Maximus Decimus Meridius: At my signal, unleash hell.
[Maximus looks at images of his wife and son]
Juba: Can they hear you?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Who?
Juba: Your family. In the afterlife.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Oh yes.
Juba: What do you say to them?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: 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.
Gracchus: I don't pretend to be a man of the people. But I do try to be a man for the people.
Gracchus: He enters Rome like a conquering hero. But what has he conquered?
Falco: Give him time, Gracchus. He's young, he may do very well.
Gracchus: For Rome, Falco? Or for you?
Lucilla: Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.
Commodus: Am I not merciful? AM I NOT MERCIFUL?
Marcus Aurelius: Let us pretend that I am a good father, and you are a loving daughter.
[To his dead friend]
Juba: I will see you again... but not yet. Not yet!
Commodus: The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story! But now, the people want to know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. And what could be more glorious than to challenge the Emperor himself in the great arena?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: You would fight me?
Commodus: Why not? Do you think I am afraid?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: I think you've been afraid all your life.
Lucilla: I want to help you.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Yes, you can help me... Forget you ever knew me, and never come back here again.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: I knew a man once who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."
Commodus: I wonder, did your friend smile at his own death?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: You must know. He was your father.
Commodus: You loved my father, I know. But so did I. That makes us brothers, doesn't it? [stabs him] Smile for me now, brother.
Lucilla: Is Rome worth one good man's life?
[Watching Lucius sleep]
Commodus: He sleeps so well because he is loved.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: What we do in life, echoes in eternity.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: I am required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.
Proximo: That's enough for the provinces, but not enough for Rome.
[after swiftly dispatching another gladiator]
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
Quintus: People should know when they are conquered.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Would you, Quintus? Would I?
Marcus Aurelius: When was the last time you were home?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Two years, two hundred and sixty-four days and this morning.
Lucius: Are you the one they call the Spaniard?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Yes.
Lucius: They said you were a giant. They said you could crush a man's skull with one hand.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: A man's? No. A boy's?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: 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.
Marcus Aurelius: There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: 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.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: I may die here in this cell or in the arena tomorrrow. What possible difference can I make?
Gracchus: He will bring them death, and they will love him for it.
Gracchus: But the Senate IS the people, sire. Chosen from AMONG the people. To speak FOR the people.
Commodus: I doubt if any of the people eat so well as you, Gracchus. Or have such splendid mistresses, Gaius.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Strength and honor.
Commodus: It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.
[addressing his troops]
Maximus Decimus Meridius: If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and are already dead.
Titus: We who are about to die salute you.
Proximo: 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.
Proximo: 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.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: You risk too much.
Lucilla: I have much to pay for.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: You have nothing to pay for.
Marcus Aurelius: Let us pretend that I am a good father, and you are a loving daughter.
Lucilla: Is this not a pleasant fiction?
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Proximo, are you in danger of becoming a good man?
Lucilla: My brother hates all the world and you most of all.
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Because your father chose me.
Lucilla: No. Because my father loved you. And because I loved you.
