Lawrence of Arabia quotes

View Quote "In this country, Mr. Bentley, the man who gives victory in battle is prized beyond every other man..."

View Quote (To Lawrence) Dine with Auda, English. Dine with him. (To Harith Envoy) It is my pleasure, that you should dine with me... in WADI RUM!

View Quote Auda abu Tayi: It is Auda of the Howitat who speaks.
Sherif Ali: It is Ali of the Harith who answers.
Auda abu Tayi: Harith! Ali... does your father still steal?
Sherif Ali: No. Does Auda take me for one of his own bas****?
Auda abu Tayi: No, there is no resemblance. Alas, you resemble your father.
Sherif Ali: Auda flatters me.
Auda abu Tayi: You're easily flattered. I knew your father well.
Sherif Ali: (pause) (To Auda) Did you know your own?

View Quote Auda: In ten days. You will cross Sinai?
Lawrence: Why not? Moses did.
Auda: And you will take the children?
Lawrence: Moses did.
Auda: Moses was a prophet and beloved of God.

View Quote Bentley: I heard in Cairo that Major Lawrence has a horror of bloodshed.
Feisal: That is exactly so. With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.

View Quote Bentley: It's very simple, sir. I'm looking for a hero...certain influential men back home believe that the time has come for America to lend her weight to the patriotic struggle against Germany, uh, and Turkey. Now I've been sent to find material which will show our people that this war is, uh...
Feisal: Enjoyable?
Bentley: Oh, hardly that, sir. But to show them its more adventurous aspects.
Feisal: And you are looking for a figure who will draw your country towards war.
Bentley: All right. Yes.
Feisal: Lawrence is your man.

View Quote Bentley: Watch out for Allenby. He's a slim customer.
Feisal: Excuse me?
Bentley: A clever man.
Feisal: 'Slim customer.' It's very good. I will certainly watch out for him. You are being very sympathetic, Mr. Bentley.
Bentley: Your Highness. We Americans were once a colonial people, and we naturally feel sympathetic to any people anywhere who are struggling for their freedom.
Feisal: Very gratifying.
Bentley: Also, my interests are the same as yours. You want your story told. I badly want a story to tell.

View Quote Bentley: What is it, Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert?
Lawrence: It's clean.
Bentley: Well, now, that's a very illuminating answer.

View Quote Bentley: What, in your opinion, do these people hope to gain from this war?
Lawrence: They hope to gain their freedom. Freedom.
Bentley: They hope to gain their freedom. There's one born every minute.
Lawrence: They're gonna get it, Mr. Bentley. I'm going to give it to them.

View Quote Brighton: [as Damascus falls and burns] Look, sir, we can't just do nothing.
Allenby: Why not? It's usually best.

View Quote Brighton: [speaking about Lawrence and the Arabs] They think he's a kind of prophet.
Allenby: They do or he does?

View Quote Dryden: Lawrence, only two kinds of creatures get fun in the desert: Bedouins and gods, and you're neither. Take it from me, for ordinary men, it's a burning, fiery furnace.
Lawrence: No, Dryden, it's going to be fun.
Dryden: It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun.

View Quote Feisal: In the Arab city of Cordova, there were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village...
Lawrence: Yes, you were great.
Feisal: ...nine centuries ago...
Lawrence: Time to be great again, my Lord.
Feisal: ...which is why my father made this war upon the Turks. My father, Mr. Lawrence, not the English. Now my father is old. And I, I long for the vanished gardens of Cordova. However, before the gardens must come fighting.
Sherif Ali: [Ali shoots Tafas dead while riding his camel. He stops his camel and jumps down to examine Tafas' body] He is dead.
T.E. Lawrence: Yes... why?
Sherif Ali: This is my well. [mentioning the well Lawrence and Tafas are resting at]
T.E. Lawrence: I have drunk from it.
Sherif Ali: You are welcome.
T.E. Lawrence: He was my friend.
Sherif Ali: That? [mentioning Tafas]
T.E. Lawrence: Yes, that.
Sherif Ali: [Ali walks towards Lawrence and grabs Tafas' revolver lying on the sand] Yours?
T.E. Lawrence: No, his.
Sherif Ali: [Ali tucks the revolver into his waist and walks towards the well] His? [mentioning the tin cup near the well]
T.E. Lawrence: Mine.
Sherif Ali: Then I will use it. [pulls some water out of well]
Sherif Ali: ... your friend... was a Hazimi of the Beni Salem.
T.E. Lawrence: I know.
Sherif Ali: [Ali salutes Lawrence and drinks his water]I am Ali ibn el Kharish.
T.E. Lawrence: I have heard of you.
Sherif Ali: So... What was a Hazimi doing here?
T.E. Lawrence: He was taking me to help Prince Feisal.
Sherif Ali: You've been sent from Cairo?
T.E. Lawrence: Yes.
Sherif Ali: I have been in Cairo for my schooling. I can both read and write... my Lord Feisal already has an Englishman.
T.E. Lawrence: Yes.
Sherif Ali: What is your name?
T.E. Lawrence: My name is for my friend. [Ali walks away] None of my friends is a murderer.
Sherif Ali: You are angry, English. [Ali climbs his camel] He was nothing. The well is everything... The Hazimi may not drink at our wells. He knew that... Salaam.

View Quote Feisal: Since starting this campaign four months ago, we have lost 37 wounded, 156 dead. Do you remark at this proportion between our dead and wounded?
Bentley: Yeah. Four times as many.
Feisal: That's because those too badly wounded to bring away we ourselves kill. We leave no wounded for the Turks.
Bentley: You mean...
Feisal: I mean we leave no wounded for the Turks. In their eyes, we are not soldiers, but rebels. And rebels, wounded or whole, are not protected by the Geneva Code and are treated harshly.
Bentley: How harshly?
Feisal: More harshly than I hope you can imagine.

View Quote Lawrence: I killed two people, I mean two Arabs. One was a boy. That was yesterday. I led him into a quicksand. The other was a man. That was before Aqaba anyway. I had to execute him with my pistol. There was something about it I didn't like.
Allenby: Well, naturally.
Lawrence: No, something else.
Allenby: I see. Well that's all right. Let it be a warning.
Lawrence: No, something else.
Allenby: What then?
Lawrence: I enjoyed it.