Gladiator
Quotes:
Pass
the 'Epic' Test
(Total Quotes: 72)
Gladiator quotes are as epic as the movie itself with a script that has been written with a poetic quality. When you hear such powerful quotes such as "What we do in life, echoes in eternity" you know this movie has got some goods to deliver and it sure does deliver! Gladiator is packed with many memorable quotesso let's go straight to them.
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by:
David Franzoni (Story)
David Franzoni (screenplay)
John Logan (screenplay)
William Nicholson (screenplay)
Starring:
Russell Crowe - Maximus
Joaquin Phoenix - Commodus
Connie Nielsen - Lucilla
Oliver Reed - Proximo
Richard Harris - Marcus Aurelius
Derek Jacobi - Gracchus
Djimon Hounsou - Juba
David Schofield - Falco
John Shrapnel - Gaius
Tomas Arana - Quintus
Ralf Moeller - Hagen
Spencer Treat Clark - Lucius
David Hemmings - Cassius
Gladiator
Quotes Part 1 | 2 | 3
[first
lines]Maximus: Lean and hungry. Still nothing?
Quintus: Not a sign.
Maximus: How long has he been gone?
Quintus: Nearly two hours.
Valerius: Will they fight sir?
Maximus: We shall know soon enough.
Quintus: People should know when they are conquered.
Maximus: Would you, Quintus? Would I?
[to Quintus before the battle with Germanian troops begins]
Maximus: Strength and Honor.
[gets on his horse and addresses Quintus again]
Maximus: At my signal, unleash hell.
[addressing his troops]
Maximus: Fratres!
[cavalry addresses Maximus]
Maximus: Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead!
[cavalry laughs]
Maximus: Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.
[talking about their father Marcus Aurelius]
Commodus: Do you think he's really dying?
Lucilla: He's been dying for ten years.
Commodus: He's made his decision. He's going to announce it. He will name me. The first thing I shall do...well, is honor him with games worthy of his majesty.
Lucilla: For now, the first thing I shall do is have a hot bath.
Marcus Aurelius: You have proved your valor, yet again Maximus. Let us hope for the last time.
Maximus: There is no one left to fight, sire.
Marcus Aurelius: There is always someone left to fight. How can I reward Rome's greatest general?
Maximus: Let me go home.
Marcus Aurelius: Ah, home.
Commodus: Have I missed it? Have I missed the battle?
[Commodus embraces him]
Marcus Aurelius: You have missed the war.
Commodus: Father, congratulations. I shall sacrifice a hundred bulls to honor your triumph.
Marcus Aurelius: Save the bulls. Honor Maximus. He won the battle.
Quintus: Maximus the farmer. I still have difficulty imagining that.
Maximus: You know dirt cleans off a lot easier than blood Quintus.
Maximus: Highness, when your father releases me I intend to return home
Commodus: Well, no one has earned it more. Don't get too comfortable, I may call on you before long.
[seeing his daughter Lucilla spying in through the slit in the tent wall]
Marcus Aurelius: If only you had been born a man, what a Caesar you would have made.
Lucilla: Father.
[kisses him on his cheeks]
Marcus Aurelius: You would have been strong. I wonder, would you have been just?
Lucilla: I would have been what you taught me to be.
Marcus Aurelius: Enough of politics. Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father.
Lucilla: This is a pleasant fiction, isn't it?
[Maximus enters Marcus's darkened tent]
Marcus Aurelius: Tell me again, Maximus, why are we here?
Maximus: For the glory of the Empire, sire.
Maximus: Five thousand of my men are out there in the freezing mud. Three thousand of them are bloodied and cleaved. Two thousand will never leave this place. I will not believe that they fought and died for nothing.
Marcus Aurelius: And what would you believe?
Maximus: They fought for you and for Rome.
Marcus Aurelius: And what is Rome, Maximus?
Maximus: I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light.
Marcus Aurelius: Yet you have never been there. You have not seen what it has become. I am dying, Maximus. When a man sees his end... he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. How will the world speak my name in years to come? Will I be known as the philosopher? The warrior? The tyrant? Or will I be the emperor who gave Rome back her true self? There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter. Maximus, let us whisper now, together you and I. You have a son?
[Maximus nods his head]
Marcus Aurelius: Tell me about your home.
Marcus Aurelius: When was the last time you were home?
Maximus: Two years, two hundred and sixty-four days and this morning.
Marcus Aurelius: There is one more duty that I ask of you before you go home.
Maximus: What would you have me do Caesar?
Marcus Aurelius: I want you to become the protector of Rome after I die. I will empower you to one end alone, to give power back to the people of Rome and end the corruption that has crippled it.
[Maximus looks amazed and sad]
Marcus Aurelius: Do you accept this great honor that I have offered you?
Maximus: With all my heart, no.
Marcus Aurelius: Maximus, that is why it must be you.
Marcus Aurelius: Commodus is not a moral man. You have known that since you were young. Commodus cannot rule. He must not rule.
[looking at Maximus]
Marcus Aurelius: You're the son that I should have had. Commodus will accept my decison. He knows that you command the loyalty of the army.
[Maximus leaves Marcus' tent he hesitates outside. Lucilla steps out from the adjacent tent]
Lucilla: My father favours you now.
Maximus: My Lady.
Lucilla: It was not always so.
Maximus: Many things change.
Lucilla: Many things, not everything.
Lucilla:
What did my
father want with you?Maximus: To wish me well before I leave for home.
Lucilla: You're lying, I could always tell when you were lying because you were never any good at it.
Maximus: I never acquired your comfort with it.
Lucilla: True, but then you never had to, life is more simple for a soldier. Or do you think me heartless?
Maximus: I think you have a talent for survival.
[praying in his tent]
Maximus: Ancestors, I ask you for your guidance. Blessed mother, come to me with the Gods' desire for my future. Blessed father, watch over my wife and son with a ready sword. Whisper to them that I live only to hold them again. Ancestors, I honor you and will try to live with the dignity that you have taught me.
Maximus: Do you find it hard to do your duty?
Cicero: Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to.
Marcus Aurelius: Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?
Commodus: Yes, father.
Marcus Aurelius: You will not be emperor.
Commodus: Which wiser, older man is to take my place?
Marcus Aurelius: My powers will pass to Maximus, to hold in trust until the Senate is ready to rule once more. Rome is to be a republic again.
Commodus: Maximus?
Marcus Aurelius: Yes.
[Marcus moves his hand to touch Commodus' face and Commodus turns away]
Marcus Aurelius: My decision disappoints you?
Commodus: You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: Wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father. Ambition. That can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness, courage, perhaps not on the battlefield, but...there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family, to you. But none of my virtues were on your list. Even then it was as if you didn't want me for your son.
Marcus Aurelius: Oh, Commodus. You go too far.
Commodus: I search the faces of the gods...for ways to please you, to make you proud. One kind word, one full hug... where you pressed m
e to
your chest and held me tight. Would have been like the sun on my heart
for a thousand years. What is it in me that you hate so much?Marcus Aurelius: Shh, Commodus.
Commodus: All I've ever wanted was to live up to you, Caesar. Father.
Marcus Aurelius: Commodus...[he kneels in front of his son]...your faults as a son is my failure as a father. Come...
[holds his arms out to Commodus and they embrace]
Commodus: [begins to cry] Father. I would have butcher the whole world...if you would only love me!
[Commodus begins to asphyxiate Marcus whilst embracing him]
[after Maximus sees the dead body of Marcus Aurelius]
Commodus: Your Emperor asks for your loyalty, Maximus. Take my hand, I only offer it once.
Quintus: Maximus, please be careful, that was not prudent.
Maximus: Prudent! The Emperor has been slain.
Maximus: Quintus, look at me. Look at me! Promise me that you'll look after my family.
Quintus: Your family will meet you in the after life.
[one of the assassins tries to draw his sword to kill Maximum but the sword is stuck]
Maximus: The frost, sometimes it makes the blade stick.
[Maximus then swings the sword at the guard, cutting him across the face and killing him]
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Total
Quotes: 72
