An Education (2009)

Emma Thompson: Headmistress

Photos 

Quotes 

• Headmistress : Nobody does anything worth doing without a degree.

  Jenny : Nobody does anything worth doing WITH a degree. No woman anyway.

  Headmistress : So what I do isn't worth doing? Or what Miss Stubbs does, or Mrs. Wilson, or any of us here? Because none of us would be here without a degree. You do realize that, don't you? And yes, of course studying is hard and boring...

  Jenny : Boring!

  Headmistress : I'm sorry?

  Jenny : Studying is hard and boring. Teaching is hard and boring. So, what you're telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life? This whole stupid country is bored! There's no life in it, or color, or fun! It's probably just as well the Russians are going to drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now. So my choice is to do something hard and boring, or to marry my... Jew, and go to Paris and Rome and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It's not enough to educate us anymore Ms. Walters. You've got to tell us why you're doing it.

• Headmistress : He's a Jew? You're aware, I take it, that the Jews killed our Lord?

  Jenny : And you're aware, I suppose, that our Lord was Jewish?

• Headmistress : [On Jenny's career opportunities]  It doesn't have to be teaching. There's always the Civil Service.