Richard Burton credited as playing...
Alexander
- Alexander: [Opening credits with anonymous voice-over:] It is men who endure toil and dare dangers that achieve glorious deeds. And it is a lovely thing to live with courage and to die leaving behind an everlasting renown.
- Aristotle: Do you know how vast the Persian Empire is?
- Alexander: From the Nile, to the Indus... from Samarkand, to Babylon.
- Aristotle: And beyond. Do you know how many different people live there?
- Alexander: By heart. Carians, Armenians, Jews, Parthians, Egyptians... I know their customs and their gods.
- Aristotle: Yes. But this is more than an empire, this is colossus. To rule it would take a man as great as *you can be*... That is why I say, "Patience".
- Alexander: Patience? My time is short.
- Aristotle: Short?
- Alexander: When the great god Zeus, father of Achilles, gave him his choice of a long life of obscurity and a short life filled with glory, he chose glory. So did I. Achilles died young...
- Philip of Macedonia: Alexander. In your first act as regent, send your mother away.
- Alexander: Exile my mother?
- Philip of Macedonia: Back to her kinsman in Epirus, she'll be happy there.
- Alexander: Is that the cost of my prove to you?
- Philip of Macedonia: How do you think I came to power? My own two brothers...
- Alexander: I know, you slew them, you want me to do that too?
- Philip of Macedonia: Alexander, you have my temper.
- Alexander: I know.
- Philip of Macedonia: And my ambition, more I think. Alexandroplis? At least wait until I die first. HAHAHAHA!
- Alexander: [reading in excitement from Book 20 of the Iliad] "... thus beneath great-hearted Achilles his whole-hooved horses trampled corpses and shields together, and with blood all the axletree below was sprinkled, for blood-drops from the horses' hooves splashed them, and blood-drops from the tires of the wheels, for the son of Peleus pressed on to win glory, flecking with gore his irresistible hands."
- Alexander: What's all this about my father?
- Olympias: To the sword, the cross, the rack - men who have been his friends for years. Now everyone is his enemy - he accuses everyone of conspiring against him... even me. You'll hear the story, Alexander - you'll hear it from him. But you mustn't believe him, you mustn't... you don't! Do you, Alexander?
- Alexander: Why should he accuse you?
- Olympias: He wants to get rid of me... he's been wanting to for years. He wants to marry again.
- Alexander: Who?
- Olympias: Attalus's niece. You be careful of Attalus - you be careful of all of them. She's no fool - she won't let him throw her away like he's done with all the others. She's young...
- Alexander: Oh, Mother...!
- Olympias: Whatever he asks of you, do. Whatever he says, agree with. For when you're regent...
- [she smiles]
- Olympias: *when you're regent*... then, *we'll* rule the land.
- Alexander: *We*?
- [Olympias's face falls]
- Alexander: For within him, out of the death of Cleitus, a new idea was born, a new understanding, a new driving force that it was not lands that must be conquered, but the hearts of men.
- Philip of Macedonia: How do I tear down this wall that stands between us? By breach? Assault? Storm?
- Alexander: You built the wall.
- Alexander: He said My boy, if I surround you with competitors you will have all the more reason to surpass them in merit.
- Alexander: When the great god Zeus, father of Achilles, gave him his choice between a long life of obscurity and a short one filled with glory, he chose glory. So did I.