Brother John: You betrayed your Saxon race, now you betray God.
Thomas a Becket: Perhaps you will succeed in teaching me humility, it's a virtue I've never really mastered.


--Richard Burton (as Thomas Becket) in Becket

The Priest: [for the umpteenth time, rapid-fire] Petruchio, wilt thou take Katarina to be thy wedded wife?
Petruchio: [drunk] Marry, I will!


--Richard Burton (as ) in The Taming of the Shrew

Jane Brand: What if he doesn't come back?
Capt. Leith: Then he and I and you become part of history, of its futility.
Jane Brand: Don't talk to me in riddles, Jimmy.
Capt. Leith: It's a long time since I was in Libya. The Romans built wonderful cities in Libya: dead bones sticking out of the sand. War rolled over them. It'll be good to see them again.
Jane Brand: You always seemed to prefer stones to people.
Capt. Leith: I've learned things from stones.
Jane Brand: What?
Capt. Leith: All that people have forgotten in the centuries.
Jane Brand: I seem to remember I was less than a stone to you. I loved you, Jimmy.
Capt. Leith: We'd better go in. There isn't much time.
Jane Brand: What can I say to him?
Capt. Leith: Tell him all the things that women have said to the men before they go to the wars. Tell him he's a hero. Tell him he's a good man. Tell him you'll be waiting for him when he comes back. Tell him he'll be making history.


--Richard Burton (as Capt. Leith) in Bitter Victory

Ashe: [Approaching Leamas who is sitting on a bench] Do you like birds? The ones with the white collars are wild. The others are domesticated. With people it's the other way around.
Alec Leamas: [He snickers]
Ashe: Bird-watching's one of my hobbies. I often come here.
Alec Leamas: Do you also often come to Wormwood Scrubs Prison at eight o'clock in the morning to watch birds?
Ashe: Yes, jailbirds. They're my other hobby.
Alec Leamas: Only the young ones, surely!


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Aristotle: Do you know how vast the Persian Empire is?
Alexander: From the Nile, to the Indus... from Samarkand, to Babylon.
Aristotle: And beyond. Do you know how many different people live there?
Alexander: By heart. Carians, Armenians, Jews, Parthians, Egyptians... I know their customs and their gods.
Aristotle: Yes. But this is more than an empire, this is colossus. To rule it would take a man as great as *you can be*... That is why I say, "Patience".
Alexander: Patience? My time is short.
Aristotle: Short?
Alexander: When the great god Zeus, father of Achilles, gave him his choice of a long life of obscurity and a short life filled with glory, he chose glory. So did I. Achilles died young...


--Richard Burton (as Alexander) in Alexander the Great

Philip of Macedonia: Alexander. In your first act as regent, send your mother away.
Alexander: Exile my mother?
Philip of Macedonia: Back to her kinsman in Epirus, she'll be happy there.
Alexander: Is that the cost of my prove to you?
Philip of Macedonia: How do you think I came to power? My own two brothers...
Alexander: I know, you slew them, you want me to do that too?


--Richard Burton (as Alexander) in Alexander the Great

Cliff Lewis: It's not the same, is it?
Jimmy Porter: Of course not, it's never the same you idiot. Today's meal is always different from yesterday's, the last woman is always different from the one before.


--Richard Burton (as Jimmy Porter) in Look Back in Anger

Cliff Lewis: My feet hurt.
Jimmy Porter: Try washing your socks.


--Richard Burton (as Jimmy Porter) in Look Back in Anger

King Henry II: Am I the strongest or am I not?
Thomas a Becket: You are today, but one must never drive one's enemy to despair; it makes him strong. Gentleness is better politics, it saps virility. A good occupational force must never crush. It must corrupt.


--Richard Burton (as Thomas Becket) in Becket

King Henry II: Are you mad? You're Chancellor of England; you're mine!
Thomas a Becket: I am also the Archbishop, and you have introduced me to deeper obligations.


--Richard Burton (as Thomas Becket) in Becket