Gladiator (2000) · 66 quotes
3rd most-quoted character in Gladiator (2000): in 11 of its 66 quotes
Most scenes with: Maximus (4)
I am Proximo. I will be closer to you in these next few days, which will be the last days of your miserable lives, than that bitch of a mother who first brought you screaming into this world. I did not pay good money for your company, I paid it so I could profit from your deaths. And just as your mother was there at your beginning, so I shall be there at your end. And when you die, and die you shall, your transition will be to the sound of [he claps his hands]. Gladiators, I salute you.
Proximo Some of you are thinking you won't fight. Others, that you can't fight, they all say that, until they're out there. [He picks up a sword.] Thrust this into another man's chest, and the crowd will applaud and love you for it. In time, you may even begin to love them for that. Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how, but...we can decide how we meet that end, so that we are remembered...as men.
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.
Proximo Those giraffes you sold me, they won't mate. They just walk around eating, and not mating. You sold me **** giraffes!
Proximo The silence before you strike...and the noise after...it rises...rises like a storm. As if you were the Thunder God himself.
Proximo So Spaniard, we shall go to Rome together and have bloody adventures. And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more! And then, when enough men have died, perhaps you will have your freedom.
Proximo Shadows and dust. [last lines before he is murdered by Commodus's guards]
Proximo He [Marcus Aurelius] touched me on the shoulder, I was free.
Proximo I didn't say I knew him, I said he touched me on the shoulder once!
You ask me what I want. I too want to stand before the Emperor as you did.
Proximo Then listen to me. Learn from me. I wasn't the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd. And you will win your freedom.
I will win the crowd. I will give them something they have never seen before.
Proximo What do you want? Hmm? Girl? Boy?
You sent for me?
Proximo Yes, I did. You're good, Spaniard, but not that good. You could be magnificent.
I'm required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.
Proximo That's enough for the provinces, but not for Rome.
... And you have met Caesar?
Proximo ... Yes ... yes, I did ...
