Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear.[ to Quintus]
Is Rome worth one good man’s life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again.[to Senator Gracchus]
I will give the people the greatest vision of their lives.
I knew a man who once said, “Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.”[to Commodus, quoting Marcus Aurelius]
He shouldn’t be alive. It vexes me. I’m terribly vexed.[about 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?[to Lucilla]
Are you not entertained?! Are you not entertained?! Is this not why you’re here?!
5,000 of my men are out there in the freezing mud. 3,000 of them are bloodied and cleaved. 2,000 will never leave this place. I will not believe that they fought and died for nothing.[to Marcus Aurelius]
Your faults as a son is my failure as a father.[to Commodus]
Your family will meet you in the afterlife.[to Maximus]
Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the emperor of Rome.[to Maximus]
Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so.
