Step into the mind of Criminal Minds with this collection of closing quotes from Season 3. Each episode ends with a thought-provoking line that reflects the complex psychology behind the cases and the characters. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to the series, these quotes offer a deeper glimpse into the themes that make the show so compelling.
Season 3, Episode 1 – “Doubt”
- Opening Quote:
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
— Joseph Conrad (quoted by Jason Gideon) - Closing Quote:
“Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable.”
— William Shakespeare (quoted by Jason Gideon)
Episode 2 – “In Name and Blood”
- Opening Quote:
“Let your heart feel for the affliction and distress of everyone.”
— George Washington (quoted by Aaron Hotchner) - Closing Quote:
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
— Helen Keller (quoted by Aaron Hotchner)
Episode 3 – “Scared to Death”
- Opening Quote:
“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”
— Lao-tze (quoted by Aaron Hotchner)Tumblr - Closing Quote:
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt (quoted by Aaron Hotchner)
Episode 4 – “Children of the Dark”
- Opening Quote:
“In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—a mystery of the individual soul.”
— Barbara Ehrenreich (quoted by Emily Prentiss) - Closing Quote:
“The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.”
— Sophocles (quoted by Emily Prentiss)
Episode 5 – “Seven Seconds”
- Opening Quote:
“Nothing is easier than denouncing the evildoer; nothing more difficult than understanding him.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky (quoted by Aaron Hotchner) - Closing Quote:
“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”
— G.K. Chesterton (quoted by Aaron Hotchner)
Episode 6 – “About Face”
- Opening Quote:
“Now what else is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each one his part, until the manager waves them off the stage?”
— Erasmus (quoted by Aaron Hotchner) - Closing Quote:
“The mask, given time, comes to be the face itself.”
— Marguerite Yourcenar (quoted by Aaron Hotchner)
Episode 7 – “Identity”
- Opening Quote:
“An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects.”
— Martin Luther (quoted by David Rossi) - Closing Quote:
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
— Lao-tze (quoted by David Rossi)
Episode 8 – “Lucky”
- Opening Quote:
“Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters.”
— Francisco Goya (quoted by Derek Morgan) - Closing Quote:
“God sends meat, and the devil sends cooks.”
— Thomas Deloney (quoted by Derek Morgan)
Episode 9 – “Penelope”
- Opening Quote:
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
— William Shakespeare (quoted by Penelope Garcia) - Closing Quote:
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
— Mahatma Gandhi (quoted by Penelope Garcia)
Episode 10 – “True Night”
- Opening Quote:
“Superman is, after all, an alien life form. He is simply the acceptable face of invading realities.”
— Clive Barker (quoted by Spencer Reid) - Closing Quote:
“The noir hero is a knight in blood-caked armor. He’s dirty and does his best to deny the fact that he’s a hero the whole time.”
— Frank Miller (quoted by Penelope Garcia)
Episode 11 – “Birthright”
- Opening Quote:
“It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.”
— Anne Sexton (quoted by Aaron Hotchner) - Closing Quote:
“A simple child, that lightly draws its breath, and feels its life in every limb, what should it know of death?”
— William Wordsworth (quoted by Jennifer Jareau)
Episode 12 – “3rd Life”
- Opening Quote:
“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
— John Steinbeck (quoted by Spencer Reid) - Closing Quote:
“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke.”
— Tom Stoppard (quoted by Spencer Reid)
Episode 13 – “Limelight”
- Opening Quote:
“A man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”
— André Malraux (quoted by David Rossi) - Closing Quote:
“The only thing more terrifying than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
— Helen Keller (quoted by David Rossi)
Episode 14 – “Damaged”
- Opening Quote:
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”
— Ernest Hemingway (quoted by David Rossi) - Closing Quote:
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering.”
— Ben Okri (quoted by David Rossi)
Episode 15 – “A Higher Power”
- Opening Quote:
“The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.”
— John Vance Cheney (quoted by Emily Prentiss) - Closing Quote:
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
— Mitch Albom (quoted by Emily Prentiss)
Episode 16 – “Elephant’s Memory”
- Opening Quote:
“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
— John Steinbeck (quoted by Spencer Reid) - Closing Quote:
“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.”
— William Wordsworth (quoted by Spencer Reid)
Episode 17 – “In Heat”
- Opening Quote:
“There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.”
— George Bernard Shaw (quoted by Jennifer Jareau) - Closing Quote:
“If we knew each other’s secrets, what comforts we should find.”
— John Churton Collins (quoted by Jennifer Jareau)
Episode 18 – “The Crossing”
- Opening Quote:
“No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”
— Christian Nestell Bovee (quoted by Emily Prentiss) - Closing Quote:
“A woman must not depend on the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.”
— Susan B. Anthony (quoted by Jennifer Jareau)
Episode 19 – “Tabula Rasa”
- Opening Quote:
“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”
— Anatole France (quoted by Aaron Hotchner) - Closing Quote:
“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.”
— William Wordsworth (quoted by Spencer Reid)
Episode 20 – “Lo-Fi”
- Opening Quote:
“The man visited by ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities, is an enthusiast. The man who supports his madness with murder
