The 40+ Best Doctor Strange Quotes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Doctor Stephen Strange was a brilliant neurosurgeon before mastering the Mystic Arts, but luckily that M.D. only makes his name cooler!

Portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch since 2016, the sorcerer/doctor has appeared in seven different Marvel films and television shows, so far. While his role wasn’t large in Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Endgame, he still manages to always be memorable, mostly due to his witty remarks.

Now that his second MCU feature Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been released we’ve put together this list of all the best Doctor Strange quotes and sayings for you to enjoy!

Read on for all the best lines from Doctor Strange throughout the years on a variety of topics.

via GIPHY

Want more Marvel quotes? Check these out:

The Most Famous and Iconic Doctor Strange Quotes

You probably already know these ones but we still have to include the most well-known Dr. Strange movie quotes! These are his most iconic lines.

via GIPHY

Kaecilius: How long have you been at Kamar-Taj, Mister…
Dr. Stephen Strange: Doctor!
Kaecilius: Mr. Doctor?
Dr. Stephen Strange: It’s Strange.
Kaecilius: Maybe. Who am I to judge?” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain!” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: I went forward in time. To view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.
Peter Quill: How many did you see?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Fourteen million, six hundred and five.
Tony Stark: How many did we win?
Dr. Stephen Strange: …One.” Avengers: Infinity War

Tony Stark: [after Strange gives Thanos the Time Stone] Why did you do that?
Dr. Stephen Strange: We’re in the end game, now.” Avengers: Infinity War

Spider-Man: What is this place?
Doctor Strange: The Mirror Dimension. Where I’m in control.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

The Most Inspiring and Wise Doctor Strange Quotes

As a Master of the Mystic Arts, it makes sense that Doctor Strange possesses quite a bit of knowledge and wisdom. These are the best Dr. Strange sayings that demonstrate his (and others’) wisdom or inspire audiences in some way.

via GIPHY

The Ancient One: [on magic] You cannot beat a river into submission; you have to surrender to its current, and use its power as your own.
Dr. Stephen Strange: I control it by surrendering control? That doesn’t make any sense.
The Ancient One: Not everything does. Not everything has to. Your intellect has taken you far in life, but it will take you no further. Surrender, Stephen.” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: I’m not ready.
The Ancient One: No one ever is. We don’t get to choose our time. Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered. Your time is short. You’d think after all this time, I’d be ready. But look at me. Stretching one moment out into a thousand… just so that I can watch the snow.” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: [to Mordo] You told me once to fight like my life depended on it because one day it might. Well, today is that day. I cannot defeat them alone.” Doctor Strange

Dormammu: End this! You will never win.
Dr. Stephen Strange: No. But I can lose. Again. And again. And again. Forever. That makes you my prisoner.” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: Thor, I sense a great change in your future. Destiny has dire plans for you, my friend.” Thor: Ragnarok

Doctor Strange: A wise sorcerer once told me that to face death is part of the plan.” What If…? Season One, Episode 9: “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?”

Doctor Strange: Be careful what you wish for, Parker.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

Dr. Strange: Dreams are windows into the lives of our multiversal selves.” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The Saddest Doctor Strange Quotes

After the first film, Stephen Strange hasn’t had to deal with too much sadness, that is until the animated series What If…? There are still some Dr. Strange quotes in the films and television series where we feel rather sorry for him, and here they are.

via GIPHY

Dr. Nicodemus West: Give your body time to heal.
Dr. Stephen Strange: You’ve ruined me.” Doctor Strange

Christine Palmer: Stephen, you always spent money as fast as you can make it, but now you’re spending money you don’t even have. Maybe it’s time to consider stopping.
Dr. Stephen Strange: No, now is exactly not the time to stop, because, you see, I’m not getting any better!” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: [sitting on the doorstep of Kamar-Taj, on the verge of tears] Don’t shut me out. I haven’t got anywhere else to go…” Doctor Strange

Dormammu: You cannot do this forever.
Dr. Stephen Strange: Actually, I can. This is how things are now! You and me. Trapped in this moment. Endlessly.
Dormammu: Then you will spend eternity dying!
Dr. Stephen Strange: Yes, but everyone on Earth will live.
Dormammu: But you will suffer!
Dr. Stephen Strange: Pain is an old friend.” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: Tony… there was no other way. [turns into dust and blows away]” Avengers: Infinity War

Doctor Strange: Why does this keep happening? Aren’t we allowed to be happy?” What If…? Season One, Episode 4: “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”

“[the universe implodes] 
Strange Supreme: [sees the Watcher] You… You can stop this! Please, fix this!
The Watcher: The same way you fixed Christine?
Strange Supreme: What? I was wrong. I…
The Watcher: You were warned!
Strange Supreme: I know! But the world! The world shouldn’t pay for my arrogance. I read about you, sensed your presence. You’re a god. You can undo this!
The Watcher: I’m not a god. And neither are you.
Strange Supreme: Then punish me! Not the world, not Christine!
The Watcher: Honestly, if I could fix this, if I could punish you instead, I would. But I can’t interfere. You, more than anyone else, should understand that meddling with time and events only leads to more destruction. [fades away] 
Strange Supreme: No. No!” What If…? Season One, Episode 4: “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”

Peggy Carter: Can I ask what happened?
Doctor Strange: The same thing that happened to you. Love.” What If…? Season One, Episode 9: “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?”

Doctor Strange: Sacrifice? That would imply I had something to lose.” What If…? Season One, Episode 9: “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?”

Dr. Strange: [to Christine] I love you. I love you in every universe.” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The Best Funny Doctor Strange Quotes

Doctor Stephen Strange was always arrogant and quite witty, so there are plenty of examples of funny lines for us to choose from! Here are our favorite Doctor Strange quotes that made us laugh.

via GIPHY

Dr. Stephen Strange: [after Mordo hands him a card] Well, what’s this? My mantra?
Baron Mordo: The Wi-Fi password. We’re not savages.” Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange: Wong. Just Wong? Like Adele? Or Aristotle. Drake. Bono… Eminem.” Doctor Strange

Wong: How’s your Sanskrit?
Dr. Stephen Strange: I’m fluent in Google Translate.” Doctor Strange

Wong: I am now the guardian of these books. So if a volume from this collection should be stolen again, I’d know it, and you’d be dead before you ever left the compound.
Dr. Stephen Strange: What if it’s just overdue? You know. Any late fees I should know about? Maiming, perhaps? [after Wong doesn’t react] People used to think that I was funny.
Wong: Did they work for you?
Dr. Stephen Strange: All right, Well, it’s been lovely talking to you. Thank you for the books and for the horrifying story and… for the threat upon my life.” Doctor Strange

Baron Mordo: This is a relic. Some magic is too powerful to sustain so we imbue objects with it… allowing them to take the strain we cannot. This is the staff… of the Living Tribunal. There are many relics. The Wand of Watoomb. The Vaulting Boots of Valtorr.
Dr. Stephen Strange: Really just roll off the tongue, don’t they?” Doctor Strange

Wong: What do you want, Strange?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Books on Astral Projection.
Wong: You’re not ready for that.
Dr. Stephen Strange: Try me, Beyoncé. [Wong remains silent] Come on! You’ve heard of her, she’s a huge star, right? [pause] Do you ever laugh? Come on, just give me the book.
Wong: No.” Doctor Strange

“[Strange is experimenting with time manipulation using the Eye of Agamotto] 
Baron Mordo: [bursting in] Stop! Tampering with continuum probabilities is forbidden!
Dr. Stephen Strange: I-I-I was just doing exactly what it said in the book!
Wong: And what did the book say about the dangers of performing that ritual?
Dr. Stephen Strange: I don’t know, I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.
Baron Mordo: Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings. Spatial paradoxes! Time loops! You wanna get stuck reliving the same moment over and over forever or never having existed at all?
Dr. Stephen Strange: They really should put the warnings before this spell.” Doctor Strange

Christine Palmer: Where have you been?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Well, after Western medicine failed me, I headed east, and I ended up in Kathmandu.
Christine Palmer: Kathmandu?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Yeah.
Christine Palmer: What? Like the Bob Seger Song?
Dr. Stephen Strange: 1975, Beautiful Loser, side A. Yeah. And I went to a place called Kamar-Taj and I… talked to someone called “The Ancient One.” And I…
Christine Palmer: Oh. So you joined a cult.
Dr. Stephen Strange: No, I didn’t. No, not exactly. No. I mean… They did teach me to tap into powers that I never even knew existed.
Christine Palmer: Yeah. That sounds like a cult.
Dr. Stephen Strange: It’s not a cult.
Christine Palmer: Well, that’s what a cultist would say.” Doctor Strange

Kaecilius: What have you done?
Dr. Stephen Strange: I made a bargain.
Kaecilius: What is this?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Well, it’s everything you’ve ever wanted. Eternal life as part of the One. You’re not gonna like it. [Kaecilius and his Zealots are sucked into the Dark Dimension] Yeah, you know, you really should have stolen the whole book because the warnings… The warnings come after the spells.
Wong: [laughs] Oh, that’s funny.” Doctor Strange

Thor: [talking about Odin] If you knew where he was, why didn’t you call me?
Dr. Stephen Strange: I have to tell you, he was adamant that he not be disturbed. Your father said he had chosen to remain in exile. And you don’t have a phone.
Thor: No, I don’t have a phone, but you could have sent an electronic letter. It’s called an email.
Dr. Stephen Strange: Yeah, do you have a computer?
Thor: No. What for?” Thor: Ragnarok

Dr. Stephen Strange: If we don’t do our jobs…
Tony Stark: What is your job, exactly, besides making balloon animals?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Protecting your reality, douchebag.” Avengers: Infinity War

Dr. Stephen Strange: We gotta turn this ship around.
Tony Stark: Yeah, now he wants to run. Great plan.
Dr. Stephen Strange: No, I want to protect the stone.
Tony Stark: And I want you to thank me. Now, go ahead. I’m listening.
Dr. Stephen Strange: For what? Nearly blasting me into space?
Tony Stark: Who just saved your magical ass? Me.
Dr. Stephen Strange: I seriously don’t know how you fit your head into that helmet.
Tony Stark: Admit it, you should’ve ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you. You refused.
Dr. Stephen Strange: Unlike everyone else in your life, I don’t work for you.” Avengers: Infinity War

Tony Stark: Hey, you said one out of fourteen million, we’d win, yeah? Tell me this is it.
Doctor Strange: If I tell you what happens, it won’t happen.” Avengers: Endgame

“[the good and bad halves of Dr Strange confront each other] 
Doctor Strange: The Ancient One warned us. If we save Christine, we destroy the world.
Strange Supreme: [sighs] I told you, she doesn’t understand. We love Christine.
Doctor Strange: This isn’t love. Look at this! This is arrogance. This is our need to fix everything. It’s what drove us to study the Mystic Arts in the first place.
Strange Supreme: And look where we are.
Doctor Strange: Deranged.
Strange Supreme: I will be whole again.
Doctor Strange: No. Your marbles are long gone.” What If…? Season One, Episode 4: “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”

Peter Parker: [referring to snow inside the sanctum] Is all this for a holiday party?
Wong: No. One of the rotunda gateways connects to Siberia. Blizzard blasted through.
Doctor Strange: [levitating downstairs] Because someone forgot to cast a maintenance spell to keep the seals tight.
Wong: That’s right. He did. Because he forgot I now have higher duties.
Doctor Strange: Higher duties?
Wong: The Sorcerer Supreme has high duties, yes.
Peter Parker: [to Doctor Strange] Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme?
Doctor Strange: No. He got it on a technicality ’cause I Blipped for five years.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

Doctor Strange: So, Peter… to what do I owe the pleasure?
Peter Parker: I’m sorry to bother you, sir.
Doctor Strange: Please. We’ve saved half the universe together. I think we’re beyond you calling me “sir”.
Peter Parker: Okay. Stephen…
Doctor Strange: [beat] That feels weird, but I’ll allow it.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

Peter Parker: [to Doctor Strange] Just forget about it
Wong: He will. He’s really good at forgetting things.
Doctor Strange: Wong. You’ve actually generated a good idea.
Wong: What?
Doctor Strange: The runes of Cafkal.
Peter Parker: The runes of Cafkal?
Doctor Strange: Oh, it’s just a standard spell of forgetting. Won’t turn back time, but at least people will forget that you were ever Spider-Man.
Peter Parker: Seriously?
Wong: No. Not seriously. That spell travels the dark borders between known and unknown reality. It’s too dangerous.
Doctor Strange: God, we’ve used it for a lot less. Do you remember the full moon party in Kamar-Taj?
Wong: No.
Doctor Strange: Exactly.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: [interrupts the spell again] Happy!
Doctor Strange: No, I am annoyed.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: Listen, let’s just focus on the good news, okay?
Doctor Strange: No, let’s just focus on the bad news. As of now, you have detected zero multiversal trespassers. So, get on your phones, scour the Internet, and Scooby-Doo this shit.
MJ: [laughs dryly] You’re telling us what to do, even though it was your spell that got screwed up. Meaning that all of this is kind of your mess. You know, I know a couple of magic words myself, starting with the word ‘please’.
Doctor Strange: Please, Scooby-Doo this shit.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

Doctor Strange: Yeah it would work. But you gotta understand, that would mean everyone who knows and loves you, we… we’d have no memory of you. It would be as though you never existed.
Peter Parker: I know. Do it.
Doctor Strange: You’d better go and say your goodbyes, you don’t have long.
Peter Parker: Thank you, sir.
Doctor Strange: Call me Stephen.
Peter Parker: Thank you, Stephen.
Doctor Strange: [chuckles] Yeah. Still feels weird.” Spider-Man: No Way Home

America Chavez: How much experience do you guys have with the Multiverse?
Dr. Strange: We have experience of the Multiverse. Most recently, there was an incident with Spider-Man.
America Chavez: What man?
Dr. Strange: Spider-Man. He has the powers of a spider.
Wong: Hence the name.
America Chavez: Gross. Does he look like a spider?
Dr. Strange: No. No, more like a man.
Wong: Climbs walls, shoots webs.
Dr. Strange: Yeah. Bingo.
America Chavez: Out of his butt?
Wong: No.
Dr. Strange: No. Well, maybe, I don’t know. Honestly, I hope not.
America Chavez: Super weird.” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Dr. Strange: Look, I left a very nice wedding to save a smartass kid from getting eaten by an octopus. Now tell me…
Wong: Whose wedding?
Dr. Strange: Christine’s.
Wong: You went?
America Chavez: Holy shit. You married Christine?
Dr. Strange Fan: [referring to taking a photo] Do you mind?
Dr. Strange: [to the fan] Yes, I do. [to America] No, I didn’t. [to Wong] Yes.” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Dr. Strange: We could use an Avenger.
Wanda Maximoff: There are other Avengers.
Dr. Strange: Yeah, but given the choice between the archer with the mohawk and several bug-themed crime fighters, or one of THE most powerful magic wielders on the planet, it’s an easy call. Come to Kamar Taj. It’ll get you back on a lunch box.” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Reed Richards: The building’s been breached.
Dr. Strange: No shit, genius!” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Zombie Strange: This time it’s gonna take more than killing me to kill me!” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Did We Miss Any of Your Favorite Doctor Strange Quotes?

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Kristy Brandt

Originally from Tasmania, Australia, Kristy was living in London when she unexpectedly met a Dutch bloke and ended up moving to the Netherlands to be with him. Now she can be found taking numerous photos of their four weird cats, eating lots of stroopwafels and blogging at Tassie Devil Abroad.

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