Gracchus: I don't pretend to be a man of the people. But I do try to be a man for the people.
Lucilla: I want to help you.
Maximus: Yes, you can help me... Forget you ever knew me, and never come back here again.
Maximus: [After swiftly dispatching another gladiator] Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
Crowd: Spaniard, Spaniard, Spaniard...
[Watching Lucius sleep]
Commodus: He sleeps so well because he is loved.
Quintus: People should know when they are conquered.
Maximus: Would you, Quintus? Would I?
Maximus: I am required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.
Proximo: That's enough for the provinces, but not enough for Rome.
Marcus Aurelius: There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile.
Lucilla: Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.
Gracchus: The Senate is the people, sire. Chosen from among the people, to speak for the people.
Maximus:What we do in life echoes in eternity.
Proximo: [Holding up a sword] Thrust this into another man's flesh, and they will applaud and love you for that. You may even begin to love them. [Thrusts]
Proximo: for that.
Maximus: [To Proximo] He killed the man who set you free.
Maximus: You don't find it hard to do your duty?
Cicero: Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to.
Maximus: You risk too much.
Lucilla: I have much to pay for.
Maximus: You have nothing to pay for.
Marcus Aurelius: Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father.
Lucilla: This is a pleasant fiction, is it not?
Commodus: You and I are not much different. You take life when you have to, as I do.
Maximus: I have only one more life to take. Then it is done.
Maximus: [Laughing] You knew Marcus Aurelius?
Proximo: [Very quickly and defensively] I didn't say I knew him, I said he touched me on the shoulder once!
Gracchus: He will bring them death, and they will love him for it.
Proximo: Some of you are thinking that you won't fight. Others, that you can't fight. They all say that, until they're out there.
[Looking at some slaves]
Proximo: Can any of them fight? I've got a match coming up.
Slave Trader: Some are good for fighting, others for dying. You need both, I think.
Marcus Aurelius: There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile.
Marcus Aurelius: When was the last time you were home?
Maximus: Two years, two hundred and sixty-four days and this morning.
[As an executioner tries to draw his sword but can't]
Maximus: The frost, it sometimes makes the blade stick. [Kills the executioner]
Quintus: Maximus, please be careful, that wasn't prudent.
Maximus: Prudent? The Emperor has been slain.
Commodus: It's a dream, a frightful dream... life is...
Maximus: Do you remember what it was to have trust, Proximo?
Proximo: [Unfamiliarly] Trust?
[To his men before a battle]
Maximus: Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so.
Lucilla: My brother hates all the world and you most of all.
Maximus: Because your father chose me.
Lucilla: No. Because my father loved you. And because I loved you.
[Lucilla tries to convince Maximus to conspire with Senator Gracchus]
Lucilla: This man wants what you want.
Maximus: Then have *him* kill Commodus!
Marcus Aurelius: Tell me again, Maximus, why are we here?
Maximus: For the glory of the Empire, sire.
Maximus: Quintus, look at me. Look at me! Promise me that you'll look after my family.
Quintus: Your family will meet you in the afterlife.
Proximo: I know that you are a man of your word, General. I know that you would die for honor, for Rome, for the memory of your ancestors. But as for me? I'm an entertainer.
Proximo: Those giraffes you sold me, they won't mate. They just walk around, eating, and not mating. You sold me... queer giraffes. I want my money back.
Marcus Aurelius: [To his daughter Lucilla] If only you had been born a man, what a Caesar you would have made.
Gracchus: The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate, it's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll bring them death and they will love him for it.
Proximo: Listen to me. Learn from me. I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.
[Last lines]
Juba: And now we are Free. I will see you again... but not yet... Not yet!
Gracchus: I don't pretend to be a man of the people. But I do try to be a man for the people.
Marcus Aurelius: Won't you accept this great honor that I have offered you?
Maximus: With all my heart, no.
Marcus Aurelius: Maximus, that is why it must be you.
[After the final duel]
Maximus: Quintus! Release my men. Senator Gracchus is to be reinstated. There was a dream that was Rome. It shall be realized. These are the wishes of Marcus Aurelius.
Lucilla: Please be quiet, brother! Your constant scheming gives me even more of a headache!
[Upon seeing the Coliseum for the first time]
Juba: I didn't know men could build such things.
