Alexander the Great (1956)

Richard Burton: Alexander

Photos 

Quotes 

• Alexander : [Opening credits with anonymous voice-over:]  It is men who endure toil and dare dangers that achieve glorious deeds. And it is a lovely thing to live with courage and to die leaving behind an everlasting renown.

• Philip of Macedonia : Alexander. In your first act as regent, send your mother away.

  Alexander : Exile my mother?

  Philip of Macedonia : Back to her kinsman in Epirus, she'll be happy there.

  Alexander : Is that the cost of my prove to you?

  Philip of Macedonia : How do you think I came to power? My own two brothers...

  Alexander : I know, you slew them, you want me to do that too?

• Philip of Macedonia : Alexander, you have my temper.

  Alexander : I know.

  Philip of Macedonia : And my ambition, more I think. Alexandroplis? At least wait until I die first. HAHAHAHA!

• Aristotle : Do you know how vast the Persian Empire is?

  Alexander : From the Nile, to the Indus... from Samarkand, to Babylon.

  Aristotle : And beyond. Do you know how many different people live there?

  Alexander : By heart. Carians, Armenians, Jews, Parthians, Egyptians... I know their customs and their gods.

  Aristotle : Yes. But this is more than an empire, this is colossus. To rule it would take a man as great as *you can be*... That is why I say, "Patience".

  Alexander : Patience? My time is short.

  Aristotle : Short?

  Alexander : When the great god Zeus, father of Achilles, gave him his choice of a long life of obscurity and a short life filled with glory, he chose glory. So did I. Achilles died young...

• Alexander : [reading in excitement from Book 20 of the Iliad]  "... thus beneath great-hearted Achilles his whole-hooved horses trampled corpses and shields together, and with blood all the axletree below was sprinkled, for blood-drops from the horses' hooves splashed them, and blood-drops from the tires of the wheels, for the son of Peleus pressed on to win glory, flecking with gore his irresistible hands."

• Alexander : What's all this about my father?

  Olympias : To the sword, the cross, the rack - men who have been his friends for years. Now everyone is his enemy - he accuses everyone of conspiring against him... even me. You'll hear the story, Alexander - you'll hear it from him. But you mustn't believe him, you mustn't... you don't! Do you, Alexander?

  Alexander : Why should he accuse you?

  Olympias : He wants to get rid of me... he's been wanting to for years. He wants to marry again.

  Alexander : Who?

  Olympias : Attalus's niece. You be careful of Attalus - you be careful of all of them. She's no fool - she won't let him throw her away like he's done with all the others. She's young...

  Alexander : Oh, Mother...!

  Olympias : Whatever he asks of you, do. Whatever he says, agree with. For when you're regent...

  [she smiles] 

  Olympias : *when you're regent*... then, *we'll* rule the land.

  Alexander : *We*?

  [Olympias's face falls] 

• Alexander : Wonders are many, but none is more wonderful than man himself.

• Alexander : Torture makes men scream blasphemies.

• Philip of Macedonia : How do I tear down this wall that stands between us? By breach? Assault? Storm?

  Alexander : You built the wall.

• Alexander : For within him, out of the death of Cleitus, a new idea was born, a new understanding, a new driving force that it was not lands that must be conquered, but the hearts of men.

• Alexander : He said My boy, if I surround you with competitors you will have all the more reason to surpass them in merit.

• Alexander : When the great god Zeus, father of Achilles, gave him his choice between a long life of obscurity and a short one filled with glory, he chose glory. So did I.