The Seventh Seal Quotes

We must make an idol of our fear, and call it god.

Antonius Block: Wait a moment.
Death: You all say that. But I grant no reprieves.

This is my hand. I can turn it. The blood is still running in it. The sun is still in the sky and the wind is blowing. And I... I, Antonius Block, play chess with Death.

My whole life has been nothing but futile wandering, a great deal of words without meaning. I say that without bitterness or self-reproach, because I know it's the same for most men.

I met Death today. We are playing chess.

Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.

I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams.

I shall remember this moment: the silence, the twilight, the bowl of strawberries, the bowl of milk. Your faces in the evening light. Mikael asleep, Jof with his lyre. I shall try to remember our talk. I shall carry this memory carefully in my hands as if it were a bowl brimful of fresh milk. It will be a sign to me, and a great sufficiency.

Is it so terribly inconceivable to comprehend God with one's senses? Why does he hide in a cloud of half-promises and unseen miracles? How can we believe in the faithful when we lack faith? What will happen to us who want to believe, but can not? What about those who neither want to nor can believe? Why can't I kill God in me? Why does He live on in me in a humiliating way - despite my wanting to evict Him from my heart? Why is He, despite all, a mocking reality I can't be rid of?

Death: Don't you ever stop asking?
Antonius Block: No. I never stop.
Death: But you're not getting an answer.

Mia: One day is like another. There's nothing strange about that. Summer is better than Winter, of course, because you aren't cold. But, Spring is best of all.
Jof: I wrote a song about Spring. Would you like to hear it?
Mia: Not now, Jof. Our guests may not care for your songs.
Jöns, squire: By all means. I write songs myself.
Jof: You see?
Jöns, squire: I know one about a wanton fish I'm sure you've never heard.

Mia: Don't move. Don't speak.
Jof: I'm as silent as a grave.

Mia: Who did you see?
Jof: The Virgin Mary.
Mia: Did you really see her?
Jof: She was so close I could have touched her. She wore a golden crown and a blue robe with golden flowers. She was barefoot, and in her little brown hands she was holding the Child and teaching Him to walk. When she saw me, she smiled. My eyes filled with tears, and when I wiped them away, she was gone. And there was a great stillness everywhere, in heaven and on earth. You understand?
Mia: The things you imagine.
Jof: You don't believe me, but it's true. It's not the reality you see, but another kind.

Jof: I see them, Mia! I see them! Over there against the dark, stormy sky. They are all there. The smith and Lisa and the knight and Raval and Jöns and Skat. And Death, the severe master, invites them to dance. He tells them to hold each other's hands and then they must tread the dance in a long row. And first goes the master with his scythe and hourglass, but Skat dangles at the end with his lyre. They dance away from the dawn and it's a solemn dance towards the dark lands, while the rain washes their faces and cleans the salt of the tears from their cheeks.
Mia: You with your visions and dreams.

And the strict lord Death bids them to dance.

Antonius Block: Nothing escapes you!
Death: Nothing escapes me. No one escapes me.

Antonius Block: You drew black.
Death: Appropriate, don't you think?

Ingenting undgår mig. Ingen undgår mig.

You're a traitor - and you tricked me. But we will meet again, and I'll find a way out.

Here's squire Jöns. He grins at Death, scoff at the Lord, laughs at himself, and leers at the girls. His world exists only for himself. Absurd to all, even to himself. Meaningless to heaven, and of no interest to hell.

But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!

Love is nothing but lust and cheating and lies.

Only fools die of love.

Our crusade was such madness that only a real idealist could have thought it up.

Between a scarlet woman's knees, a man like me can take his ease.

It's hell with women, and hell without. Best to kill them all while the fun lasts.

Do you have any brandy? I've had nothing but water. It's made me as thirsty as a camel in the desert.

Is this what we offer to modern men's minds? Do they really believe we will take all of this seriously?

The actor plays on the emotions. That's half the battle.

Love is the blackest of all plagues... if one could die of it, there would be some pleasure in love, but you don't die of it.

Lord, why did you create women?

It's not my fault if I hear voices and see the Virgin, and if angels and devils like my company.

Between a strumpet's legs I lie, That's the place for such as I, The Lord is up above, you know, But Satan finds us here below.

I'm a married man, but I expect my wife is dead by now.

Farewell, my sweet. I could have raped you, but I've grown tired of that kind of love. It's a little dull in the end.

Antonius Block: I want knowledge! Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand, uncover His face and speak to me.
Death: But He remains silent.
Antonius Block: I call out to Him in the darkness. But it's as if no one was there.
Death: Perhaps there isn't anyone.
Antonius Block: Then life is a preposterous horror. No man can live faced with Death, knowing everything's nothingness.
Death: Most people think neither of death nor nothingness.
Antonius Block: But one day you stand at the edge of life and face darkness.
Death: That day.
Antonius Block: I understand what you mean.

Antonius Block: Who are you?
Death: I am Death.
Antonius Block: Have you come for me?
Death: I have long walked by your side.
Antonius Block: So I have noticed.
Death: Are you ready?
Antonius Block: My body is ready, but I am not.

Death: When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.
Antonius Block: And will you reveal your secrets?
Death: I have no secrets.
Antonius Block: So do you know nothing?
Death: I am unknowing.