Braveheart (1995) quotes

Director
Mel Gibson.

Cast
Mel Gibson.
Sophie Marceau.
Patrick McGoohan.

When his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, Sir William Wallace begins a revolt against King Edward I of England.

Every man dies, not every man really lives.
– William Wallace

Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.
Malcolm Wallace

And if this is your army, why does it go?
William Wallace
We didn’t come here to fight for them!

Veteran
Home! The English are too many!

Young Soldier
Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace.

William Wallace
William Wallace is seven feet tall!

Young Soldier
Yes, I’ve heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he’d consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse.

William Wallace
[Scottish army laughs]
I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men… and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?
William Wallace
Fight? Against that? No! We will run. And we will live.

Veteran
Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!

William Wallace

[voiceover] In the Year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland – starving and outnumbered – charged the fields of Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets; they fought like Scotsmen, and won their freedom.
– William Wallace

There’s a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.
– William Wallace

You have bled with Wallace, now bleed with me.
– Robert the Bruce

[to William Wallace] The Almighty tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he’s pretty sure you’re fucked.
– Stephen

I can fight.
Young William
I know. I know you can fight. But it’s our wits that make us men.

Malcolm Wallace

Lands, titles, men, power, nothing.
Robert the Bruce
Nothing?

Robert’s Father
I have nothing. Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and their children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace, and he fights for something that I never had. And I took it from him, when I betrayed him. I saw it in his face on the battlefield and it’s tearing me apart.

Robert the Bruce
All men betray. All lose heart.

Robert’s Father
I don’t want to lose heart. I want to believe as he does.

Robert the Bruce

You’re going to teach me to read, then?
Murron
Aye, if you’d like.

William Wallace
Aye!

Murron
In what language?

William Wallace
Ah, you’re showing off now.

Murron
That’s right. Are you impressed yet?

William Wallace
No. Why? Should I be?

Murron
Oui. Parce que chaque jour j’ai pensé à toi.

William Wallace
[Yes. Because every single day I’ve thought about you]
[hesitates, impressed despite herself, then smiles] Do that standing on your head and I’ll be impressed.
Murron
Well, my kilt will fly up, but I’ll try.

William Wallace

The king desires peace.
Princess Isabelle
Longshanks desires peace?

William Wallace
He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.

Princess Isabelle
A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?

William Wallace
Peace is made in such ways.

Princess Isabelle
Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshanks’ notion of peace.

William Wallace

It’s all for nothing if you don’t have freedom.
– William Wallace

We all end up dead, it’s just a question of how and why.
– William Wallace

You see? Death comes to us all. But before it comes to you, know this: your blood dies with you. A child who is not of your line grows in my belly. Your son will not sit long on the throne. I swear it.
Princess Isabelle

The prisoner wishes to say a word.
Royal Magistrate
[shouts loud and long] Freedom!

William Wallace

I didn’t like him anyway. He wasn’t right in the head.
– Stephen

Some men are longer than others.
Hamish
Your mother been telling ya stories about me again, eh?

Campbell

I love you. Always have. I wanna marry you.
– William Wallace