If you need the motivation to keep going in the face of adversity, then these Peaky Blinders quotes are for you.
Peaky Blinders is a period drama set in Birmingham, England, in the 20th century. The plot follows a family of gangsters as they rise to power and exact revenge on those who have wronged them.
A gangster’s life is not easy. Aside from the stereotype that they are society’s bane, their lives are constantly in jeopardy. In the series, as the gang leader, Tommy tried everything he could to be the best gang boss in town, resulting in his wife’s loss.
This turning point taught him that you could not have all you desire in life. No matter how powerful or affluent you are, you will never be happy without your loved ones.
If you’re curious about the plot and what other realizations the characters have, take a look at the Peaky Blinders quotes below. We’re sure you’ll get a glimpse into their complicated life and leave with some valuable lessons too.
Let’s go!
And make sure to read these Tommy Shelby quotes and Sons of Anarchy quotes.
Best Peaky Blinders Quotes
1. “Lies travel faster than the truth.” – Tommy Shelby
2. “You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you take.” – Lizzie Shelby
3. “For those who make the rules, there are no rules.” – Tommy Shelby
4. “All religion is a foolish answer to a foolish question.” – Tommy Shelby
5. “Intelligence is a very valuable thing, innit, my friend. And usually, it comes far too f*cking late.” – Alfie Solomons
6. “An agreement is not the same thing as an assurance.” – Chester Campbell
7. “In all the world the only thing that interests me is the truth.” – Chester Campbell
8. “When you plan something well there’s no need to rush.” – Tommy Shelby
9. “When there are no rules, women take charge.” – Tatiana Petrovna
10. “You have to get what you want your own way.” – Tommy Shelby
11. “To make sure your dog obeys you, you have to show it the stick once in a while.” – Chester Campbell
12. “The only way to guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless.” – Tommy Shelby
13. “Life is so much easier to deal with when you are dead.” – Alfie Solomons
14. “Ambition for respectability doesn’t make you a saint.” – Father John Hughes
15. “I don’t need a knife to stop me telling secrets given in confidence. It is a matter of honor.” – Esme Shelby
Peaky Blinders Quotes by Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy)
16. “You strike when your enemy is weak.” – Tommy Shelby
17. “My suits are on the house, or the house burns down.” – Tommy Shelby
18. “Good taste is for people who can’t afford sapphires.” – Tommy Shelby
19. “People are loyal to those who pay their wages.” – Tommy Shelby
20. “It’s not a good idea to look at Tommy Shelby the wrong way.” – Tommy Shelby
21. “Those of you who are last will soon be first. And those of you who are downtrodden will rise up.” – Tommy Shelby
22. “I’m not a traitor to my class. I am just an extreme example of what a working man can achieve.” – Tommy Shelby
23. “Please don’t listen to my sister’s opinions of me. They are always hopeful. Therefore they are always wrong.” – Tommy Shelby
24. “There is no rest for me in this world. Perhaps in the next.” – Tommy Shelby
25. “You can change what you do, but you can’t change what you want.” – Tommy Shelby
26. “If you apologize once, you do it again and again and again. Like taking bricks out of the wall of your f*cking house.” – Tommy Shelby
27. “Five for peace, two for truce, one abstention. Let’s get on with the war.” – Tommy Shelby
28. “I have made arrangements with men I trust. If I should die, then you will die, know that.” – Tommy Shelby
29. “People thinking I’m going to fall, they start behaving in a different way around you.” – Tommy Shelby
30. “There’s a part of me that is unfamiliar to myself. And I keep finding myself there.” – Tommy Shelby
Also read: Beth Dutton Quotes, Yellowstone Quotes
Peaky Blinders Quotes by Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson)
31. “There’s good in my heart, but these hands belong to the devil.” – Arthur Shelby
32. “I know who I am, Linda. I know who I am and I’m all right with it. Finally, I can live with it.” – Arthur Shelby
33. “This place is under new management, by order of the peaky blinders.” – Arthur Shelby
34. “In the end, it’s God who pulls that f*cking trigger anyway. We don’t get to decide who lives and who dies, Finn. Not us. You just have to flick a switch.” – Arthur Shelby
35. “I’m an old man and my heart’s battered vessel, but within, there still beats a fluttering pulse of a dream.” – Arthur Shelby
Also read: The Sopranos Quotes
Peaky Blinders Quotes by John Shelby (Joe Cole)
36. “Are you f*cking repenting or something?” – John Shelby
37. “Anyway, we’re Peaky Blinders. We’re not scared of coppers. If they come for us, we’ll cut them a smile each.” – John Shelby
38. “Aunt Pol, when I was Michael’s age I’d killed a hundred men and seen a thousand die. If you want to scare that kid away forever, carry on how you’re going. If you want him to stay, let him come.” – John Shelby
Peaky Blinders Quotes by Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory)
39. “Don’t f*ck with the peaky blinders!” – Aunt Polly
40. “Sometimes the women have to take over. Like in the war.” – Aunt Polly
41. “Men and their c*cks never cease to amaze me.” – Aunt Polly
42. “Rule one, you don’t punch above your weight.” – Aunt Polly
43. “We all try and get away. But we never do.” – Aunt Polly
44. “Brave is going where no man has gone before.” – Aunt Polly
45. “You have your mother’s common sense but your father’s devilment. I see them fighting. Let your mother win.” – Aunt Polly
46. “My senior position within the Shelby company means I don’t often have to ask permission from anyone to do anything.” – Aunt Polly
47. “Men don’t have the strategic intelligence to conduct a war between families. Men are less good at keeping secrets out of their lies.” – Aunt Polly
48. “We’ve kept each other alive. But I didn’t just put my head through that window. I climbed through it. First I thought it was madness, but no. When you’ve put your head out of that window, you can do anything you want. Because there are no rules. Because there are no risks.” – Aunt Polly
Also read: Schitt’s Creek Quotes, This Is Us Quotes
Peaky Blinders Quotes by Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy)
49. “It was f*cking biblical, mate.” – Alfie Solomons
50. “These bastards only understand one language.” – Alfie Solomons
51. “He who fights by the sword, he f*cking dies by it, Tommy.” – Alfie Solomons
52. “You are behaving like a f*cking child. This is a man’s world.” – Alfie Solomons
53. “I know what I know, you know. If you don’t know, then you don’t f*cking know, do you?” – Alfie Solomons
54. “Don’t come in here and sit there in my chair and tell me that I’m losing my war to a f*cking wop.” – Alfie Solomons
55. “I, my friend—I am the uncle, and the protector, and the promoter of that f*cking thing right there, in whose shadow nothing good nor godly will ever f*cking grow.” – Alfie Solomons
56. “If you pull that trigger, right, you pull that trigger for a f*cking honorable reason. Like an honorable man, not like some f*cking civilian that does not understand the wicked way of our world, mate.” – Alfie Solomons
Deep Peaky Blinders Quotes to Make You Think
57. “These days, people tell me things without even speaking.” – Tommy Shelby
58. “Fortune drops something valuable into your lap, you don’t just dump it on the bank of the cut.” – Tommy Shelby
59. “Everyone’s a wh*re, Grace. We just sell different parts of ourselves.” – Tommy Shelby
60. “Did you know that madness sets you free? Otherwise, we’re just peasants obeying the law.” – Tatiana Petrovna
61. “A man needs to prove he is better than me, rather than show me his birth certificate.” – Tommy Shelby
Peaky Blinders Quotes That Show How Everyone Can Fall in Love
62. “There’s business and there’s love.” – Grace Burgess
63. “There’s only one thing that can blind a man as smart as you, Tommy. Love.” – Aunt Polly
64. “I learned long ago to hate my enemies, but I’ve never loved one before.” – Tommy Shelby
65. “Men like us, Mr. Shelby, will always be alone. And what love we get, we will have to pay for.” – Chester Campbell
66. “Oh. And there’s a woman. Yeah. A woman I love—and I got close. I nearly got f*cking everything!” – Thomas Shelby
67. “You can never tell with men. They go for whoever their dicks point at, and there’s no changing their minds.” – Aunt Polly
68. “You’ve told me about her, like a gentleman, now kindly behave like a gangster again.” – May Carleton
69. “She’s in the past. The past is not my concern. The future is no longer my concern, either.” – Tommy Shelby
Peaky Blinders Quotes That Will Give You a Glimpse of Gangster Life
70. “I just put a bullet in his head—he looked at me the wrong way.” – Tommy Shelby
71. “He’ll wake up. Granted he won’t have any teeth left but he will be a wiser man for it.” – Alfie Solomons
72. “I can charm dogs. Gypsy witchcraft. And those I can’t charm, I can kill with my own hands.” – Tommy Shelby
73. “F*cking hell, it smells of pig round here, don’t it? Definitely not kosher.” – Alfie Solomons
74. “In all the world, violent men are the easiest to deal with.” – Irene O’Donnell
75. “In France, I got used to seeing men die. I never got used to seeing horses die.” – Tommy Shelby
76. “I imagine being shot by a woman hurts the same as being shot by a man. Just a bit more shameful.” – Tommy Shelby
77. “It’s business, Grace. And bad, bad business it is all around. And I’m scared, Grace. I’m scared for you. I’m scared for the baby. And this is how I am when I’m scared. It is unfamiliar to you but not to me. I can f*cking be scared and carry on. And it’s not pleasant to look at and no joy to be around.” – Tommy Shelby
78. “What f*cking line am I supposed to have crossed? How many fathers, right, how many sons, yeah, have you cut, killed, murdered, butchered, innocent, and guilty, to send straight to f*cking hell, ain’t ya? Just like me!” – Alfie Solomons
79. “I know that you all want me to say that I’ll change, that this f*cking business will change, but I’ve learned something in the last few days. Those bastards. Those bastards are worse than us. Politicians, f*cking judges, lords, and ladies. They’re worse than us, and they will never admit us to their palaces, no matter how legitimate we become because of who we are.” – Tommy Shelby
Peaky Blinders Quotes to Help You Understand Life and Death
80. “When you’re dead already, you’re free.” – Aunt Polly
81. “Sometimes death is a kindness.” – Tommy Shelby
82. “Today, it will be me dead or you. But whoever it is, he’ll wake up in hell tomorrow.” – Tommy Shelby
Short Peaky Blinders Quotes for Fans of the Series
83. “Babies don’t have principles.” – Aunt Polly
84. “Instinct’s a funny thing.” – Aunt Polly
85. “I am my own revolution.” – Tommy Shelby
86. “Killing a man affects the heart.” – Chester Campbell
87. “If you’re soft on rebellion, it’ll grow.” – Tommy Shelby
88. “My fury is a thing to behold.” – Chester Campbell
89. “That shit’ll rot your pipework.” – Alfie Solomons
90. “Never give power to the big man.” – Alfie Solomons
91. “Every man, he craves certainty.” – Alfie Solomons
92. “When my judgment comes, I’ll be the one that’s laughing.” – Chester Campbell
93. “I find the more obvious vices the easiest to resist.” – Chester Campbell
94. “Men always tell their troubles to a barmaid.” – Grace Burgess
95. “A good man needs to hold out sometimes.” – Tommy Shelby
More Peaky Blinders Quotes for You to Enjoy
96. “Rum’s for fun and f*cking, innit? Whisky, now that—that is for business.” – Alfie Solomons
97. “Whisky’s good proofing water. Tells you who’s real and who isn’t.” – Tommy Shelby
98. “May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you’re dead.” – Grace Burgess
99. “In pubs sometimes people say things and sometimes it’s the whisky talking. It’s hard to tell which is which.” – Tommy Shelby
100. “The problem, right, between rum and gin, is that gin, right, it leads to the melancholy. Whereas rum incites violence, it also allows you to be liberated from your self-doubt.” – Alfie Solomons
Did These Quotes Give You an Idea of How Tough Survival Can Be In the Life of a Gang?
Peaky Blinders is a crime drama about the various gangs that emerged after World War I. One of them is Peaky Blinders, a gang led by Thomas Shelby, a ruthless and ambitious man.
Thomas Shelby works tirelessly despite his humble beginnings to make his gang the best in town. Even though he is only an adopted son, he proves that he deserves to be a part of the family. Through this, he teaches the audience one of the main lessons you can gather from the series—that you can only reach the top with hard work and dedication.
Peaky Blinders has a lot of lessons to teach, despite the violence it portrays. Some of these lessons include realizing that we cannot always get what we want and that it is sometimes better to be content with what we have. Remember, some things come with a significant cost—one that we might not be willing to pay.
We hope this collection of Peaky Blinders quotes was able to open your eyes to the realities of gang life, as well as what the characters can teach you. Keep in mind that nothing good will come to you if you take the road of evil. So, make sure you consider all your decisions and what consequences may come with them before acting.
Which of these quotes is your favorite? Do you have any Peaky Blinders quotes you’d like to share? Share them below!
