Ten Commandments, The (1956) quotes

View Quote Moses: 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 were mine a moment ago.
Yochabel: A moment ago, you were her son, the strength of Egypt. Now you are mine, a slave in Egypt. You find no shame in this?
Moses: There is no shame in me. How can I feel shame for the woman who bore me? Or the race that bred me?

View Quote Moses: You bring a warm smile with your cool water.
Lilia: My smile is for a stonecutter. The water is for you.

View Quote Moses: You know it is death to strike an Egyptian.
Joshua: I know it.
Moses: Yet you struck him. Why?
Joshua: To free the old woman.
Moses: What is she to you?
Joshua: An old woman.
Egyptian guard: Lord Moses, send him to his death!
Moses: The man has courage. You do not speak like a slave.
Joshua: God made man. Man 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!

View Quote Nefretiri: [Bringing Rameses his sword] Bring it back to me, stained with his blood.
Rameses: I will. [Takes the sword and sheathes it] To mingle with your own!

View Quote Nefretiri: But beauty of the spirit will not free your people, Moses. You will come to me or they will never leave Egypt.
Moses: The fate of Israel is not in your hands, Nefretiri.
[Moses turns and walks away, but Nefretiri blocks his exit]
Nefretiri: Oh, isn’t it? Who else can soften Pharaoh’s heart? Or harden it?
Moses:: [Takes hold of her jaw] Yes. You may be the lovely dust through which God will work His purpose.

View Quote Nefretiri: But I saved your son.
Moses: It is not my son who will die, it is...it is the firstborn of Egypt. It is your son, Nefretiri!
Nefretiri: You...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: But I saved your son!
Moses: I cannot save yours.

View Quote Nefretiri: How many more days and nights will you pray? Does he hear you?
Rameses: Dread Lord of Darkness, I have raised my voice to you, yet life has not come to the body of my son. Hear me!
Nefretiri: He cannot hear you. He's nothing but a piece of stone with the head of a bird.
Rameses: He will hear me. I am Egypt.
Nefretiri: Egypt? You are nothing. You let Moses kill my son. No god can bring him back. What have you done to Moses? How did he die? Did he cry for mercy when you tortured him? Bring me to his body! I want to see it, Rameses! I want to see it!
Rameses: This is my son. He would have been Pharaoh. He would have ruled the world. Who mourns him now? Not even you. All you can think of is Moses. You will not see his body. I drove him out of Egypt. I cannot fight the power of his God.
Nefretiri: His God? The priests say that Pharaoh is a god. But you are not a god. You are even less than a man! Listen to me, Rameses. You thought I was evil when I went to Moses. And you were right. Shall I tell you what happened, Rameses? He spurned me like a strumpet in the street. I, Nefretiri, Queen of Egypt! All that you wanted from me he would not even take! Do you hear laughter, Pharaoh? Not the laughter of kings, but the laughter of slaves on the desert!
Rameses: Laughter? Laughter?! [Shoves her aside and rings the gong] My son, I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies. If any escape me, their seed shall be spattered and accursed forever. [To the arriving servant] My armor! War crown![To Nefretiri] Laughter... I will turn the laughter of these slaves into wails of torment! They shall remember the name of Moses! Only that he died under my chariot wheels!
Nefretiri: Kill him with your own hands.

View Quote Nefretiri: If you want to help your people, come back to the palace.
Moses: And hide the truth from Seti, that I am Hebrew and a slave?
Nefretiri: The truth would break his dear old heart, and send Bithiah into exile and 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 made Pharaoh? No, he would grind them into the clay they mold and double their labors. And 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.

View Quote Nefretiri: You need have no fear of me.
Sephora: I feared only his memory of you.
Nefretiri: You have been able to erase it?
Sephora: He has forgotten both of us. You lost him when he went to seek his God. I lost him when he found his God.

View Quote Nefretiri: You will be king of Egypt and I will be your footstool!
Moses: The man stupid enough to use you as a footstool isn't wise enough to rule Egypt.

View Quote Pentaur: He opens the waters before them, and he bars our way with fire. Let us go from this place. Men cannot fight against a God.
Rameses: Better to die in battle with a God than to live in shame.

View Quote Rameses: Difficulty with the slaves, my brother?
Moses: None that could not be cures by a ration of grain and a day of rest.
Rameses: A day of rest?
Moses: When your horses tire, they’re rested. When they hunger, they’re fed.
Rameses: Slaves draw brick and stone. My horses draw the next Pharaoh.
Moses: Is there any grain stored here in Goshen?
Rameses: None that you would dare take, my brother.
Joshua: The temple granaries are full.
Moses: [To Joshua] Bring the push-pole men and some women with baskets.
Joshua: I will…great prince.
Rameses: I warn you, Moses, the temple grain belongs to the gods.
Moses: What the gods can digest will not sour in the belly of a slave.

View Quote Rameses: You have conquered, Moses. The foot of a slave is on the neck of Egypt. You were saved from the Nile to be a curse upon me. Your shadow fell between me and my father, between me and my fame, between me and my queen. Your shadow now fills all things with death. Go out from among us, you and your people. I set you free.
Moses: It is not by your word, nor by my hand that we are free, Pharaoh. The power of God has freed us.
Rameses: Enough of your words! Take your people, your cattle, your God and your pestilence. [Throws his collar to the ground] Take what spoils from Egypt you will, but go!

View Quote 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 cedar 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 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 or fine linen. Strength and honor are our clothing. Our tents are not the marbled halls of Egypt, but our children play happily. 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.
[Moses takes her hand and puts his marriage band around her arm]

View Quote Seti: Are you quite sure it will be Rameses?
Jannes: Who else could succeed you?
Nefretiri: Moses, of course!
Jannes: Because of Moses there is no wheat in the temple granaries.
Seti: [peering at Jannes] You don't look any leaner.