The Ten Commandments (1956)
Charlton Heston: Moses
Photos
Quotes
-
Moses : Let my people go!
-
Moses : [to Sethi, after Sethi came to see Moses completing the city to be built] Pharoah is pleased?
Sethi : With the obelisk, yes. But not with certain accusations made against you.
Moses : By whom?
Sethi : You raided the temple granaries?
Moses : Yes.
[Rameses puts first weight on scale. The other scale dish holds a heavier weight, which keeps that dish on the table]
Sethi : You gave the grain to the slaves?
Moses : Yes.
[Rameses puts second weight on scale, which causes opposite scale dish to bounce, but it still rests on the table]
Rameses : You gave them one day in seven to rest.
Moses : Yes.
[Rameses puts third weight on scale. It's now heavier than its opposite dish, which is yanked up off the table]
Sethi : Did you do all this to gain their favor?
Moses : [Moses puts a brick on the dish that was yanked off the table. It's now heavier than Rameses' weights and crashes to the table with a bang! Moses has defeated his accusers] A city is built of brick, Pharoah. The strong make many, the starving make few. The dead make none. So much for accusations.
-
Sephora : Which of my sisters did you choose?
Moses : I made no choice, Sephora.
Sephora : She was very beautiful, wasn't she? This woman of Egypt, who left her scar upon your heart. Her skin was white as curd, her eyes green as the cedars of Lebanon, her lips, tamarisk honey. Like the breast of a dove, her arms were soft... and the wine of desire was in her veins.
Moses : Yes. She was beautiful... as a jewel.
Sephora : A jewel has brilliant fire, but it gives no warmth. Our hands are not so soft, but they can serve. Our bodies not so white, but they are strong. Our lips are not perfumed, but they speak the truth. Love is not an art to us. It's life to us. We are not dressed in gold and fine linen. Strength and honor are our clothing. Our tents are not the columned halls of Egypt, but our children play happily before them. We can offer you little... but we offer all we have.
Moses : I have not little, Sephora. I have nothing.
Sephora : Nothing from some... is more than gold from others.
Moses : You would fill the emptiness of my heart?
Sephora : I could never fill all of it, Moses, but I shall not be jealous of a memory.
-
Nefretiri : But I have saved your son, Moses.
Moses : It is not my son who will die. It is... it is the firstborn of Egypt. It is your son, Nefretiri!
Nefretiri : No. You would not dare strike Pharaoh's son!
Moses : In the hardness of his heart, Pharaoh has mocked God and brings death to his own son!
Nefretiri : But he is my son, Moses. You would not harm my son.
Moses : By myself, I am nothing. It is the power of God which uses me to work His will.
Nefretiri : You would not let Him do this to me. I saved your son!
Moses : I cannot save yours.
-
Joshua : Praise God, I have found you.
Moses : Joshua? We thought you dead.
Joshua : In the copper mines of Geber, the living are dead.
Moses : Sephora! Bring water! How did you find me?
Joshua : A merchant buying copper saw you in the tent of Jethro.
Moses : [Moses softly tapped Josha's back] Here you, too, will find peace.
Joshua : [a stunned look came over Joshua's face, as he almost crossed his eyes] Peace? How can you find peace or want it when Rameses builds cities mortared with the blood of our people?
-
Moses : [Moses opened the door, after Bithiah knocked] Bithiah.
Bithiah : In fear of your God, they have set me free. May a stranger enter?
Moses : There are no strangers among those who seek God's mercy.
Bithiah : My bearers?
Moses : All who thirst for freedom may come with us. The darkness of death will pass over us tonight, and tomorrow the light of freedom will shine upon us as we go forth from Egypt.
Bithiah : I shall go with you, Moses.
Miriam : A princess of Egypt?
Aaron : An Egyptian?
Miriam : An idol worshipper!
Moses : This woman drew me from the Nile and set my feet upon the path of knowledge. Mered, bring a chair to our table for the daughter of Pharaoh.
Bithiah : There is a great light that shines from your face, Moses. Perhaps someday I shall come to understand it.
-
Moses : No son could have more love for you than I.
Sethi : Then why are you forcing me to destroy you? What evil has done this to you?
Moses : The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to be stripped of spirit, and hope, and strength - only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a god, he did not mean this to be so.
-
Moses : Does your god live on this mountain?
Sephora : Sinai is His high place, His temple.
Moses : If this god is God, he would live on every mountain, in every valley. He would not be the god of Ishmael or Israel alone, but of all men. It is said he created all men in his image. He would dwell in every heart, every mind, every soul.
-
Jethro's daughter : Is it true that Egyptian girls paint their eyes?
Moses : Yes, but very few have eyes as beautiful as yours.
-
Lilia : You are strange to the pits. Your back is unscarred.
Moses : You bring a warm smile with your cool water.
Lilia : My smile is for a stonecutter. The water is for you.
Moses : I thank you.
Lilia : Your voice is not strange. You are...
Moses : [Moses spoke very quickly, preventing Lilia from recognizing his voice] One of many who thirst.
Baka : You there! Come here!
Lilia : That is Baka, the master builder.
Moses : Does he call me or you?
Baka : You, water girl! I'm thirsty.
Lilia : He does not thirst for water.
Slave : Beauty is but a curse to our women.
-
[last lines]
Moses : Go, proclaim liberty throughout all the lands, unto all the inhabitants thereof.
-
Bithiah : They're going away, Moses, and the secret's going with them. No one need ever know the shame I brought upon you.
Moses : Shame? What change is there in me? Egyptian or Hebrew, I am still Moses. These are the same hands, the same arms, the same face that was mine a moment ago.
Yochabel : A moment ago you were her son, the strength of Egypt. Now you are my son, a slave of Egypt. You find no shame in this?
Moses : If there is no shame in me, how can I feel shame for the woman who bore me, or the race that bred me?
-
Joshua : God of Abraham, four hundred years we have waited.
Moses : Pharaoh's soldiers won't wait so long.
Joshua : The Almighty has heard our cries from bondage. You are the Chosen One!
Moses : I know nothing of your god.
Joshua : He knows you, Moses. He has brought you to us. You cannot turn your back upon us. You will deliver us!
-
Moses : There is a beauty beyond the senses, Nefretiri, beauty like the quiet of green valleys and still waters, beauty of the spirit that you cannot understand.
-
Lilia : Joshua!
Joshua : Run, Lilia, run! The way is clear. The master builder will not follow.
Baka : Neither will you, stonecutter.
[Joshua tried to escape, running backwards, but was captured by Baka's guards]
Baka : Bind him between the columns! See that his arms are tightly stretched!
Egyptian guard : He'll cut him to pieces.
Baka : Now go after the girl. Don't come back without her.
Egyptian guard : We'll find her.
Baka : You foolish, stupid man. I would have kept her only a short while. She would have returned to you, shall we say, more worthy. Now to whom shall I return Lilia? You will not be there, Joshua.
[saying this, Baka starts to lash Joshua]
Baka : You've seen me drive my chariot. I can flick a fly from my horse's ear without breaking the rhythm of his stride. You've seen me use my whip.
[Baka lashed Joshua again]
Baka : You make no outcry, Joshua, but you will. You will cry for the mercy of death.
Joshua : One day you will listen to the cry of slaves.
Baka : This is not that day, Joshua.
[Baka lashed another stripe on Joshua]
Baka : You hold your tongue almost as well as I hold my temper. It's a pity to kill so strong a stonecutter.
Moses : [Moses caught Baka's whip, pulled it, and turned Baka around] Death will bring death, Baka!
Baka : Who are you?
Moses : One who asks what right you have to kill a slave.
Baka : The right of a master to kill you or any slave.
Moses : Then kill me, master butcher!
[Moses then caught and used Baka's whip, choking Baka to death]
Baka : Moses!
[Baka's last line]
-
Moses : I'll not leave a man to die in the mud.
Simon : Thank you, my son... but death is better than bondage, for my days are ended and my prayer unanswered.
Moses : What prayer, old man?
Simon : That before death closed my eyes, I might behold the deliverer who will lead all men to freedom.
Moses : What deliverer could break the power of Pharaoh?
Egyptian guard : You!
-
Moses : You know it is death to strike an Egyptian?
Joshua : I know it.
Moses : Yet you struck him. Why?
Joshua : To save the old woman.
Moses : What is she to you?
Joshua : An old woman.
[Joshua was defending his Hebrew race]
Egyptian guard : Lord Prince, send him to his death!
Moses : The man has courage. You do not speak like a slave.
Joshua : God made men. Men made slaves.
Moses : Which god?
Joshua : The God of Abraham. The Almighty God!
Moses : If your God is Almighty, why does He leave you in bondage?
Joshua : He will choose the hour of our freedom and the man who will deliver us!
-
[scene of the Burning Bush]
Moses : Moses. Moses.
Moses : I am here, Lord.
Moses : Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place thou standest is holy ground. I am the god of your fathers, the god of Abraham, the god of Isaac and the god of Jacob.
Moses : Lord... Lord, why do you not hear the cries of their children in the bondage of Egypt?
Moses : I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. Therefore, I will send thee, Moses, unto Pharoah, that thou mayest bring my people out of Egypt.
Moses : Who am I, Lord, that you should send me? How can I lead this people out of bondage? What words can I speak that they will heed?
Moses : I will teach thee what thou wilt say. When thou hast brought forth the people. They shall serve me upon this mountain. I will put my laws into their hearts, and into their minds will I write them. Now, therefore, go and I will be with thee.
Moses : But if I say to your children that the god of their fathers has sent me, they will ask "What is his name?" How shall I answer them?
Moses : I am, that I am. Thou shalt say "I am" hath sent me unto you.
-
Bithiah : A conquerer, already conquered?
Moses : The first face I look for and the last I find.
[as Moses saw Bithiah, he knelt to her, to honor her]
Moses : Mother!
Bithiah : I was thanking the gods for your safe return. But I find you in grave danger here.
Moses : An intoxicating danger, mother.
Bithiah : Marry her if you can, my son, but never fall in love with her.
Nefretiri : Oh, I'll be less trouble to him than the Hebrew slaves of Goshen.
Bithiah : Goshen?
-
Jethro : You have come far.
Moses : From Egypt.
Jethro : Across the desert on foot? He who has no name surely guided your steps.
Moses : No name? You Bedouins know the god of Abraham?
Jethro : Abraham is the father of many nations. We are the children of Ishmael, his firstborn. We are the obedient of God.
Moses : My people look to him for deliverance... but they are still in bondage.
-
Sephora : I do not know about such things, but I do know that the mountain rumbles when God is there, and the earth trembles, and the cloud is red with fire.
Moses : At such a time, has any man ever gone to see Him, face-to-face?
Sephora : No man has ever set foot on the forbidden slopes of Sinai. Why do you want to see Him, Moses?
Moses : To know that He is. And if He is, to know why He has not heard the cries of slaves in bondage.
-
Moses : Would you bury the old woman alive in a tomb of rock?
Yochabel : Wise and noble One, It caught. I have not the strength to free myself.
Moses : Your shoulders should not bear a burden, old woman.
Yochabel : The Lord has renewed my strength and lightened my burdens.
Moses : He would have done better to remove them.
-
Baka : They use the old ones to do the work of greasing the stones, Lord Prince. If they are killed, it is no loss.
Moses : Are you a master builder or a master butcher?
Baka : If we stop moving stones for every grease woman who falls, the city would never rise.
Overseer : If the slaves are not driven, they will not work.
Joshua : If their work lags, it is because they are not fed.
Moses : You look strong enough.
Joshua : I am a stonecutter. The Pharaohs likes their images cut deep.
-
Moses : The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us. Behold His mighty hand!
-
Jethro's daughter : [Sephora saw Moses, asleep and drew her six sisters, to see him as he slept. Jethro's seven daughters looked at Moses asleep and admired him] He's eaten a whole bunch of dates.
[then, they all quietly chuckled, in humor]
Sephora : We drew this water.
Amalekite herder : Out of the way, girl.
Sephora : This is the well of Jethro, our father. You have no right here.
Amalekite herder : Our goats don't know your father.
Sephora : Jethro's mark is on the well.
Amalekite : They can't read, either.
[while speaking, he also chuckles, at the same time]
Amalekite : Nor can we!
[while was speaking, he also chuckles, at the same time]
Amalekite herder : Then let him breed sons to guard it, not daughters.
[an Amalekite herdsman pushed Sephora down, to the ground and Moses quickly defended Jethro's seven daughters and defeated the Amalekites, catching them off guard, combatting with them, using only his staff]
Jethro's daughter : Drive them away!
Moses : Let them be first whose hands have drawn the water.
Sephora : The stranger is wise... and strong.
Moses : Drive back your goats until the sheep are watered.
Amalekite herder : All right, all right.
-
Gershom : [Moses and Sephora are now parents] Did the little boy die in the desert, my father?
Moses : No. God brought Ishmael and his mother Hagar into a good land.
Gershom : The same God who lives on the mountain?
Moses : It may be, my son.
Sephora : Moses! Moses!
Moses : Here!
[Gershom starts to try blow shofar and Moses chuckles]
Moses : [to Gershom] Your mother's calling.
Sephora : Moses, there is a man among the sheep.
[Sephora saw Joshua]
Moses : Keep sounding the alarm, Gershom, but stay here till your mother comes.
Sephora : [to Moses] In the cleft. Behind the rock.
Moses : Your eyes are as sharp as they are beautiful.
-
Bithiah : Moses, do not enter! There is only sorrow here.
Moses : Are you comforting it, my mother? I followed you here to find this woman Yochabe...
[to Yochabel]
Moses : You were the woman who was caught between the stones.
Yochabel : Until you came.
Bithiah : My son, if you love me, you will...
Moses : I love you, my mother, but am I your son...
[to Yochabel]
Moses : or yours?
Yochabel : No, you are not my son. If you believe that men and women are cattle to be driven under the lash, if you can bow before idols of stone and golden images of beasts, you are not my son.
-
Moses : What has this child to do with me? Tell me.
Nefretiri : A child was wrapped in it.
Moses : Who was this child?
Nefretiri : Bithiah drew him from the river. Memnet was with her.
Moses : Who was this child?
Nefretiri : Memnet is dead. No one needs know who you are. I love you. I killed for you. I'll kill anyone who comes between us.
Moses : Why did you kill for me, Nefretiri? If you love me, do not lie.
Nefretiri : Hold me in your arms. Hold me close. You were not born prince of Egypt, Moses. You are the son of Hebrew slaves.
Moses : Love can not drown truth, Nefretiri. You do believe it, or you would not have killed Memnet.
Nefretiri : I love you. That's the only truth, I know.
Moses : Did this child, of the Nile, have a mother?
Nefretiri : Memnet called her Yochabel.
Moses : I will ask Bithiah.
[Moses then left Nefretiri, to speak with Bithiah]
Bithiah : How could you doubt me? You did not doubt me, as you took your first step. It's a wicked lie, spun by Rameses.
Moses : Did Rameses spin this?
[while he was asking Bithiah, Moses shows her the Hebrew cloth, that Memnet had kept hidden, as a secret and quiet for 30 years. In reality, it was infant Moses' swaddling cloth, 30 years earlier]
Bithiah : The word of your mother, against a piece of cloth found by Memnet?
Moses : How did you know it was Memnet?
Bithiah : Who else? Memnet nursed Rameses. She will pay, for spreading his lies.
Moses : She has paid.
Bithiah : She is dead?
Moses : At the hand of Nefretiri.
Moses : Memnet spoke of a woman named Yochabel. Did you ever know her?
Bithiah : [Trying to hide the truth] No.
Moses : Yours, was the face I saw, above my cradle. The only mother, I've ever known. Wherever I am led and whatever, I must do, I will always love you.
[Moses then left Bithiah, to visit Hebrew slave woman, Yochabel, and learn the complete truth, of the cloth]
-
Moses : Blasphemers! Idolaters! For this, you shall drink bitter waters... God has set before you this day his laws of life, and good, and death, and evil... Those who will not live by the law, shall die by the law!
-
Moses : It would take more than a man to lead the slaves from bondage. It would take a god.
-
Moses : [to Jethro's daughters, as they were washing his feet] Never did a lost sheep have so many shepherds.
-
Nefretiri : If you want to help your people, come back to the palace.
Moses : And hide the truth from Sethi... that I am Hebrew and a slave?
Nefretiri : The truth would break his dear old heart and send Bithiah into exile or death. Think of us and stop hearing the cries of your people.
Moses : Their God does not hear their cry.
Nefretiri : Will Rameses hear it if he is Pharaoh? No. He would grind them into the clay they mold, double their labors. What about me? Think of me as his wife. Do you want to see me in Rameses' arms?
Moses : No!
Nefretiri : Then come back with me.
-
[the 'stick to cobra' combat had just occurred]
Moses : You gave me this staff to rule over scorpions and serpents, but God made it a rod to rule over kings. Hear His word, Rameses, and obey.
Rameses : Obey? Moses, Moses. Are there no magicians in Egypt, that you have come back to make serpents out of sticks or cause rabbits to appear?
-
Moses : [Jethro's daughters are trying to pour water over Moses' feet and accidentally push him toward the inside of the well] Am I to be bathed or drowned?
-
Moses : From the burning bush, O Lord... you charged me to bring Your people to this holy mountain. To behold Your glory, and receive Your law. What I have I left undone?
God (Pillar of Fire) : [a pillar of fire appears, and strikes the rock with each Commandment] I Am. I Am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Honor thy father and thy mother.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt not kill.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt commit adultery.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt not steal.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
God (Pillar of Fire) : Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor's.
-
Moses : [answering the protest of giving the grain offering to the slaves] What the gods can digest will not sour in the belly of a slave.
-
Moses : [to Nefretiri] Yes. You may be the lovely dust through which God will work His purpose.
-
Moses : [to Sethi] Your wish is my will.
-
Moses : Do they love less who have no hope?
-
Moses : [in a loud, commanding voice] After this day you shall see his chariots no more!
-
Bithiah : Will the life she gave you be more useful in the black pits of slavery? Cannot justice and truth be served better upon a throne, where all men may benefit from your goodness and strength?
Moses : I do not know what power shapes my way, but my feet are set upon a road I must follow. Forgive me, Bithiah.
-
Fan Bearer : What gifts do you bring?
Moses : We bring you the word of God.
