Narrator: This is the Appian Way, the most famous road that leads to Rome, as all roads lead to Rome. On this road march the conquering legions. Imperial Rome is the center of the empire, the undisputed master of the world. But with this power inevitably comes corruption. No man is sure of his life, the individual is at the mercy of the state, murdering replaces justice. Rulers of conquered nations surrender their helpless subjects to bondage. High and low alike become Roman slaves, Roman hostages. There is no escape from the whip and the sword. That any force on earth can shake the foundations of this pyramid of power and corruption, of human misery and slavery, seems inconceivable. But thirty years before this day, a miracle occurred. On the Roman cross in Judea, a Man died to make men free, to spread the Gospel of love and redemption. Soon that humble cross is destined to replace the proud eagles that now top the victorious Roman standards. This is the story of that immortal conflict. In this, the summer of the year 64 A.D., in the reign of the antichrist known to history as the emperor Nero, the victorious fourteenth legion is on its way back to Rome under the command of one Marcus Vinicius.


--Walter Pidgeon (as Narrator) in Quo Vadis

William Cantrell: I know what I'm doing, Ma. I'll be running Kansas yet. I'm going clear up to the top. But I'm not going for the climb or the view.


--Walter Pidgeon (as William 'Will' Cantrell) in Dark Command

[Cantrell has been defeated by Bob Seton in the election for marshal]
William Cantrell: Learning, studying, working like a dog... and what did it get me? The first chance I have to be somebody, I'm beaten out of it by an ignorant cowhand who can't even write his own name! Well, I can write mine... and I'm going to write it across the territory in letters of fire and blood if I have to! I'm going to be somebody in this country! Somebody big!


--Walter Pidgeon (as William 'Will' Cantrell) in Dark Command

[repeated line]
William Cantrell: You have families and futures. When you vote, think of them!


--Walter Pidgeon (as William 'Will' Cantrell) in Dark Command

Pierre Curie: No true scientist can have anything to do with women.


--Walter Pidgeon (as Pierre Curie) in Madame Curie