Sextus You can break a man's skull. You can arrest him. You can throw him into a dungeon. But how do you fight an idea?
Sextus, you ask how to fight an idea. Well, I'll tell you how... with another idea!
Judah Ben-Hur
Charlton Heston · 15 quotes
Messala
Stephen Boyd · 6 quotes
Esther
Haya Harareet · 5 quotes
Quintus Arrius
Jack Hawkins · 5 quotes
Sheik Ilderim
3 quotes
Most scenes together: Judah Ben-Hur & Esther (3), Judah Ben-Hur & Quintus Arrius (3), Judah Ben-Hur & Messala (2)
Ben-Hur quotes
Page 2 of 2 Sextus Judah Ben-Hur, my people are praying for a man who can drive their team to victory over Messala. You could be that man! You could be the one to stamp this Roman's arrogance into the sand of that arena. You've seen my horses. They need only a driver who is worthy of them. One who would rule them with love and not the whip. For such a man, they would have raced the wind.
I must deal with Messala in my own way.
Balthazar
And your way is to kill him. I see this terrible thing in your eyes, Judah Ben-Hur. But no matter what this man has done to you, you have no right to take his life. He will be punished inevitably.
I don't believe in miracles.
Balthazar
Your whole life is a miracle. Why will you not accept God's judgment? You do not believe in miracles, yet God once spoke to me out of the darkness, and a star led me to a village called Bethlehem where I found a newborn child in a manger. And God lived in this child. By now, he is a grown man, and must be ready to begin his work. And that is why I have returned here, so that I may be at hand when he comes among us. He is near. He saw the sun set this evening as we did. Perhaps he's standing in a doorway somewhere on a hilltop. Perhaps he is a shepherd watching, a fisherman. But he lives in all our lives. From now on we'll carry his mark. There are many paths to God, my son. I hope yours will not be too difficult.
[to Judah]
I wanted your help. Now you have given it to me. By making this example of you, I discourage treason. By condemning, without hesitation, an old friend, I shall be feared.
[to Judah]
The Star of David, will shine out for your people and my people together and blind the eyes of Rome.
[to Judah]
You have the spirit to fight back but the good sense to control it. Your eyes are full of hate, Forty-One. That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength.
Be wise, Judah. It's a Roman world. If you want to live in it, you must become part of it...I tell you, Judah, it's no accident that one small village on the Tiber was chosen to rule the world...It wasn't just our legions...No, it was fate that chose us to civilize the world - and we have. Our roads and our ships connect every corner of the earth, Roman law, architecture, literature are the glory of the human race.
Find them, Messala. Restore them to me and I'll forget what I vowed with every stroke of that oar you chained me to.
It's an insane world, but in it there's one sanity, the loyalty of old friends. Judah, we must believe in one another.
One wife? One God, that I can understand - but one wife! That is not civilized. It is not generous.
Rome is an affront to God. Rome is strangling my people and my country and the whole earth, but not forever. I tell you, the day Rome falls, there will be a shout of freedom such as the world has never heard before.
You may conquer the land, you may slaughter the people. That is not the end. We will rise again.