Quo Vadis (1951)

Robert Taylor: Marcus Vinicius

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Quotes 

• [on being told the Christians are being blamed for the burning of Rome] 

  Vinicius : The people won't believe such a lie!

  Petronius : But they are believing it. People will believe any lie, if it is fantastic enough.

• Vinicius : [as the Christians file into the arena, singing]  These people know how to die, Nero. In death you will squeal like a hog!

• Vinicius : [speaking of Nero]  The new wife, Poppea, sounds interesting - a harlot for an empress?

  Petronius : [sardonically humorous]  My dear Commander, what a proletarian observation. You must realize that a woman has no past when she mates with a god.

  Vinicius : [shrugs his shoulders]  Well, he's our emperor.

• Vinicius : [when asked how his army defeated the Gauls and the Britons]  We fought with our bowels! Try it sometime!

• Petronius : [Nero begins to sing again, and his voice is horrible]  Body of Bacchus, I've been listening to *that* since morning!

  Vinicius : [amused]  He seems in rare voice!

• Vinicius : [to Lygia about Paul]  That beggar-faced philosopher shouldn't be stuffing your head with such nonsense.

• Poppaea : [as Marcus enters]  As usual your entrance is proud and aloof.

  Vinicius : I came proudly as fast as my hands and knees will carry me.

  Poppaea : And as always, sardonic and unassailable.

  Vinicius : So happily, so unassailable? I've never been so readily expertly vanquished in my life.

  Poppaea : I believe everything except the word vanquished.

  Poppaea : [Suggestively while taking wine]  I should like to vanquish you Marcus.

  Vinicius : Like the spider who eats her mate when he is no longer a necessity?

  Poppaea : [Suggestively]  Mmm-Hmmm - Something like that.

• Lygia : [to Vinicius, after he has been revived following a scuffle involving Ursus and the gladiator Croton]  Ursus wishes to speak to you.

  Vinicius : [to Ursus]  Yes?

  Ursus : [to Vinicius, addressing him in the third person]  I want to ask the commander's forgiveness. I killed his friend.

  Vinicius : You killed Croton? Ha ha! Good man! I told you you'd be a champion! Kill the old Greek too?

  Ursus : The other man disappeared.

  Vinicius : I'll wager he did, and fast!

• Vinicius : [Seeing the mighty Ursus for the first time]  Why, with one arm strapped you could kill fifty Nubians in an hour.

• Vinicius : I know nothing of politics. Just as long as there's money to pay the army... Rome will stand forever, that I'm sure of.

• Vinicius : I don't know a great deal about philosophy. And lovely women shouldn't have the time to think that deeply.

• Vinicius : And as for the women of Gaul... well, their hair is like the frazzled ends of rope. Not a soft, red-gold crown with stars in it. And their palm was the hide of a wild boar. Not like this soft...

  Lygia : At least that proves they are diligent.

  Vinicius : Yes, at building mud huts. But not in bringing a man's thoughts to life.

• Lygia : Ten big, strong Praetorian Guards to support my eagerness to come.

  Vinicius : Well said, Lygia. But you know a caravan of rare merchandise is always well-guarded.

• Vinicius : There's such an army of gods these days we can always find room for another.

• Petronius : Tonight I've arranged for you to stay at Plautius' country place. It's near your camp.

  Vinicius : Aulus Plautius, the old retired general? That's a gloomy outlook. I know. And his wife's not young either, besides being virtuous. Still, it's better quarters than a tent.

• Lygia : I've heard the women of Britain and Gaul are most beautiful.

  Vinicius : Lygia, I'm forced to tell you that the women of Britain cover themselves with deer fat.

  Lygia : I'd say that was an understandable desire to be warm.

  Vinicius : The warmth is not transferable, I assure you. Only in its aroma.

• Vinicius : Who's been telling you stories about me?

  Lygia : You have, from your own lips. Ugly stories of conquests and bloodshed.

  Vinicius : Conquest? But what's conquest? It's the only method of uniting and civilizing the world under one power. Have to spill a little blood to do it.

  Lygia : No. There's a gentler and more powerful way of doing that. Without bloodshed and war. Without slaves and captives bound in chains to your triumphal chariots, Commander.

• Vinicius : I'll tell you what, Lygia. The night's still young. This place is unworthy of our first meeting. Let's go to Petronius' house. There will be gaiety there you've never dreamed of. Dancers, musicians, singers. The best in Rome. My uncle's house was built by the goddess of love herself.

• Nerva : Romance seems to have been short-lived.

  Vinicius : There's always a weapon to bring down a flighty dove, my friend.

• Vinicius : I'm just a heavy-skulled soldier. What in the name of Jupiter is a rabbi?

• Petronius : What's the law regarding hostages?

  Vinicius : Hostages?

  Vinicius : Yes. Can they be bought, reassigned, what?

  Petronius : Well, I take it this hostage is female?

  Vinicius : Head to toe, hip to hip.

• Vinicius : I'll have her if I have to abduct her.

  Petronius : I sense a certain frustration. Is your little barbarian entirely in sympathy with your plan?

  Vinicius : She'll be cooing like a pigeon in the right circumstances.

  Petronius : I wish I had your confidence. I've never been able to discover an honest warmth in any woman.

• Vinicius : This one wasn't born to think, she was born to feel!

• Vinicius : Make use of your beauty, live with me. Love as you were made to love.

  Lygia : What difference does it make whether I love, now that you own me?

• Vinicius : You want me to love the whole human race? You want me to love Parthians, Egyptians, Persians? The rest who wanna put a blade through my ribs?

  Paul : Has it occurred to you to put down your sword and renounce war against these people? Has it occurred to you that you might conquer them with love?

  Vinicius : Yes, yes. You tame a pack of wolves with a feather.

• Vinicius : Your valiant Greek led me to Lygia and a swarming hive of idiots. Their black honey choked my mouth and I said words I never thought I'd utter. For their mammoth stupidity I should've been broken in half and dropped piecemeal into the sewers. Fascinated?

  Petronius : In a way.

• Vinicius : It's occurred to me you've a whining beggar for God. A cringing God for slaves, aliens, and outcasts like yourself.

• Vinicius : You'd never - turn the other cheek to me, would you?

  Poppaea : I don't know what you mean. But my - mouth is here.

• Paul : I'm a Jew. A citizen of Rome, though I was born in Tarsus.

  Vinicius : Oh, yes, Tarsus. North of Palestine.

  Paul : That's correct.

  Vinicius : You come from a troublesome part of the world. Much unrest down there in the past.