Gladiator (2000) Quotes

Strength and honor.

Maximus : You don't 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.

Listen to me. Learn from me. I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.

It's a dream, a frightful dream... life is...

Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear

Please be quiet, brother! Your constant scheming gives me even more of a headache!

He sleeps so well because he is loved.

If only you had been born a man, what a Caesar you would have made.

You're good, Spaniard, but you're not that good. You could be magnificent.

Proximo : I am Proximo! I shall be closer to you for the next few days, which will be the last of your miserable lives, than that bitch of a mother who first brought you screaming into this world! I did not pay good money for your company. I paid it so that I might profit from your death. And just as your mother was there at your beginning, I shall be there at your end. And when you die - and die you shall - your transition will be to the sound of...
Proximo : Gladiators... I salute you.

Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men.

Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.

Commodus : Quintus, sword!
Commodus : Give me your sword!
Commodus : Sword, give me a sword!
Quintus : Sheathe your swords! Sheathe your swords!

Roma Ignis

He killed the man who set you free.

Maximus : You knew Marcus Aurelius?
Proximo : I didn't say I knew him, I said he touched me on the shoulder once!

Quintus : People should know when they are conquered.
Maximus : Would you, Quintus? Would I?

The frost, it sometimes makes the blade stick.

Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
Crowd : Spaniard, Spaniard, Spaniard...

I know that you are a man of your word, General. I know that you would die for honor, for Rome, for the memory of your ancestors. But as for me? I'm an entertainer.

At my signal, unleash hell.

Some of you are thinking that you won't fight. Others, that you can't fight. They all say that, until they're out there

Proximo : Thrust this into another man's flesh, and they will applaud and love you for that. You may even begin to love them
Proximo : for that.

So Spaniard, we shall go to Rome together and have bloody adventures. And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more. And then, when enough men have died, perhaps you will have your freedom.

Proximo : Can any of them fight? I've got a match coming up.
Slave Trader : Some are good for fighting, others for dying. You need both, I think.

Maximus : Fratres!
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!
Maximus : Brothers, what we do in life... echoes in eternity.

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, for all else is dust and air. Ancestors, I honor you and will try to live with the dignity that you have taught me.

Shadows and dust.

Those giraffes you sold me, they won't mate. They just walk around, eating, and not mating. You sold me... queer giraffes. I want my money back.

I may die here in this cell or in the arena tomorrow. What possible difference can I make?

Lucilla : Is Rome worth one good man's life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him.
Gracchus : Who will help me carry him?

Quintus! Release my men. Senator Gracchus is to be reinstated. There was a dream that was Rome. It shall be realized. These are the wishes of Marcus Aurelius.

Juba : Can they hear you?
Maximus : Who?
Juba : Your family. In the afterlife.
Maximus : Oh yes.
Juba : What do you say to them?
Maximus : To my son - I tell him I will see him again soon. To keep his heels down while riding his horse. To my wife... that is not your business.

Your Emperor asks for your loyalty, Maximus. Take my hand, I only offer it once.

It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.

Gracchus : And after your glorious coup, what then? You take your five thousand and... leave?
Maximus : Yes, I will leave. The soldiers will stay here for your protection, under the guidance of the Senate.
Gracchus : So, after Rome's all yours, you just give it back to the people. Tell me why.
Maximus : Because that was a dying man's last wish. I will kill Commodus. The fate of Rome, I leave to you.
Gracchus : Marcus Aurelius trusted you. His daughter trusts you. I will trust you. Give me two days, and I will purchase your freedom. And you, stay alive, or I'll be dead.

Commodus : I think I understand my own people.
Gracchus : Then perhaps Caesar will be so good as to teach us, out of his own extensive experience?
Commodus : I call it love, Gracchus. The people are my children, I am their father. I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly...
Gracchus : Have you ever embraced someone dying of plague, sire?
Commodus : No, but if you interrupt me again, I assure you that you will.

Commodus : Lucius will stay with me now. And if his mother so much as looks at me in a manner that displeases me, he will die. If she decides to be noble and takes her own life, he will die.
Commodus : And as for you, you will love me as I loved you. You will provide me with an heir of pure blood, so that Commodus and his progeny will rule for a thousand years. Am I not merciful?
Commodus : AM I NOT MERCIFUL?

They say, "No."

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 they fought and died for nothing.

Lucius is safe.