Maximus: Lucius is safe.

Lucilla: I am tired of being strong.

Maximus: Quintus, free my men. Senator Gracchus is to be reinstated. There was once a dream that was Rome, it shall be realised.  These are the wishes of Marcus Aurelius.

Commodus: Do you think I'm afraid?
Maximus: I think you've been afraid all your life.
Commodus: Unlike Maximus the Invincible, who knows no fear??

Proximo: Oh, I know that you are a man of your word, General.  I know that you would die for honour.  You would die for Rome. You would die...for the memory of your ancestors. But I on the other hand...I'm an entertainer.
Maximus: He killed the man who set you free.

Maximus: Let my men see me alive and you shall see where their loyalties lie.

Maximus: Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo.  This is not it.  This is NOT it.
Proximo: Marcus Aurelius is dead. We mortals are but shadows and dust.  <as Maximus walks up the ramp, Proximo calls out to him> Shadows and dust, Maximus!

Maximus: <to Commodus> I have one more life to take, then it is done.

Commodus: What did you feel when you saw him?
Lucilla: I felt nothing.
Commodus: He wounded you deeply, didn't he?
Lucilla: No more than I wounded him.

Maximus: The time for half measures and talk is over.

Proximo: Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how, BUT...we can decide how we meet that end, so that we are remembered...as men.

Maximus: I knew a man who once said, "Death smiles at us all.  All a man can do is smile back."

Commodus: Sometimes royal ladies behave very strangely and do odd things in the name of love.

Maximus: Single column!   Single column!! (Author's note - okay, so it isn't exactly the most profound quote in the world, but he's on that white horse, pointing his sword to his men, and I just think it's really...cool. :-)

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

Maximus: Ancestors, I honour you and will try to live with the dignity you have taught me.

Proximo: Come on, how long does it take to get into my own house??

Juba: Now we are free.  I will see you again, but not yet.  Not yet. 

Maximus: A soldier has the advantage of being able to look his enemy in the eye, senator.

Lucilla: This is a pleasant fiction, isn't it?

Maximus: I will kill Commodus.   The fate of Rome, I leave to you.

Proximo: Gladiators, I salute you.

Maximus: They say no.

Commodus: They lied to me in Germania. They told me he was dead. If they lie to me they don't respect me. If they don't respect me then how can they ever love me?
Lucilla: Then you must let the legions know that treachery will not go unpunished.
Commodus: Poor sister, I wouldn't want to be your enemy.

Maximus: To my son, I tell him I will see him again soon, and to keep his heels down when he's riding his horse.  To my wife...that is not your business! <laughs>

Commodus: Yes...the greatness of Rome. And what is that?
Lucilla: It's an idea.  Greatness...greatness is a vision.
Commodus: Exactly, a vision.  Do you not see, Lucilla? I will give the people a vision and they will love me for it. They will soon be tired of the sermonizing of a few, dry, old men. I will give them the greatest vision of their lives.

Lucilla: Senator, my brother is very tired. Leave the list with me. Your emperor will do all Rome requires.
Gracchus: M'lady, as always, your lightest touch commands obedience.

Maximus: Proximo, are you in danger of becoming a good man?

Commodus: Am I not merciful?   AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!

Lucilla: The gods have spared you. Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.
Maximus: The gods have spared me? I am at their mercy, with the power only to amuse a mob.
Lucilla: That is power, the mob is Rome. And while Commodus controls them he controls everything.

Lucilla: Rich matrons pay well to be pleasured by the bravest champions.
Maximus: I knew your brother would send assasins, I didn't realise he would send his best < CLANK! *swoon* :-) >.

Marcus Aurelius:  Tell me, how can I reward Rome's greatest general?
Maximus: <pauses> Let me go 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.

Maximus: 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.

Lucilla: There are some politicians who have dedicated their lives to Rome, one man above all...if I can arrange it, will you meet him?
Maximus: Do you not understand?  I may die in this cell tonight or in the arena tomorrow, I am a slave!  What possible difference can I make?

Marcus Aurelius:  I want you to become 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.  Do you accept this great honour I have offered you?
Maximus: With all my heart, no. 

Maximus:  You ask me what I want...I too want to stand in front of the emperor, as you did.
Proximo: Then listen to me, learn from me.   I wasn't 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: I will win the crowd.  I will give them something they have never seen before.

Maximus: My house is in the hills above Trujillo. Very simple place, pink stones that warm in the sun. Kitchen garden that smells of herbs in the day, jasmine in the evening. Through the gate is a giant poplar. Figs, apples, pears, the soil, Marcus, black ...black like my wife's hair. Grapes on the south slopes, olives on the north. Wild ponies play near the house, they tease my son. He wants to be one of them.
Marcus Aurelius: Maximus, when was the last time you were home?
Maximus: 2 years, 264 days and this morning.
Marcus Aurelius: I envy you, Maximus. It was a good home. Worth fighting for?
Maximus: <nods>

Maximus: STAY WITH ME!!

Maximus: Frost...sometimes it makes the blade stick. <thwack>

Maximus: Whisper to them that I live only to hold them again for all else is dust and air.

Maximus: What we do in life, echoes in eternity.

Commodus: You loved my father, I know, but I loved him too.  That makes us brothers, doesn't it? Smile for me now, brother.  <stab> (Author's note - Ouch!!)

Maximus:  Are you not entertained?   ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!  Is this not why you are here? <chucks down his sword in disgust>

Proximo: You are good, Spaniard. But not that good. You could be magnificent.
Maximus: I am required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.

Maximus:  I have seen much of the rest of the world; it is brutal and cruel and dark...Rome is the light.

Maximus: Fratres...3 weeks from now I will be harvesting my crops.  Imagine where you will be and it will be so. Hold the lines, stay with me. If you find yourself alone riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium & you're already dead!!! <laughing>

Maximus: At my signal...unleash Hell. (Author's note: He called his dog "Hell"?! LOL)

Maximus: You risk too much.
Lucilla: I have much to pay for.

Commodus: My history's a little hazy Cassius, but shouldn't the Barbarians LOSE the battle of Carthage?!

Commodus: <To Maximus> What am I going to do with you?  You simply won't...die.

Commodus: They say your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross, and your wife moaned like a whore as they ravaged her again, and again...and again.
Maximus: The time for honouring yourself will soon be at an end,...highness. (Author's note: Wow!)

Valerius: Back to your barracks, general, or to Rome?
Maximus: Home: the wife, the son, the harvest.

Maximus: Quintus, look at me. Look at me!  Promise me that you will look after my family.
Quintus: Your family...will meet you in the afterlife.

Commodus: The general who became a slave.  The slave who became a gladiator.  The gladiator who defied an emperor.  Striking story.

Commodus: Why is he still alive?
Lucilla: I don't know.
Commodus: He shouldn't be alive. It vexes me. I am terribly vexed.

Commodus: "Tell me what you have been doing, busy little bee, or I shall strike down those dearest to you.  You shall watch as I bathe in their blood". And what do you think happened then, Lucius?
Lucius: I don't know, uncle.
Commodus: <looking at Lucilla> The little bee told him everything.

Lucilla: This man wants what you want.
Maximus: Then have HIM kill Commodus!!

Lucilla: Is Rome worth one good man's life? We believed it once...make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honour him.

Whew!  Heck, I should have just written out the whole of the script and pasted it here! :-)  I've heard a lot of people moaning about the "terrible screenplay" in "GLADIATOR" but am I the only one that thinks there is, as you can see, a Helluva lot of memorable dialogue in here?!