Memorable quotes for
Kingdom of Heaven (2005) More at IMDbPro »

Godfrey of Ibelin: You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.

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Balian of Ibelin: [to the people of Jerusalem] It has fallen to us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?
[pause]
Balian of Ibelin: The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim.
[raises his voice]
Balian of Ibelin: All have claim!
Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: That is blasphemy!
Almaric: [to the Patriarch] Be quiet.
Balian of Ibelin: We defend this city, not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls.

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Guy de Lusignan: [approaching a Muslim caravan] This caravan is armed, Reynald.
Reynald: Good. No sport otherwise.
Guy de Lusignan: They've seen us. Go after them. The rider is getting away.
Reynald: It's broad desert. Nothing will come of it, nothing.
Guy de Lusignan: I'd prefer not to be hanged before my wife is queen.
Reynald: Don't worry. "Who but Reynald", they'll say. It's always me. They'll believe it in Jerusalem, I assure you. You were at Nazareth, praying.
Guy de Lusignan: You're a dangerous man, Reynald.
Reynald: If the war's to be now or later, I would have it now. How long can the leper last?
Templar Master: God wills it. God wills it!
Templars: God wills it!
Reynald: Jerusalem!
[all charge towards the Muslim caravan]

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Balian of Ibelin: It is a kingdom of conscience, or nothing.

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priest exhorting Crusaders: To kill an infidel, the Pope has said, is not murder; it is the path to Heaven.

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Nasir: [to Balian] ... and if God does not love you, how could you have done the things you have done?

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Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Convert to Islam... repent later!
Balian of Ibelin: You've taught me a lot about religion, your Eminence.

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Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: The things that we have left undone plague us as death comes. That is why to the dying there is no comfort but the Lord.
King Baldwin IV: Spare me your sermon. Go and prepare your people for the coronation of my nephew.
Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Your confession, my lord.
King Baldwin IV: I shall confess to God when I see him... not to you. Now, leave me.

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Tiberias: There is a rumour. We must condemn it immediately.
Sybilla: Call it treason. And kill those who whisper it.
Tiberias: The rumour will die if we show the boy as active...
Sybilla: [bursts out] How long before he wears a mask? Will you have one made for him? How did my boy deserve it? Jerusalem is dead, Tiberias. No kingdom is worth my son alive in hell. I will go to hell instead.
[Tiberias steps forth and hugs Sibylla]

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Hospitaller: One may stare into the light, until one becomes the light. I've done it many times.
Balian of Ibelin: [throws a rock at a bush that catches fire by the spark] There's your religion. One spark, a creosote bush. There's your Moses. I did not hear it speak.
Hospitaller: That does not mean that there is no God. Do you love her?
Balian of Ibelin: Yes.
Hospitaller: The heart will mend. Your duty is to the people of the city. I go to pray.
Balian of Ibelin: For what?
Hospitaller: For the strength to endure what is to come.
Balian of Ibelin: And what is to come?
Hospitaller: The reckoning is to come for what was done one hundred years before. The Muslims will never forget. Nor should they.
[the Hospitaler slowly walks away as a second bush several yards from the burning one catches fire. The Hospitaler is nowhere to be seen in the clear and open desert]

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Sybilla: [walking] Do you fear being with me?
Balian of Ibelin: No.
[stops]
Balian of Ibelin: And yes.
Sybilla: [laughs] A woman in my place has two faces; one for the world, and one which she wears in private. With you I'll be only Sibylla.
Sybilla: [hears a noise and turns her head. A servant hides behind a wall] Tiberias thinks me unpredictable. I am unpredictable.

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Balian of Ibelin: This army will be destroyed, and the city left defenseless.
Guy de Lusignan: When I wish a blacksmith to advise me in war, I will tell him.
Balian of Ibelin: Saladin wants you to come out. He is waiting for you to make that mistake.

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Balian of Ibelin: [a single horsemen is seen in the distance standing on top of a hill] They are here.
Almaric: It is only one man.
Balian of Ibelin: No, they are here.
[the camera zooms out and makes the whole Saracen army visible behind the hill]

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Balian of Ibelin: What is Jerusalem worth?
Saladin: Nothing.
[walks away]
Saladin: Everything!

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Godfrey of Ibelin: I once fought two days with an arrow through my testicle.

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Hospitaller: If the ribs are broken, the marrow will enter the blood and you will develop fever and die or a cyst will form and you will live.

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Balian of Ibelin: A queen never walks. Yet you are walking.

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Balian of Ibelin: What could a king ask of a man like me?
Godfrey of Ibelin: A better world than has ever been seen. A kingdom of conscience. A kingdom of heaven.

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Saracen Messenger: The Sultan asks for his sister's body, the heads of those responsible and the surrender of Jerusalem.
Guy de Lusignan: Does he?
Saracen Messenger: What is you reply?
Guy de Lusignan: This.
[Decapitates the messenger]

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Reynald: [after raiding a peaceful caravan] I am what I am. Someone has to be.

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Hospitaller: Are you sorry for all your sins?
Godfrey of Ibelin: [looking at Balian, his illegitimate son] For all but one.

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Balian of Ibelin: You go with the army?
Hospitaller: My order is with the army.
Balian of Ibelin: You go to certain death.
Hospitaller: All death is certain. I shall tell your father what I've seen you become.
[rides away]

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King Baldwin IV: Saladin has crossed the Jordan with 200,000 men.
Tiberias: He will make first for Kerak and Reynald de Chatillon.
Tiberias: [tries to help the King stand up] My lord.
King Baldwin IV: [rejects the help and stands up by himself] We must meet him before he reaches Kerak. I will lead the army.
Tiberias: My lord, if you travel, you'll die.
King Baldwin IV: Send word to Balian to protect the villagers.
King Baldwin IV: Assemble the army.
[the Templars cheer]

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Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: [almost crying] Who do you think you are? Will you alter the world? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?
Balian of Ibelin: Yes

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Balian of Ibelin: What man is a man who does not make the world better.

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Richard's Knight: We crusade to recover the kingdom of Jerusalem
Balian of Ibelin: Go till the men speak Italian and continue until they speak something else
Richard Coeur de Lion: We come along this road to find Balian of Ibelin, who defended Jerusalem against the Saracens.
Balian of Ibelin: I am a blacksmith
Richard Coeur de Lion: And I am the king of England
Balian of Ibelin: [pauses] I am a blacksmith.

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Nasir: Your quality will be known among your enemies, before ever you meet them.

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King Baldwin IV: On your knees... lower. I am... Jerusalem. And you, Reynald, will give me the kiss of peace.
[takes off glove]

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Saladin: Will you yield the city?
Balian of Ibelin: Before I lose it, I will burn it to the ground. Your holy places - ours. Every last thing in Jerusalem that drives men mad.
Saladin: I wonder if it would not be better if you did.

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Saladin: [to Guy de Lusignan] A king does not kill a king. Were you not close enough to a great king to learn by his example?

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Nasir: You reap what you sow. You have heard of this, no?

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Saladin: I pray you pull back your cavalry and leave this matter to me.
King Baldwin IV: I pray you retire unharmed to Damascus. Reynald of Chatillon will be punished. I swear it. Withdraw or we will all die here.

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Saladin: When I'm not King, I quake for Islam.

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King Baldwin IV: [to Sibylla] My beautiful sister. So beautiful. I'm sorry if I've caused you any pain. Remember me as I was.

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Saladin: Who defends?
Nasir: Balian of Ibelin. The son of Godfrey.
Saladin: Godfrey? Godfrey nearly killed me in the Lebanon. Truly, I did not know he had a son.
Nasir: It was his son at Kerak.
Saladin: The one you let live?
Nasir: Yes.
Saladin: Perhaps you should not have.
Nasir: Perhaps I should have had a different teacher.

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Hospitaller: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here
[points to head]
Hospitaller: and here
[points to heart]
Hospitaller: and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man - or not.

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Jerusalem: Who do you think you are? Will you alter the world? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?
Balian of Ibelin: [pause, turn slowly to face Bishop] Yes.

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Almaric: They will ask for terms. We *must* ask for terms.
Jerusalem: Convert to Islam, repent later.

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Nasir: [a Saracen knight yells at Balian in Arabic] He says, that is his horse.
Balian of Ibelin: Why would it be his horse?
Nasir: Because it is on his land.
Balian of Ibelin: I took this horse from the sea.
Nasir: [Nasir translates, the knight yells again] He says you are a great liar and he will fight you because you are a liar.
Balian of Ibelin: I have no desire to fight.
Nasir: Then you must give him the horse.
[Balian draws his sword]

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Tiberias: [to Balian] May God be with you, he's no longer with me.

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King Baldwin IV: Come forward. I am glad to meet Godfrey's son. He was one of my greatest teachers. He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut. It was he, not my father's physicians who noticed that I felt no pain. He wept when he gave my father the news, that I am a leper. The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengence against the vanity of our kingdom. As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell is far more severe and lasting. If that's true, I call it unfair. Come. Sit. When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. You see, none of us chose our end really. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convinient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.
Balian of Ibelin: I will.
King Baldwin IV: Then go now to your father's house at Ibelin, and from there protect the pilgim road. Protect the helpless. And then perhaps one day when I am helpless you will come and protect me.

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[first lines]
Gravedigger: Crusaders.
Squire: Clear the road, if you will.

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[first title cards]
Title card: It is almost 100 years since Christian armies from Europe seized Jerusalem.
Title card: Europe suffers in the grip of repression and poverty. Peasant and lord alike flee to the Holy Land in search of fortune or salvation.
Title card: One Knight returns home in search of his son.
Title card: France 1184

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[last title card]
Title card: The King, Richard the Lionheart, went on to the Holy Land and crusaded for three years. His struggle to regain Jerusalem ended in an uneasy truce with Saladin. Nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive.

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Hospitaller: [Approaching the village where Balian lives] You know this place, my lord?
Godfrey of Ibelin: Know it? I know all of it.

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Hospitaller: The blacksmith is the man you seek. His name is Balian. But know that he mourns. The burial that we passed at the crossroads was for his wife. Their child died. She was overcome by grief and killed herself.
Godfrey of Ibelin: Do you still advise what you advised upon the road?
Hospitaller: I do, my lord.

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Tiberias: But Saladin and the king between them would make a better world.
Hospitaller: If it lives only for a while, Tiberias, it still has lived.

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Reynald: I drink water for what it is.
Saladin: I did not give the cup to you.
Reynald: No, my Lord.
Saladin: A king does not kill a king.

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Guy de Lusignan: Give me a war.
Reynald: That is what I do.

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Godfrey of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.
Godfrey of Ibelin: [cuffs Balian with the back of his hand] And that's so you remember it.
Hospitaller: Arise a knight and Baron of Ibelin.

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Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Who are you? Do you think you can change the World? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?
Balian of Ibelin: [pause, turn slowly to face Bishop] Yes.

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[last lines]
Richard Coeur de Lion: We come by this road to find Balian, who was defender of Jerusalem.
Balian of Ibelin: I am the blacksmith.
Richard Coeur de Lion: And I am the king of England.
Balian of Ibelin: [pauses] I am the blacksmith.

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Saladin: As-Salaam-Alaikum
Balian of Ibelin: And peace be with you.

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Tiberias: [to Balian] You're your father's son. He was my friend. I'm yours.

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Sybilla: What becomes of us?
Balian of Ibelin: The world will decide. The world always decides.

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Hospitaller: Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves.

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Tiberias: That I would rather live with men than kill them is certainly why you are alive.
Guy de Lusignan: [Chuckles] That sort of Christianity has its uses, I suppose...

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Tiberias: There will be a day, Reynald de Chatillon, when you will no longer be protected by your title.
Reynald: Oh? And when will that be?

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Guy de Lusignan: If I had fought you when you were still capable of making bastards...
Godfrey of Ibelin: I knew your mother when she was making hers; fortunately you're too old to be one of mine.

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King Baldwin IV: I felt in that moment that I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty.

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Balian of Ibelin: How can you be in hell, when you are in my heart?

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Sybilla: There will be a day when you will wish you had done a little evil to do a greater good.

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Balian of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Safeguard the helpless. Never lie, even if it leads to your death; that is your oath.
[slap]
Balian of Ibelin: And that is so you don't forget it. Rise a knight... rise a knight!

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King Baldwin IV: A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.

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Balian of Ibelin: God will understand, my lord. And if he doesn't, then he is not God and we need not worry.

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Godfrey of Ibelin: Get me some more wine.

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Guy de Lusignan: [about Sibylla] My wife does not lament my absences. And is either the best of wives... or the very, very worst.
[leaves]
Tiberias: [to Sibylla as a toast] To the very best of wives.

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Hospitaller: [to Balian] You sail now for Jerusalem as your father wished. If God has purpose for you there, he'll keep you safe in his hands.
[pauses]
Hospitaller: If not, God bless you.

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Balian of Ibelin: Such as we are... you will be.

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King Baldwin IV: If you continue like this, I shall have to find some use for you. If God can spare you, that is.
Balian of Ibelin: God does not know me.
King Baldwin IV: Yes, but I do.

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Reynald: Who says I raid?
Tiberias: That witness, all of Jerusalem, Holy God! - and me.

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Templar Master: We should meet the enemies of God!
Guy de Lusignan: And so we shall.
Tiberias: Then you do so without my knights.
Guy de Lusignan: Then I will have the glory, Tiberias. You had yours, years ago. It's time for mine.

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Tiberias: I have given Jerusalem my whole life. First, I thought we were fighting for God. Then I realized we were fighting for wealth and land. I was ashamed.

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Nasir: This is not a very good horse... I will not keep him.
[hands reins to Balian]

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Godfrey of Ibelin: [Director's Cut, before caving in his nephew's skull] Thank my brother for his love!

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Odo: Have you been at war?
Balian of Ibelin: On horse. And as an engineer also.
Odo: Against whom and for whom did you fight?
Balian of Ibelin: For one lord against another, on a point which cannot be remembered.
Odo: There's better game now: one God against another. The pay is proportionate.
[chuckles]

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Balian of Ibelin: [about burning the bodies] God will understand and if not he is not God and we need not worry.

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Balian of Ibelin: [praying to his wife] how can you be in hell when you're in my heart.

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Richard's Knight: We crusade to recover the city of Jerusalem.
Balian of Ibelin: You go to where the men speak Italian, and then continue until they speak something else.

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Priest: You always turn the other cheek. I think that you conceive yourself without sin... that is a sin!

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