Law & Order (TV Series)

Sanctuary (1994)

Michael Moriarty: Executive ADA Ben Stone

Photos 

Quotes 

• EADA Ben Stone : I'm responsible for my actions, not the color of my skin. And if it makes you feel good to call me a racist, fine. But if you want to know who's really responsible for racism in today's society, take a good look in the mirror.

• EADA Ben Stone : Nobody's willing to draw a line in the sand! Nobody's willing to say that the law is the law and if you break it you will be prosecuted, win, lose or draw.

  Adam Schiff : Except you.

  EADA Ben Stone : It's better to light a match than to curse the darkness.

  Adam Schiff : Even if it lights a fuse that could blow up the city?

  EADA Ben Stone : What do you want? Peace without justice?

  Adam Schiff : I'm trying to straddle a fence so that this city can heal. Can you understand that?

  EADA Ben Stone : [quietly]  Yep. I understand.

  [after a long pause] 

  EADA Ben Stone : I understand that the cure is worse than the disease.

  [goes to the door] 

  EADA Ben Stone : And that it's a solution I just can't be part of.

• EADA Ben Stone : Shambala... Just once, I'd like to hear someone in this country stand up and say, "I did it. I'm the one responsible for my actions, not my television set, and not the color of my skin." And if it makes you feel good to call me a racist, fine. But if you want to know who's really responsible for racism in today's society, take a good look in the mirror.

• EADA Ben Stone : Better to light a match than curse the darkness.

  Adam Schiff : Be careful you don't light a fuse.

• Adam Schiff : ...after twenty years in this office, you'd think you'd have a sense of reality.

  Ben Stone : Reality? The reality is that no one is willing to draw a line in the sand. Nobody is willing to say that the law is the law. And if you break it, you will be prosecuted: win, lose or draw.

• Ben Stone : Sanctuary? What is this, medieval England?

  A.D.A. Claire Kincaid : You really plan to argue this in front of a judge?

  Shambala Green : And the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, if necessary.

  Ben Stone : So your client is going to stay in this church until your exercise in futility is completed?

  Shambala Green : Considering the alternative, you bet. That is, of course, unless you'd like to save us all a lot of time and energy.

  Ben Stone : Well, what does that mean?

  Shambala Green : Man two, he serves the minimum.

  Ben Stone : Your client savagely killed Mr. John De Santis on the local news. We call that murder two.

• Adam Schiff : There's a reason for the Reverend Otts of this world.

  EADA Ben Stone : To promote anti-Semitism?

  Adam Schiff : To remind us that we still have a long way to go.

• EADA Ben Stone : Don't blame me for murdering them, they were horrible parents. And don't blame me for mutilating my husband in his sleep. He abused me