Chariots of Fire Movie Quotes
Eric Liddell
I believe God made me for a purpose - but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.
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Eric Liddell
You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe your dinner's burnt. Maybe - maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, "Believe, have faith," in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me." If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.
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Rev. J.D. Liddell
You can praise God by peeling a spud if you peel it to perfection. Don't compromise. Compromise is a language of the devil. Run in God's name, and let the world stand back and in wonder.
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Eric Liddell
God made countries; God makes kings, and the rules by which they govern. And those rules say that the Sabbath is His. And I, for one, intend to keep it that way.
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Harold M. Abrahams
If I can't win, I won't run!
Sybil Gordon
If you don't run, you can't win.
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[first lines]
Lord Andrew Lindsay
Let us praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. All these men were honoured in their generations, and were a glory in their days. We are here today to give thanks for the life of Harold Abrahams. To honour the legend. Now there are just two of us - young Aubrey Montague and myself - who can close our eyes and remember those few young men with hope in our hearts, and wings on our heels.
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Duke of Sutherland
A sticky moment, George.
Lord Birkenhead
Thank God for Lindsay. I thought the lad had us beaten.
Duke of Sutherland
He did have us beaten, and thank God he did.
Lord Birkenhead
I don't quite follow you.
Duke of Sutherland
The "lad", as you call him, is a true man of principles, and a true athlete. His speed is a mere extension of his life, its force. We sought to sever his running from himself.
Lord Birkenhead
For his country's sake, yes.
Duke of Sutherland
No sake is worth that, least of all a guilty national pride.
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HRH Edward, Prince of Wales
There are times when we are asked to make sacrifices in the name of that loyalty. And without them, our allegiance is worthless. As I see it, for you, this is such a time.
Eric Liddell
Sir, God knows I love my country. But I can't make that sacrifice.
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Harold M. Abrahams
You, Aubrey, are my most complete man. You're brave, compassionate, kind: a content man. That is your secret - contentment; I am 24 and I've never known it. I'm forever in pursuit, and I don't even know what I am chasing.
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Lord Cadogan
Don't be impertinent, Liddell!
Eric Liddell
The impertinence lies, sir, with those who seek to influence a man to deny his beliefs!
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Lord Cadogan
That's a matter for the committee!
Lord Birkenhead
We *are* the committee.
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Eric Liddell
[reading from Isaiah, Chapter 40]
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up - with wings as eagles. They shall run - and not be weary."
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Lord Cadogan
Hear, hear. In my day, it was King first, and God after.
Duke of Sutherland
Yes, and the War to End Wars bitterly proved your point.
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Sybil Gordon
Do you love running?
Harold M. Abrahams
I'm more of an addict. It's a compulsion, a weapon.
Sybil Gordon
Against what?
Harold M. Abrahams
Being Jewish, I suppose.
Harold M. Abrahams
You're not Jewish, or you wouldn't have had to ask.
Sybil Gordon
Fiddlesticks. People don't care.
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Harold M. Abrahams
And now, in one hour's time, I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor - 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my whole existence. But will I?
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Master of Caius
I take the war list, and I run down it. Name after name which I cannot read, and which we - who are older than you - cannot hear without emotion. Names which will be only names to you, the new college, but which to us summon up face after face, full of honesty and goodness, zeal and vigor, and intellectual promise. The flower of a generation, the glory of England - and they died for England, and all that England stands for. And now, by tragic necessity, their dreams have become yours. Let me exhort you: Examine yourselves. Let each of you discover where your true chance of greatness lies. For their sakes - for the sake of your college, and your country - seize this chance. Rejoice in it, and let no power or persuasion deter you in your task.
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Sam Mussabini
Eric Liddell? He's no real problem.
Sam Mussabini
Yeah, he's fast! But he won't go any faster. He's a gut runner, digs deep! But a short sprint is run on nerves. It's tailor-made for neurotics.
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Lord Birkenhead
Liddell - he is your future king; are you refusing to shake his hand? Does your arrogance extend that far?
Eric Liddell
My arrogance, sir, extends just as far as my conscience demands.
Lord Birkenhead
Fine; then let's hope that is wise enough to give you room to maneuver.
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Choir
[singing] Bring me my bow of burning gold, Bring me my arrows of desire / Bring me my spear, O clouds unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire...
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Sam Mussabini
Do you want to know why you lost today?
[Harold nods]
Sam Mussabini
You're overstriding.
[sets coins in a row]
Sam Mussabini
Now, these coins represent the steps in your sprint.
[pushes coins together]
Sam Mussabini
Can you find me another two coins, Mr. Abrahams?
[Harold looks up]
Sam Mussabini
Remember, overstriding - death for the sprinter.
[shakes his head]
Sam Mussabini
. Knocks you back.
[slaps Harold across the cheek. Harold winces]
Sam Mussabini
Like that!
[slaps Harold again]
Sam Mussabini
And that!
[Sam laughs and grabs Harold by the arm]
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Rev. J.D. Liddell
Sandy, the Kingdom of God is not a democracy. The Lord never seeks re-election. There are no referenda on which road to take. There's one right, one wrong, one absolute ruler.
Sandy McGrath
A dictator, you mean?
Rev. J.D. Liddell
Aye - but a benign, loving dictator.
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Sybil Gordon
The great Harold Abrahams. My brother will be insanely jealous.
Harold Abrahams
So will mine.
Sybil Gordon
You don't look very ruthless.
Harold Abrahams
Should I?
Sybil Gordon
According to my brother. Tim says that's why you always win. Why running?
Harold Abrahams
Why singing?
Sybil Gordon
My job... No, that's silly. I do it because I love it.
Sybil Gordon
Do you love running?
Harold Abrahams
I'm more of an addict. It's a compulsion, a weapon.
Sybil Gordon
Against what?
Harold Abrahams
Being Jewish, I suppose.
Harold Abrahams
You're not Jewish, or you wouldn't ask.
Sybil Gordon
Fiddlesticks. People don't care. Anyway, being Jewish hasn't done you any harm.
Harold Abrahams
I'm what I call semi-deprived.
Sybil Gordon
That sounds clever... What does it mean?
Harold Abrahams
It means they lead me to water, but they won't let me drink.
Sybil Gordon
You're a funny old stick, Mr. Harold Abrahams. Funny...... but fascinating.
Harold Abrahams
I'll settle for the fascinating.
Sybil Gordon
Life isn't that gloomy, is it?
Sybil Gordon
Like you.
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Sandy McGrath
What we need now is a muscular Christian to make folks sit up and notice.
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Master of Trinity
This Abrahams. What do you know about him?
Master of Caius
Repton chap. Jewish. His father's a financier in the city.
Master of Trinity
Financier. What's that supposed to mean, I wonder?
Master of Caius
I imagine he lends money.
Master of Trinity
Exactly. And what do they say about the son?
Master of Caius
Academically sound. Arrogant. Defensive to the point of pugnacity.
Master of Trinity
As they invariably are.
Master of Caius
Yet possessing a keen sense of duty and loyalty.
Master of Trinity
Do they say he can run?
Master of Caius
Like the wind.
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Master of Caius
It's said that you use a personal coach.
Harold M. Abrahams
Mr. Mussabini, yes.
Master of Trinity
Is he an Italian?
Harold M. Abrahams
Of Italian extraction, yes.
Master of Trinity
I see.
Harold M. Abrahams
But not all Italian.
Master of Trinity
I'm relieved to hear it.
Harold M. Abrahams
He's half Arab.
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Sybil Gordon
If you can't take a beating, it's for the best.
Harold M. Abrahams
I don't run to take beatings. I run to win.
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Harold M. Abrahams
Aubrey, I've known the fear of losing - but now I am almost too frightened to win.
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Harold M. Abrahams
That was the miscalculation of my life.
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Sandy McGrath
The heats for the 100 are on Sunday after the opening ceremony. The semis and final, a couple days after. It's only a heat. Does it make all that difference?
Eric Liddell
Yeah. Yeah, it does.
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Henry Stallard
[the athletes are playing cricket in the ballroom of their hotel. Henry Stallard is the umpire; Aubrey Montague bowls a delivery to Eric Liddell, batting]
No ball!
Harold M. Abrahams
[Aubrey bowls another delivery, which deceivingly appears to have gotten Eric out]
HowZAT!
Henry Stallard
Not out!
Harold M. Abrahams
What do you mean, not out? You could've heard it from bloody Bournemouth! Come on, Liddell, my innings.
Eric Liddell
I didn't touch it, I swear it, must've been the crack of my wrist!
Harold M. Abrahams
He's out I tell you, you're all deaf - deaf and bloody blind! Aubrey I ask you, for God's sake!
Harold M. Abrahams
[No response from Aubrey, dramatic pause]
[punching the air]
Harold M. Abrahams
It's not FAIR!
[the athletes break into laughter, Abrahams eventually joining them]
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Lord Birkenhead
Ah, Liddell! I was afraid you weren't here.
Eric Liddell
I'm afraid I am, sir.
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Harold M. Abrahams
Gentlemen, you yearn for victory just as I do. But achieved with the apparent effortlessness of gods. Yours are the archaic values of the prep-school playground. You deceive no one but yourselves. I believe in the pursuit of excellence - and I'll carry the future with me.
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Lord Birkenhead
You Americans have a number of men who are rated as world-beaters; but, this contest is in Europe, not in the rarefied climes of the United States.
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Harold M. Abrahams
Aubrey, I've known the fear of losing but now I am almost too frightened to win.
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Eric Liddell
When we were in China, my father here was always waxing lyrical about his wee home in the glen. But being Oriental-born myself, like my brothers and my sister here, I suffered from a natural incredulity. But looking about me now, the heather and the hills, I can see he was right. It's very special.
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Sam Mussabini
So you've traveled 300 miles just to see me?
Harold M. Abrahams
You and Liddell. I'd heard you were both the best.
Sam Mussabini
And what do you think now?
Harold M. Abrahams
Eric Liddell? I've never seen such drive, such commitment in a runner. He runs like a wild animal. He unnerves me.
Sam Mussabini
So he should. Frightens the living daylights out of me.
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Aubrey Montague
You're quite an advocate.
Harold M. Abrahams
Hey. A rare ethnic advantage. It's called the gift of the gab.
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Master of Trinity
For the past year, you've concentrated wholly on developing your own technique in the headlong pursuit, may I suggest, of individual glory. Not a policy very conducive to the fostering of esprit de corps.
Harold M. Abrahams
I am a Cambridge man, first and last. I am an Englishman, first and last. What I have achieved - what I intend to achieve - is for my family, my university, and my country. And I bitterly resent your suggesting otherwise.
Master of Caius
Your aim is to win at all costs, is it not?
Harold M. Abrahams
At all costs, no. But I do aim to win within the rules.
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Lord Birkenhead
May I remind you, you are the favored few. You constitute what is without doubt the most powerful athletic force ever to leave these shores. You are to face the world's best. Brown and yellow, white and black, young and ardent as yourselves, fleet of foot and strong of limb, from every civilized nation on the face of the Earth. I have no doubt that you will acquit yourselves honorably and with distinction. Good luck to you all.
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Lord Birkenhead
My boy, as things stand, you must not run. But I want you to hold your fire for a while, Liddell. Leave everything to me. Say nothing. Wait until we get to Paris. I'll have a word with the French. I'm not without a certain pull. And we fought in the war together. They do owe us something.
Eric Liddell
I don't understand.
Lord Birkenhead
They're not a very principled lot, the Frogs. But when faced with a stand like yours, one never knows. I might get through. I just might possibly persuade them.
Eric Liddell
The French, sir? What could they do?
Lord Birkenhead
Shift that bloody heat of yours, of course.
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Master of Trinity
Life slips by, Abrahams - life slips by!
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Lord Andrew Lindsay
Protocol, Monty, protocol - he is here to show us what may be done, and more essentially, what may *not* be.
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1
Jennie Liddell
I don't want his work spoiled with all this running talk, do you hear?
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Harold M. Abrahams
Perfect. You can be Queen of the Fairies!
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Harold M. Abrahams
It's an ache, a helplessness, an anger. One feels humiliated. Sometimes I say to myself, "Hey, steady on, you're imagining all this." And then I catch that look again. Catch it on the edge of a remark, feel a cold reluctance in a handshake.
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Master of Trinity
My dear boy, your approach has been, if I may say so, a little too plebeian. You are the elite - and are therefore expected to behave as such.
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Master of Trinity
Here in Cambridge, we've always been proud of our athletic prowess. We believe - we've always believed - that our games are indispensable in helping to complete the education of an Englishman. They create character they foster courage, honesty and leadership. But most of all, an unassailable spirit of loyalty, comradeship, and mutual responsibility. Would you agree?
Harold M. Abrahams
Yes, sir. I would.
Master of Trinity
Abrahams, there is a growing suspicion in the bosom of this university - and I tell you this without in any way decrying your achievements, in which we all rejoice - that in your enthusiasm for success, you have perhaps lost sight of some of these ideals.
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Aubrey Montague
We're here for Britain and we know it. I'm here for you, Ma. You and Pa. I hope I do you proud.
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Lord Andrew Lindsay
Now, one of these days, Monty, you're going to win yourself. And it's pretty difficult to swallow.
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