“Honest? As honest as the day is long.”
Why it's great
A tired idiom delivered fast becomes a joke about how much honesty you can really expect.
Register
Informal
Use it yourself
That shopkeeper is as honest as the day is long.
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00:00 / 02:57
Rick Refuses Victor's Plea, Explained
Casablanca · 1943
Chapter 14 of 20 · 2'57"
Victor Laszlo needs exit papers to leave Casablanca, and he assumes Rick will sell them. Rick refuses, insisting he is "a saloonkeeper" with no interest in politics. Laszlo presses: isn't it strange that Rick always fights "on the side of the underdog"? Rick ends the meeting with a single line: "I suggest that you ask your wife."
Key moments
Start here, then watch the full scene- 1:10–1:41
Renault Calls Rick a Sentimentalist
31s - 1:45–2:56
❝ Monologue · 5 lines Rick Refuses to Sell the Letters of Transit
71s
Rick Refuses Victor's Plea, explained
What happens
Late at Rick's Café, Victor Laszlo asks Rick to sell him the precious letters of transit so he can leave Casablanca and continue his resistance work in America. Rick brushes him off as a saloonkeeper with no interest in the world's problems. Laszlo reminds him of his past fighting for lost causes; Rick coolly refuses and, as a parting shot, tells Laszlo to ask his wife.
What's really going on
Rick's refusal is not really about money. He has already dismissed the world's problems as "not in my department" and called himself "a saloonkeeper," and Laszlo's flattery — the guns to Ethiopia, the fight in Spain — is meant to prove otherwise. What makes the exchange sting is that Rick clearly did those things; his neutrality is a costume he keeps adjusting. Laszlo, who needs the transit letters to save lives, can only appeal to the man Rick used to be. Rick's closing line, "I suggest that you ask your wife," is not a political answer at all: it warns Laszlo that the obstacle is personal, and hands him a wound he does not yet understand.
Key lines & what they mean
- “Honest? As honest as the day is long.”
- A joke about the casino: the phrase sounds like high praise but is said with a wink, since everyone knows gambling houses are not honest at all.
- “Put it down as a gesture to love.”
- Rick's way of excusing his softness: he let a couple win, and tells Renault to file it as an offering to love rather than admit he felt sorry for them.
- “My answer would still be the same.”
- Laszlo offers a fortune for the transit letters; Rick says no amount would change his mind, which makes the refusal personal, not financial.
- “The problems of the world are not in my department.”
- Rick's excuse for staying out of politics: other people's wars and troubles are simply not his business.
Theme
- Duty — Laszlo appeals to Rick's past and the cause; Rick insists the world's problems are not his, and the scene tests which man he really is.
- Romance — Rick's final line turns the negotiation into something personal, hinting that the reason he won't help is a woman.
What this chapter teaches
Teaching points
Review right after watchingMy level0/6
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Language points
Click a card to jump to its moment in the videoGolden lines
A great line in its own right — why and how to use it“Put it down as a gesture to love.”
Why it's great
He reframes a fixed game as a small tribute, so the cynicism and the softness arrive together.
Register
Informal
Use it yourself
Put it down as a team dinner.
“My answer would still be the same.”
Why it's great
No matter how the offer grows, the sentence stays level, which is what makes it final.
Register
Formal
Use it yourself
Raise the price all you like, my answer would still be the same.
“The problems of the world are not in my department.”
Why it's great
A bureaucratic phrase turned into a whole worldview of staying out of it.
Register
Neutral
Use it yourself
Customer complaints are not in my department. Talk to support.
Monologue
One character carrying the scene — shadow the whole passage❝ Laszlo's appeal
You must know it's very important I get out of Casablanca. It's my privilege to be one of the leaders of a great movement. You know what I've been doing. You know what it means to the work, to the lives of thousands of people... ...that I reach America and continue my work.
He turns one man's escape into a cause for thousands, which makes the request hard to dismiss.
Up next · 15display heroicsThe scene: Ilsa and Victor Talk Before the MeetingTakeaways
What you walk away with- A soft heart is hardest to hide right after a good deed.
- Refusing a cause can sound like office paperwork.
- One raise in price rarely changes a settled answer.
- Mockery and praise can arrive in the same sentence.
People also search
Questions, then the linesWhy won't Rick sell Victor the letters of transit?
He says he is a saloonkeeper with no interest in politics, and that the world's problems are not his department. But the real reason is personal, which he only hints at by telling Laszlo to ask his wife.
Does Rick really not care about politics?
Probably not as much as he claims. Laszlo points out that he ran guns to Ethiopia and fought the fascists in Spain, and Rick only calls those choices "a very expensive hobby."
Why does Rick tell Laszlo to ask his wife?
It is a stinging way to end the meeting: Rick is saying the obstacle has nothing to do with politics or money, and that Laszlo's own wife holds the key.
Is Rick's refusal about the money?
No. Laszlo offers a million francs or more, and Rick answers that his answer would still be the same, so the reason must be something else.