300 quotes

View Quote Persian messenger: All the God-King Xerxes requires is this: a simple offering of earth and water. A token of Sparta's submission to the will of Xerxes.
Leonidas: Submission. Well, that's a bit of a problem. See, rumor has it that the Athenians have already turned you down. And if those philosophers and ... boy-lovers have found that kind of nerve ...
Theron (interrupting): We must be diplomatic.
Leonidas: And of course Spartans! ... have their reputation to consider.
Persian messenger: Choose your next words carefully, Leonidas. They may be your last as king.
[Leonidas turns and ponders the offer, looks at three different views, the last being Gorgo]
Leonidas (thinking): Earth and water?
[He draws his sword and points it towards the Persian messenger, whose back is to a large, deep well]
Persian messenger: Madman! You're a madman!
Leonidas: Earth and water. You'll find plenty of both down there.
Persian messenger: No man, Persian or Greek, no man threatens a messenger!
Leonidas: You bring the crowns and heads of conquered kings to my city's steps. You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death! Oh, I've chosen my words carefully, Persian. Perhaps you should have done the same.
Persian messenger: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
Leonidas (looks at Gorgo, who nods to him): Madness? This is Sparta!!! [kicks the Persian messenger into the well]

View Quote Stelios: It is an honour to die by your side.
Leonidas: It is an honour to have lived at yours.

View Quote Xerxes: It would be nothing short of madness, were you, brave King, and your valiant troops to perish ... all because of a simple misunderstanding. There is much our cultures could share.
Leonidas: Oh, haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.
Xerxes: Yours is a fascinating tribe. Even now, you are defiant, in the face of annihilation, and the prescence of a god. Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill half of my own men for victory.
Leonidas: And I would die for any one of mine.
Xerxes: You Greeks take pride in your logic. I suggest you employ it. Consider the beautiful land you so vigorously defend. Picture it reduced to ash at my whim! Consider the fate of your women!
Spartan King Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women! I might as well have marched them up here, judging by what I've seen. You have many slaves, Xerxes, but few warriors. It won't be long before they fear my spears more than your whips.
Xerxes: It is not the lash they fear, It is my divine power. But I am a generous god. I can make you rich beyond all measure. I will make you warlord of all Greece. You will carry my battle standard to the heart of Europa. Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet if you will but kneel at mine.
King Leonidas: You are generous as you are divine, O king of kings. Such an offer only a madman would refuse. But the, uh, the idea of kneeling, it's- You see, slaughtering all those men of yours has, uh, well it's left a nasty cramp in my leg, so kneeling will be hard for me.
Xerxes: There will be no glory in your sacrifice. I will erase even the memory of Sparta from the histories. Every piece of Greek parchment shall be burned, and every Greek historian and every scribe shall have their eyes put out and their tongues cut from their mouths. Why, uttering the very name of Sparta or Leonidas will be punishable by death. The world will never know you existed at all!
Leonidas: The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle is over, that even a god-king can bleed.

View Quote [The ground begins to shake and small rocks roll off the cliffside]
Captain: Earthquake?
Leonidas: No, Captain: battle formations.

View Quote [The Spartans hold up their shields as a flurry of Persian arrows blot out the sun]
Leonidas: Persian cowards.
[Suddenly, Astinos begins laughing]
Stelios: What the hell are you laughing at?
Astinos: You had to say it!
Stelios: What?
Astinos: "Fight in the shade"!
[Other Spartans laugh with him]

View Quote [After being threatened with the deaths of the Spartan women] Clearly you don't know our women. I might as well have marched them up here, judging by what I've seen.

View Quote [After dropping his helmet and his shield whilst being asked to submit] You there, Ephialtes: may you live forever. A Spartan insult: may he live with the guilt of his actions for all of time and never receive the glorious death on the battlefield that all Spartans desire.

View Quote [After Xerxes offered to make Leonidas Warlord of his Empire, if he would only kneel before him] You are generous as you are divine, oh king of kings. Such an offer only a madman would refuse. But ... the idea of kneeling, it's, uh ... you see, slaughtering all those men of yours has left a nasty cramp in my leg – so kneeling will be hard for me.

View Quote [As the Persian ships are struck by a thunderstorm] Zeus stabs the sky with thunderbolts and batters the Persian ships with hurricane wind! Glorious. Only one among us keeps his Spartan reserve. Only he ... only our King.

View Quote [Dying words] My Queen! My wife! My love.

View Quote [Later, as Leonidas throws his spear at Xerxes] His helmet was stifling; it narrowed his vision, and he must see far. His shield was heavy; it threw him off balance, and his target was far away.

View Quote [Narrating: as Leonidas bids farewell to his wife] "Goodbye, my love". He doesn't say it. There's no room for softness, not in Sparta. No place for weakness. Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans. Only the hard. Only the strong.

View Quote [Regarding Captain Artemis] Upon seeing the headless body of his own young son, the captain breaks rank. He goes wild, blood-drunk. The captain's cries of pain at the loss of his young son are more frightening to the enemy than the deepest battle drums. It takes three men to restrain him and bring him back to our own. The day is ours ... no songs are sung.

View Quote [Regarding the Arcadians] They shout and curse, stabbing wildly; more brawlers than warriors. They make a wondrous mess of things. Brave amateurs – they do their part.

View Quote [Response to Daxos, an Arcadian, saying their choices were to retreat, surrender, or die] Well, that's an easy choice for us, Arcadian. Spartans never retreat! Spartans never surrender!