that he is scamming them into buying worthless stocks, but forgives himself because he wants the money more than they do.
Jordan is a bad person and the people who think the movie glamorizes him miss the point that quotes like this make. Jordan is hurting a lot of people, and he doesn’t care. He is ripping people off and taking their money, and he explains it away. He only cares about one person, and that is Jordan Belfort. Quotes like this show that he deserves every bit of punishment he receives at the end of the movie.
16“Nobody Knows If A Stock’s Going Up, Down Or F***ing Sideways, Least Of All Stockbrokers. But We Have To Pretend We Know.”
Mark Hanna
Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) takes Jordan under his wing and is determined to teach him all about the stockbroker game, giving him tips and tricks about the job over lunch together. He tells Jordan that the stocks are unpredictable and no one knows exactly what’s going to happen, but stockbrokers have to sell the confidence that they do know what will happen to their clients.
This is one of those Wolf of Wall Street quotes that cuts straight to the heart of the issues concerning greed culture, which is that it’s realistically selling nothing. While Jordan was in it for just the money, Mark knew that the entire scheme was a scam, and he was in it for the ride. He is the man who teaches Jordan everything that he knows and Wolf of Wall Street quotes like these are how he taught Jordan how to become a master white color criminal who can sell people on false promises.
15“Risk Is What Keeps Us Young.”
Aunt Emma
Aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley) and Jordan meet at his wedding to Naomi (Margot Robbie) and the two become fast friends and Emma says this line to him. It’s an ironic Wolf of Wall Street quote because Jordan is essentially obsessed with making risky decisions, and it only serves to destroy his mind and body. Aunt Emma also dies not long after saying this, so it’s another example of Wolf of Wall Street dialogue which sounds like sage wisdom at first, but completely falls apart under any scrutiny.
The lifestyle that Jordan is living is an addictive one. It is unclear what Aunt Emma is doing, but she keeps taking risks and soon dies, showing that risks only keep a person young as long as they can stay alive to make them. For Jordan, it was just as bad. He took risks that made him feel young, but once the law brought him down for his criminal activities, being young didn’t mean as much when he had to spend much of those years locked in a cell, losing all the power he developed.
14“You Can Watch Me, Mock Me, Try To Block Me But You Cannot Stop Me.”
Jordan Belfort
Once Jordan Belfort gets comfortable in his new job, he quickly rises up the hierarchy to the top position and everyone he works with aspires to be like him, but some people try to stop his business practices and criminal activity. Jordan has never-ending confidence in himself and becomes completely egotistical, thinking that he’s unstoppable. Everyone could probably relate to wanting to be confident in themselves, but maybe not to the extent that Jordan is.
Still, his damning overconfidence makes for one catchy Wolf of Wall Street quote. Of course, this was another case of the unreliable narrator at work. He believes he is bulletproof and everything he does will pay off for him in the end. This leads him to become more arrogant and aloof, which of course, eventually leads to him making serious mistakes. By thinking he is untouchable, he soon believes it himself, and that is what leads to his downfall when he remembers he is very human in the end.
13“I Made $49 Million, Which Really P***** Me Off Because It Was Three Shy Of A Million A Week.”
Jordan Belfort
This is one of the first things that Jordan Belfort says in the movie, and it’s one of the best Wolf of Wall Street quotes because it tells the audience everything they need to know about his personality. Jordan has more money than most people know what to do with, yet he’s fixated on a relatively trivial detail that wouldn’t make any difference at all in his life. He simply wants more for the sake of wanting more.
As with any addiction, a person always feels they need more and more. A gambling addict might win some money, but it is never enough and they have to go back to the tables and keep making bigger bets until they suddenly realize they have lost everything. A person who has a substance abuse addiction always thinks they need more to maintain the high. For Jordan, $49 million is not enough because he wants more. He will keep pushing for more and more, but because he makes his money illegally, it leads to his eventual crash.
12“How The F*** Else Are You Supposed To Do This Job? Cocaine And Hookers, My Friend.”
Mark Hanna
the more Jordan indulges in illegal narcotics, the more they become a necessity
This is another Wolf of Wall Street quote that looks like it’s idolizing the selfish and excessive lifestyle of an out-of-control stockbroker on the surface but, when any amount of thought is applied to it, this prospect delivered by Mark Hanna is quite depressing. Drug use is often recreational in The Wolf of Wall Street, but the more Jordan indulges in illegal narcotics, the more they become a necessity rather than an indulgence he chooses.
Hanna’s way of life leads to loneliness and addiction, but at that point, Jordan, like the audience, can’t quite see it. This is important because Mark is clearly stating that he is in so deep that he can’t even function without seeking out other vices. If Jordan hadn’t been so wide-eyed, he could have seen the problems there and realized he needed to be more careful. Instead, he sees all the black flags as Mark bragging about how great life is, which means Jordan is oblivious to the problems when he ends up in too deep.
11“If Anyone Here Thinks I’m Superficial Or Materialistic, Go Get A Job At F****** McDonald’s, ‘Cause That’s Where You F****** Belong!”
Jordan Belfort
This is a Wolf of Wall Street quote that demonstrates how Jordan has a very twisted worldview that’s easy for other people to become captivated by, much like Jordan became captivated by Mark Hanna and his lifestyle. Jordan sells the dream of extreme wealth not by asking people to work hard, but rather by making hard work the enemy.
Much like former mobster Henry Hill in Scorsese’s classic crime film Goodfellas, ordinary life is considered by the protagonist to be the worst fate, but the story shows just how wrong they are. Jordan is comparable to many characters in Martin Scorsese’s movies. He wants to be great and to be great, he has to be at the top. He knows that he can’t accept anything less than what he thinks he deserves, and anyone who doesn’t have the same level of greed and desire is sure to fail in the world of high finance.
10“Then Two More Every Five Minutes After That Until One Of Us Passes The F*** Out.”
Mark Hanna
Mark Hanna has quite the drink order in The Wolf of Wall Street: “Get us two Absolut martinis. You know how I like ‘em, straight up. In seven-and-a-half minutes, you will bring us two more, then two more every five minutes after that, until one of us passes the f*** out.” It’s not only one of his best Wolf of Wall Street quotes, but as Jordan’s mentor, he also gives him his first real advice on being a stockbroker.
The fact he starts with this says a lot about what both of them consider the job to be. This is another moment where Mark is clear that he has gotten so deep into the waters that he can’t survive without his vices — in this case an abundance of vodka. He works hard to make as much money as possible and then drinks until he passes out and can get his mind shut down for just a little bit of his day. For Jordan, this is more braggadocio, and for Mark, this is the depths of the hell that his life has turned into. Neither man understands the signs.
“It Was Obscene In The Real World. But Who The F*** Wanted To Live There?”
Jordan Belfort
When Jordan’s dad Max (Rob Reiner) is taking a look at his books, he’s horrified by all his expenses, but Jordan claims it’s all to keep his employees motivated. Max says it’s “obscene” and storms out. In the film’s voice-over, Jordan admits that Max is right, but Jordan is already too far gone into his hedonistic and delusional lifestyle. It’s another Wolf of Wall Street quote that sounds quite amusing at first but is quite dark after a moment’s thought.
This is a line that contrasts well with the David Fincher movie Fight Club. In Fincher’s masterpiece, the Narrator talks about what he sees as material goods and their place in the real world. However, he wants something different and wants to escape the real world and go where capitalism no longer exists. For Jordan, it is the opposite. He sees poor people and struggles in the real world, and his escape is to go into the capitalist society and escape the real world by embracing the fakeness of wealth and riches.
8“I Choose Rich Every F****** Time.”
Jordan Belfort
Jordan Belfort has an interesting attitude toward money because he wasn’t raised in a rich family. He grew up in a small apartment, raised by two middle-class accountants, but he appears to have learned all the wrong lessons from their hard work. He becomes rich by lying to investors and believes that working hard for a steady paycheck is overrated. This Wolf of Wall Street quote shows that while Jordan may be wrongheaded, he is at least honest with the audience.
This line is also one that shows that Jordan has lost his way in life. While he watched his parents struggle to work and pay the bills, he wanted to become rich and wealthy, so he never had to worry about that. However, when he starts stepping on people like his parents to get even more money, he is taking kids who grew up like him and making their lives harder than they need to be. For Jordan, he chooses to be rich, but it is a selfish dream. He ensures that other kids can’t reach these goals because he gets all the money.
7“You Show Me A Pay Stub For $72,000, I Quit My Job Right Now And Work For You.”
Donnie Azoff
Donnie Azoff says this early in the movie as he approaches Jordan Belfort and talks to him about the world of brokerage. He asks him, “How much money you make?” Jordan says, “$70,000 last month.” Instantly, an incredulous Donnie says, “Get the f**k outta here!” Jordan corrects himself: “Well, technically, $72,000 last month.” This is a case where Jordan is now selling the idea of wealth to the next generation of grifters, and he knows exactly how to win Donnie over.
Then Donnie makes the sweeping declaration, “You show me a pay stub for $72,000, I quit my job right now and work for you.” Seconds later, the film cuts straight to the outside of the diner, as Donnie speaks to his boss on a payphone. He says, with perfect comedic delivery from Hill, “Hey, Paulie, what’s up? No, everything’s fine. Hey, listen, I quit!” It’s a brilliant introduction to one of the movie’s best characters.
6“I’ll Tell You What, I’m Never Eating At Benihana Again. I Don’t Care Whose Birthday It Is.”
Donnie Azoff
One of the biggest surprises in The Wolf of Wall Street is that Jordan Belfort was eventually brought down by the CEO of Benihana. Belfort explains the criminal charge that ended his career:
Something about laundering drug money through off-shore boat racing and a guy named Rocky Aoki. You know, the founder of Benihana…Why would you be so cruel as to choose a chain of f****** hibachi restaurants to take me down?!
Later, during a visit, Donnie tells Jordan, “I’ll tell you what, I’m never eating at Benihana again. I don’t care whose birthday it is.” It’s one of the few funny Wolf of Wall Street quotes that doesn’t have a dark edge to it. The quote also shows that neither Jordan nor Donnie can ever admit that they were in the wrong, that they were nothing more than white-collar criminals, and that they didn’t hurt a lot of people to make all their money. To them, it is still just a joke.
5“I Will Not Die Sober!”
Jordan Belfort
One of the biggest sequences of The Wolf of Wall Street is when Jordan demands that his sailor get his yacht through a storm so that he can deal with a business problem. The bottom deck of the yacht floods, and it seems like they might not make it. Jordan tells Donnie to “get the ‘ludes.” Donnie says, “I can’t go down there! It’s flooded! It’s three feet of water down there!” and Jordan replies: “I will not die sober! Get those f******’ ‘ludes!”
It’s funny in an absurd kind of way but mostly highlights how far Jordan falls into a lifestyle of depravity and addiction. The line also ties into the earlier conversations between Jordan Belfort and Mark Hanna. When Mark was explaining the business to Jordan, he admitted that he needed cocaine, hookers, and vodka to get through the day. With Jordan needing his “ludes,” he proves that he has now reached that level and he can’t face real life if he is sober. Jordan has become Mark at this point.
4“Let Me Give You A Little Legal Advice: Shut The F*** Up!”
Patrick Denham
One of the most underrated performances in The Wolf of Wall Street is that of Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. Their first meeting is a largely passive-aggressive conversation on the deck of Belfort’s yacht and as the movie goes on, Chandler’s character becomes increasingly blunt with Belfort. In the end, when he arrests Jordan, he just tells him, “Let me give you a little legal advice: Shut the f*** up!”
It’s a hugely satisfying moment to see Belfort get his comeuppance, so this line stands out. The quote also shows that Jordan never really understood that he was the villain in this story. He talked and wouldn’t stop talking, and the more that he said, the deeper trouble he got into along the way. Denham knows that Jordan is oblivious to the entire situation, and he knows that the more that Jordan talks, the worse things will get for him. Denham wants to bring Jordan down, but he doesn’t necessarily want to bury him.
3“I Want You To Deal With Your Problems By Becoming Rich!”
Jordan Belfort
more money seems to make all of his problems worses
Jordan Belfort is great at giving motivational speeches to his staff that end up manipulating them into doing his illegal bidding. This Wolf of Wall Street quote from one of Jordan’s biggest and best speeches once again highlights how wealth is viewed as a cure for problems when the events of the film show that it’s more the cause of them. Jordan wants people to deal with their problems by becoming rich because that’s how he deals with his problems.
This is a paradox when looking at Jordan Belfort. As he showed throughout the movie, more money seems to make all of his problems worse. However, he still believes that money equals happiness and more money equals the power to do nothing but have fun all the time. However, the more money he makes, the more stress he lives under, the more drugs and alcohol he needs to get through the day, and the closer he comes to going straight to jail. Jordan is lying to himself with this quote more than he is to his employees.
2“…I Ain’t Going Nowhere!”
Jordan Belfort
When the FBI tries to oust Jordan Belfort from his own brokerage company, he refuses to go. He stands up to them and believes, in his own mind, that he has more money than they do and that means they can’t touch him. He is delusional about the situation. As a result, he gives an impassioned speech about it:
This right here is the land of opportunity. This is America. This is my home! The show goes on! They’re gonna need to send in the National Guard to take me out, ‘cause I ain’t going nowhere!
Though this is just another step on Jordan Belfort’s seemingly never-ending path of bad decisions and self-destruction, it’s hard not to be swept up by DiCaprio’s delivery of the final words when he bellows them out to a cheering crowd. The fact that everyone is cheering him on shows that he is not only convincing himself of his own sense of invulnerability, but he is also convincing his employees and followers. He is a master grifter, and his beliefs will not only bring him down but everyone around him.
1“Sell Me This Pen.”
Jordan Belfort
There’s an interesting story about where this The Wolf of Wall Street quote came from. On the way to the set to film the diner scene, the police officer who was assigned to guard Leonardo DiCaprio told him that he was once interviewed for a job by the real Jordan Belfort. During it, Belfort handed him a pen and said, “Sell me this pen.” DiCaprio incorporated it into the scene and used the line for his character to show people how they could become successful.
The idea worked, so it was brought back in the final moments at a conference hosted by Jordan Belfort, and it works perfectly as the movie’s mantra, as Jordan’s success is based on the idea of selling rather than selling anything of actual value. In The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort is a grifter who becomes rich by cheating people out of their money. By the end, even after spending time in jail, he is still a grifter and believes he has the ability to teach others how they too can win in life.
