Criminal Minds Quotes

Gideon: "I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, my enemies for their good intellects." -Oscar Wilde.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: I got a request... from Safegaurd for personnel files on certain agents.
Gideon: So it's an annual evaluation? Who cares?
Hotch: It's six month early, Jason. It's... not a routine evaluation. I think it's an assessment of the BAU. They're redistributing funds. They're making cuts in all departments.
Gideon: So, what are they gonna take? The jet? I prefer trains anyway.
Hotch: Well, I think we may lose more than that. It's been a hard year for us, Jason. You know what happened to Morgan in Chicago. We both know about Reid's issues. Elle Greenaway suspect killed. It all adds up.
Gideon: To what?
Hotch: The only file they didn't request was mine.
Gideon: [to florist] Thirty dollars? What're you kidding me?
Florist: Shoulda seen the price of the roses.
Gideon: Thanks. Hey Hotch. You're the best unit chief I know.
Hotch: Jason, I'm the only unit chief you know.
Gideon: You need a break. Go home, kiss your family, and-- [sees Jane across the way and whispers] Impossible
Hotch: What?
Gideon: Well, I- I thought. Never mind.
Hotch: We both need a break. Jason?
Gideon: Yeah?
Hotch: Button mums are something you give your mother.
Gideon: Yeah. Good night.
Hotch: Good night. Have fun.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
JJ: [to Reid] No matter what happens this time, we don't split up, clear?
Reid: Crystal clear!

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: Frank.
Frank: Agent Hotchner. We haven't had the pleasure of a formal meeting.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
JJ: Wordsworth wrote, "A simple child. That lightly draws its breath. And feels its life in every limb. What should it know of death?"

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: "No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies." Daisy Bates

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: Once again the team had battled a monster, and won.
Erin Strauss: The future of the BAU is not in the balance here. The residual impact as a result of investigations into the crimes and criminals you pursue is. Every cause has its effect.
Hotch: You think I don't know that.
Erin Strauss: I believe you are no longer effective in your post.
Hotch: The modern furniture, strategically placed magazines, the framed diplomas, the art in the wall...they're all in conflict with your family photos. You have three children but you favor the middle one, your son.
Erin Strauss: What do you think you're do--
Hotch: Of course, you love all your children but not like your son
Erin Strauss: That's enough!
Hotch: The bonsai you obsessively nurture is to compensate for feelings of failure as a mother...
Erin Strauss: Agent Hotchner I said that is enough! My position is not in question here. As your superior, I am questioning your ability to lead your team...
Hotch: My team? Let me tell you about my team: Agent Morgan fought to protect his identity from the very people who could save him. Why? Because trust has to be earned, and there are very few people he truly trusts. Reid's intellect is a shield which protects him from his emotions, and at the moment his shield is under repair. Prentiss overcompensates because she doesn't yet feel she's a part of the team; she needn't worry. Everyday Agent Jareau fields dozens of requests for our team, and every night she goes home hoping she has made the right choices. Garcia fills her office with figurines and color, to remind herself to smile as the horror fills her screens. And Agent Gideon in many ways is damned by his profound knowledge of others, which is why he shares so little of himself, yet he pours his heart into every case we handle. I stand by my actions, and I stand

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Gideon: Spree killings in a confined area are a race. He's racing to kill as many as he can; we're racing to stop him.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Gideon: How long can you hold that lawyer off?
Hotch: Are you kidding? I was a prosecutor; I can hold him off for days.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Prentiss: [about Nathan Tubbs] I'll sleep when he confesses.
JJ: We all will.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Morgan: I know how bad cops wanna believe they got the right guy. I've been on both sides of that.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Gideon: Two more dead. Was it a price that needed to be paid? Is death ever worth it? Was the world always this gray? Is it only in the movies that it's black and white? Is that just an illusion. I used to know. I used to understand my place, my direction, where I was headed. Profiling requires belief. Belief in the profile. Belief in yourself. After Sarah, I no longer trust myself at home. But after Tubbs (letting the unsub go, causing the death of the unsub and a girl), I no longer trust myself in the field. And without that, I have nothing.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Section Chief Strauss: You’re suspended for two weeks without pay pending an investigation of your conduct. And, Agent Hotchner, if it was solely up to me? You would never get these credentials back.
Hotch: Always a pleasure.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Gideon: And that was the last domino. The death of that girl. Hotch being suspended over something that was my fault. I said at the begining of the letter that I knew it would be you to come up here. I'm so sorry the explanation couldn't be better. And I am so sorry that it doesn't make more sense. But I have already told you. I just don't understand any of it anymore. (holds gun in his hand) I'm sorry.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotchner: George Washington said, "Let your heart feel for the affliction and distress of everyone."

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Morgan: What if we don’t want a new Unit Chief?
Hotchner: Well maybe the next one won’t be such a drill sergeant.
Morgan: Look, man, are you a pain in my ass? Yes, sir! But wantin' to hang out with you, and needin' you to lead this team are two very different things.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Section Chief Erin Strauss: None of you will ever move up the chain of command, you know that.
Hotchner: Why would I ever want to leave the BAU?

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Morgan: Garcia, baby girl, please tell me something I want to hear.
Garcia: You are a statuesque god of sculpted chocolate thunder.
Morgan: How about something I don't already know?
Garcia: [after an intentional pause] I have a sweet tooth.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Haley Hotchner: Aaron, stop! Don’t make me the monster here. I feel sick about these women, but when this case is over there will be another one, and another one, and another one. It is never going to stop.
Hotchner: This is who I am.
Haley Hotchner: No. This is what you do.
Hotchner: I’m trying to do the right thing – here and there – and I would really appreciate a little support.
Haley Hotchner: Oh, that’s right, because you always need to be the hero.
Hotchner: Don’t give me that.
Haley Hotchner: No, obviously a happy life isn’t enough for you.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: [standing outside Prentiss' apartment] Can I come in? [Prentiss lets him in and shuts the door behind him] The team needs us. They're working a case in Milwaukee. Gideon hasn't shown up, and don't tell me you quit or I put in for a transfer.
Prentiss: You put in for a transfer?
Hotch: They're both still hung up in the system, so technically we're in dereliction of duty by not being there.
Prentiss: I'm sorry, I can't go.
Hotch: Right. Sorry I barged in.
Prentiss: Wait. Wait. Can I ask-- W-Why are you really here?
Hotch: I told you. [Prentiss gives him a look] I think Strauss came to you and asked for dirt on me.
Prentiss: Why would she do that?
Hotch: I think if your eyes on top leadership at the FBI, you want to know who might stand in your way.
Prentiss: And... What could I have told her?
Hotch: That one of my agents might have murdered a suspect in cold blood. Or that another might have a serious drug problem, which I didn't report, and if Strauss had any evidence, my career would be over. I think she put you on our team and expected something in return. And to your credit, you quit. Rather than whisper in her ear.
Prentiss: I told you. I hate politics.
Hotch: Come to Milwaukee. I'll make you a deal. If your ready bag isn't here, packed, I won't bug you any more. If it is, I want you on that plane with me. One more case.
Prentiss: [sighs] I already turned in my badge and my gun.
Hotch: That's just hardware.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Rossi: We think we might have a serious problem.
Hotchner: What is it?
Rossi: We have multiple unsubs. They're disciplined, they're using counter-surveillance. They know the FBI movements, there's a hierarchy. What does that usually equal?
Hotchner: Terrorism.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Garcia: [answering phone] Talk dirty to me.
Strauss: This is Section Chief Erin Strauss.
Garcia: [horrified and red-faced] Ma'am, I think it goes without saying that I was expecting it to be someone else.
Strauss: I need a list of every grade school in the third ward and Wauwatosa.
Garcia: Yes, ma'm. Uh... The third ward has one public grade school, but there appears to be four private schools that draw from that area.
Strauss: And Wauwatosa?
Garcia: That would be nine, ma'm.
Strauss: And how many students?
Garcia: Thirty-two hundred.
Strauss: Can you also get me a list of every guidance counselor that deals directly with the student body in that area?
Garcia: Certainly, ma'am. And again, I'd like to ap- [Strauss hangs up]
Strauss: You need to present these counselors with a profile of a troubled kid.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
[At the latest dump site]
Hotch: [to Reid]] Morgan says you're worried about Gideon.
Reid: I keep on calling him, he doesn't call back.
Hotch: He's probably at his cabin. That's where he goes when he... needs to get away. Reid, I need your head in this.
Reid: I know.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: So what’s around the dump site?
Det. Vic Wolynski: Here’s the old uh, printing press of Quad Graphics, and the paving yard, and then the uh, concrete factory where we found the body. None of them visible from the highway.
Prentiss: You don’t end up there by accident.
Hotch: So we go back to the schools, we eliminate the third ward and we target problem kids whose fathers have held blue-collar jobs over the last ten years.
Reid: What if he’s not a problem kid?
Morgan: What?
Reid: Forget it. It’s off the textbook profile.
Hotch: What is it, Reid?
Reid: Sometimes when a, when a parent is unstable, especially if the other one’s out of the picture, you’ll do anything to be the perfect child.
Prentiss: Like help your father abduct women?
Reid: They’re never late for school. Even with the abductions, the disposals of the bodies, it’s always time perfectly so the kid’ll be on time to school. I don’t think the killer would care. I think the kid would.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Garcia: [answering phone] FBI Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia speaking.
Hotch: Garcia, I need a list of parents from the Wauwatosa school district, eliminate any two parent households, or any fathers holding white collar jobs that aren't labor management.
Garcia: You'll see it flying over the transom momentarily.
Hotch: And one more thing- the glitches in the transfers and resignations stop now.
Garcia: Yes, sir.
Hotch: And Garcia...
Garcia: Yes?
Hotch: Thank you.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
[Gideon at an eatery: ]
Gideon: Here you go.
Waitress: You got enough to eat honey?
Gideon: Oh yeah.
Waitress: Travellin'?
Gideon: Yeah
Waitress: Where you headed?
Gideon: No where in particular
Waitress: How would you know when you get there?
Gideon: [smiles] That's a good question, [reads the name of the waitress] Rose. That's a very good question. Have a great day.
Waitres: You too.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Gideon: I guess I’m just looking for it again – for the belief I had back in college, the belief I had when I first met Sarah and it all seemed so right. The belief in happy endings.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotchner: The Daoist philosopher Lao-tze once wrote, "He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Reid: Wittman's place is on the fourth floor. [gets in the elevator] Can you get in there?
Hotch: I'll… meet you guys up there.
[The elevator stops and Morgan bounces a bit, causing it to shake]
Reid: Don't do that.
Morgan: Why isn't it moving?
Reid: I don't know. [Morgan starts pushing buttons] Don't—Stop it! Don't—
Morgan: What? What's the problem?
Reid: Don't do that!
Morgan: Why not?
Reid: Cause there are six elevator-related deaths per year, not to mention ten thousand injuries that require hospitalization. Chill out.
Morgan: Those sound like pretty good odds to me. What- what are you scared Reid? You're scared.
Reid: I'm not scared. I don't wanna be in an elevator with you to be honest.
Morgan: [Starts to pushing buttons] How about if I push that? What if I push— [Elevator suddenly falls and both become visibly freaked] Whoa. Whoa. Ok.
Reid: Um… Hit the—Hit the— [Morgan hits the alarm button and Hotch hears the alarm bell sound] Push it!
Morgan: I'm- Push, pull, push, pull. I'm doin' it. Nothing's happening.
Reid: Pry- Pry the- Pry the door open. Just—yeah.
Morgan: [Grunting in an effort to get the door open] It's stuck, man. Uhh [falls back against the elevator wall] No, no, no, no. Not today. No, not today.
Reid: [In high-pitched-voice] Hotch.
Morgan: [Starts pressing the alarm again] HOTCH! [The elevator finally opens and he stumbles out] Hallelujah.
Hotch: Was that the alarm? You guys ok?
Reid: [Walking out slowly] I'll get back to you on that.

TV Show: Criminal Minds
Hotch: Fire, hanging, asphyxiation. Now we've got a drowning.
Reid: I think it's someone who's afraid of drowning.
Hotch: What do you mean?
Reid: Yeah, it hit me when Morgan freaked out when we were stuck in the elevator.
Prentiss: You got stuck in an elevator?
Morgan: I freaked?
Reid: Well, that’s not important. Here's what is. If you look at the M.O.s of the victims, what do they all have in common? They could all be classified as anxiety disorders. It's right out of The Diagnostics and Statistical Manual. It lists five subtypes of phobias.
Hotch: Most of these are environmental and situational.
Reid: Exactly.
Hotch: So it's all about fear. These people are being killed by their fears.

TV Show: Criminal Minds