100 Best Quotes from Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit

The Netflix series based on a novel, The Queen’s Gambit follows a young girl named Beth Harmon, who finds herself orphaned at a young age. As she navigates the difficulties of growing up in the Cold War Era, a discovery of chess completely changes her life. Her natural ability at the game astounds everyone around her and catapults her life from ordinary to extraordinary. A life full of success, addiction, loss, friendship, and more is revealed in this touching coming-of-age story.

If you enjoy period drama shows that focus on a coming-of-age story, then this is the tv show for you!

Here’s the scoop on the best quotes from Netflix’s limited series The Queen’s Gambit!

1. “Do you see it now or should we finish this on the board?” -Beth Harmon

2. “Though I am no longer a wife, except by a legal fiction, I believe I can learn to be a mother.” -Alma 

3. “To tell you the truth of it child, you’re astounding.” -Mr. Shaibel

4. “You’re all a bunch of fucking cocksuckers!” -Jolene

5. “Anger is a potent spice. A pinch wakes you up, too much dulls your senses.” – Harry Beltik

6. “It takes a strong woman to stay by herself in a world where people will settle for anything, just to say they have something.” -Alice Harmon

7. “A sad story, involving me, a bad breakup, and a walk through le Jardin du Luxembourg, where those two stopped me from killing myself.” -Cleo

8. “I’m not Aristotle but yes, I think something could be construed as wrong.” -Alma

9. “They want us to beat Communists for Jesus.” -Benny 

10. That’s what family does, it’s what we are.” -Jolene

11. “It’s your game, take it.” -Borgov

12. “You are a marvel, my dear.” – Marcus Loges

13. “But, um, what I really wanted was for us to be friends and yet you kind of broke my heart.” -Townes

14. “I analyze games. What actually happened, not what could have happened.” -Beth Harmon

15. “I’m raging inwardly.” -Benny

16. “The strongest person is the person who isn’t scared to be alone.” -Alice Harmon

17. “I don’t know why my body is so intent on sabotaging my brain when my brain is perfectly capable of sabotaging itself.” -Alma

18. “Jesus Christ, Harmon, you’re humiliating my rook.” – Townes

19. “Don’t you want to know how she died?” -Beth Harmon

20. “What’s the last thing they said to you before they died? -Jolene

21. “I know that, at this moment, all you’re feeling is loss but after grief brings you low, prayer and faith will lift you high.” – Miss. Deardorff

22. “We have a dozen members, and I was suggesting to Mrs. Deardorff that you come along and play all of them in a simultaneous.” – Mr. Ganz

23. “My tranquility needs to be refurbished.” -Alma

24. “I’m stoned. I shouldn’t be speaking a foreign language.” -Tim 

25. “It’s chess, we’re all prima donnas.” – Harry Beltik

26. “Most people think about chess players they think about people who look like you.” -Benny

27. “Do you like to fuck?” -Cleo 

28.  “I would say that it’s much easier to play chess without the burden of an Adam’s apple.” -Beth Harmon 

29. “Instead of the usual Black cleaning woman, they wanted a clean, Black woman, with a nice ass and a good vocabulary.” -Lorene

30. “I knew you were going places, and that meant something to me.” -Annette

31. “Highest rated players in the whole fucking country and yet here we are at some second-rate university, playing on cheap plastic boards with cheap plastic pieces.” -Benny

32. “Yes, but chess can also be beautiful.” -Beth Harmon

33. “You’re not entitled to everything I own just ‘cause I signed some papers to shut her up.” -Mr. Wheatly

34. “Where’d you get that from, a fortune cookie?”- Beth Harmon

35. “I wanted to show that fucking pirate that I could beat him even though I didn’t play the way he thought I should.” -Beth Harmon 

36. “You’ve got your gift and you’ve got what it costs.” -Mr. Shaibel 

37. “Intuition can’t be found in books.” -Alma

38. “Someday, you’re going to be all alone, so you need to figure out how to take care of yourself.” -Alice Harmon

39. “You’re the best there is.” -Benny

40. “What if I kick you in the crotch?” -Beth Harmon

41. “I know, me, a lawyer, but the world is fucked up.” -Lorene

42. “No woman can compete with Benny’s love for himself.” -Cleo 

43. “You know, perhaps, Beth, you have to work on yourself.” -Alma

44. “Sure you wouldn’t rather just steal it?” – the Pharmacist

45. “I know you’re better than me but if you’re gonna play the soviets, you need help.” -Harry Beltik 

46. “Hey assholes, this is costing me a bundle.” -Benny 

47. “Wow, you really were the gold standard for white-trash girls everywhere, weren’t you?” -Jolene

48. “Alma was not pathetic, she was stuck. There’s a difference.” -Beth Harmon

49. “You just let them blow by, and you go on ahead and do just what the hell you feel like.” -Alice

50.  “You’re the reason I got my teeth fixed.” -Harry Beltik 

51. “I’ve flirted with alcohol most of my life. If anything, I think it’s high time I consummated the relationship.” -Alma

52.  “You’ve grown up Harmon. You’ve even gotten good looking.” -Townes 

53. “Once I drive away, I’m not coming back.” -Paul

54. “Nobody’s gonna come for us now, were too old or too black.” -Jolene

55. “Orphaned by yesterday’s collision on New Circle Road, Elizabeth Harmon surveys a troubled future.”- Mrs. Deardorff

56. “Green’s to even your disposition. Orange and brown is for building a strong body, take ‘em both.” -Mr. Fergusson 

57. “You can beat that… fucker.” -Beth Harmon 

58. “Close your eyes.” -Alice Harmon

59. “I find the onion slightly more refined than the olive.” -Alma

60. “You know if you keep doing this, you’re gonna end up washed up by the time you’re 21.” -Benny

61. “Fashion is exciting. Modeling and models are insipid.” -Cleo

62. “If I lived here, I would go to plays, and concerts and I would eat lunch in a different café every day.” -Beth Harmon

63. “He wants to marry me, as soon as he divorces the wife he’s already got.” -Jolene

64. “Maybe is a loser’s word, Beth.” -Benny 

65.  “Consider me your second. What do we need to do to help you beat Borgov?” -Townes

66. “For a time, I was all you had and for a time, you was all I had.” -Jolene

67. “I will be subtracting what I paid to bury Mother. I’ll show you the receipts.” -Beth Harmon

68. “Us Americans, we work alone because we’re all such individualists.” -Benny

69. “Oh, and dear, be a good girl and get that little bottle of green pills by my bedside.” -Alma

70. “You really are something, you know that?” – Townes 

71. “For crying out loud what you still doing in bed? You’re gonna miss breakfast.” -Mr. Fergusson 

72. “You honestly believe our daughter belongs in a trailer in the middle of nowhere?” – Paul

73. “Mr. Ganz told me I beat them all in an hour and twenty minutes. It felt good, I’ve never won anything before.” -Beth Harmon

74. “Shit, I make out just fine right here.” – Jolene

75. “She is the model Methuen girl.” -Mrs. Deardorff

76.  “That right there is a bone in the throat.” – Benny

77. “I’m pretty sure they’re fucking.” -Beth Harmon 

78. “I think I’ll have just one margarita before I go out.” -Alma

79. “Sometimes, I drink more.” -Beth Harmon

80. “You have to get past me first.” -Benny

81. “I can’t make up my mind which one is more handsome.” -Alma 

82. “Looks like we’ve been stalking each other.” – Townes 

83. “I want to play the best.” – Beth Harmon

84. “Oh, and about sex… forget it.” -Benny 

85. “You adopted me. Can’t you talk to me?”-Beth Harmon

86. “Saving is a good lesson for a girl to learn.” – Alma

87. “Because it’s fucking nonsense?” -Beth Harmon

88. “Looks like you’re doing a lot more than pills honey.” -Jolene

89.  “You replay the game so you can feel the wins for yourself.” -Benny

90. “I was so proud of myself when I found an error in a Morphy game, and now someone’s done it to me.” -Beth Harmon

91. “Is there anyone you’ve met that you’d like to trade rooks with, or whatever?” –Margaret

92. “Just be careful what you smoke, honey.” -Alma

93. “I feel bad, I owed him 10 dollars.” -Beth Harmon

94. “Poor man has to travel quite a bit these days, but as he likes to remind me, it keeps the roof over our heads.” – Alma

95. “Can they send me back if you no longer have a husband?” -Beth Harmon 

96. “I don’t want to set it up and think it out.” -Beth Harmon 

97. “You’ve really helped me.” -Beth Harmon 

98. “What surprised me was how bad they played.” –Beth Harmon

99. “You destroy everyone you play, Harmon.” -Matt

100. “Girls do not play chess.” -Mr. Shaibel  

Watch The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix now!

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