Alexander Quotes

[after reading a letter sent by his mother]
Alexander: It's a high ransom she charges for nine months lodging in the womb.
Hephaistion: Bring her to Babylon, Alexander. It'll give her such joy.
Alexander: Joy! I am the cracked mirror of her dreams... Stay with me tonight Hephaistion.
Hephaistion: What

bothers you?
Alexander: I see in her everything I fear. Yet I have no idea what it is; this fear. She was always so sure I was born of Zeus. Why, Hephaistion?
Hephaistion: I think there are things beyond our imagining. Like the lightening. Tales of strange conceptions. I don't doubt it.
Alexander: What is being told me? What

destiny do I have?
Hephaistion: Well, if I'm Patroclus, I die first. Then you, Achilles. The generals are upset. They question your obsession with Darius. They say it was never meant for you to be king of Asia.
Alexander: Naturally. They want only to return to their homes rich with gold, but I have seen the future, Hephaistion! I've seen it now a

thousand times, on a thousand faces. These people want, need, change. Aristotle was wrong about them.
Hephaistion: How so?
Alexander: Look at those we've conquered. They leave their dead unburied, they smash their enemies skulls and drink them as dust, they mate in public! How can they think, or sing, or write when none can read? But as Alexander's

army they could go where they never thought possible. They can soldier, or work in the cities. From the Alexandrias, from Egypt to the outer ocean. We could connect these lands, Hephaistion. And the people.
Hephaistion: Some say these Alexandrias have become extensions of Alexander himself. They draw people into the cities so as to make slaves.

Alexander: But we've freed them, Hephaistion, from the Persias, where everyone lived as slaves! To free the people of the world! Such would be beyond the glory of Achilles. Beyond Heracles! A feat to rival Prometheus, who was always a friend to man.
Hephaistion: Remember the fates of these heroes. They suffered, greatly.
Alexander:

We all suffer. Your father, mine. They all came to the end of their time and in the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
Hephaistion: You once said the fear of death drives all men. Are there no other forces? Is there not love in your life, Alexander? What would you do if you ever reached the end of the world? I wonder sometimes, if it's not your

mother you run from, so many years, so many miles between you, what is it you fear?
Alexander: Who knows these things? When I was a child my mother thought me divine; my father, weak. Which am I, Hephaistion? Weak or divine? All I know is I trust only you in this world. I've missed you. I need you. It is you I love, Hephaistion. No other.

Hephaistion: You still hold you head cocked like that.
Alexander: [laughing] I have to stop that.
Hephaistion: No, like a dear listening in the wind you strike me still, Alexander. You have eyes like no other. I sound as stupid as a school boy, but you're everything I care for. And by the sweet breath of Aphrodite I'm so jealous of

losing you to this world you want so badly.
Alexander: You'll never lose me, Hephaistion. I'll be with you always. 'Til the end.

Old Ptolemy: The truth is never simple and yet it is. The truth is we did kill him. By silence we consented... because we couldn't go on. But by Ares, what did we have to look forward to but to be discarded in the end like Cleitus? After all this time, to give away our wealth to Asian sycophants we despised? Mixing the races? Harmony? Oh, he talked of these things. I never believe

in his dream. None of us did. That's the truth of his life. The dreamers exhaust us. They must die before they kill us with their blasted dreams.

Philip: [to Young Alexander] A king isn't born, Alexander, he is made. By steel and by suffering. A king must know how to hurt those he loves. It's lonely. Ask anyone. Ask Heracles. Ask any of them. Fate is cruel. No man or woman can be too powerful or too beautiful without disaster befalling. They laugh when you rise too high. And they crush everything you've built with a whim.

What glory they give in the end, they take away. They make of us slaves.

Olympias: My poor child. You're like Achilles; cursed by your greatness. You must never confuse your feelings with your duties, Alexander. A king must make public gestures for the common people. You will be nineteen this summer, and the girls already say you don't like them, you like Hephastion more. I understand, it's natural for a young man. But if you go to Asia without leaving

a successor you risk all.
Alexander: Hephastion loves me. As I am. Not who.

Alexander: I've come to believe the fear of death drives all men, Hephaistion. This we didn't learn as schoolboys.
Hephaistion: I've always believed, Alexander. But this seems so much bigger than us.
Alexander: Did Patroclus stare at Achilles when they stood side by side at the siege of troy?
Hephaistion:

Patroclus died first.
Alexander: If you do... if you were to fall Hephaistion, I will avenge you, and follow you down to the house of death.
Hephaistion: I would do the same.
Alexander: On the eve of battle it's hardest to be alone.
Hephaistion: Then perhaps this is farewell, my Alexander.

Alexander: Fear not, Hephaistion. We are at the beginning.

Young Alexander: [trying to break in a horse Phillip has said could not be ridden] You don't like your shadow, do you? It's like a dark spirit coming up to get you. But you see? That's us. It's just a trick of Apollo, the god of sun. Shh. I'll show you how to outwit him. You and me, together. Shh. Bucephalus, that'll what I'll call you. Strong and stubborn. Bucephalus and

Alexander. Come, now, let's ride together.

Hephaistion: You know better than any great deeds are donned by men who took, and never regretted. You're Alexander! Pity and grief will only destroy you.
Alexander: Have I become so arrogant that I am blind?
Hephaistion: Sometimes to expect the best from everyone is arrogance.
Alexander: Then it's true. I

have become a tyrant!
Hephaistion: No! But perhaps a stranger. We've come too far. They don't understand you anymore.
Alexander: They speak of Phillip now as if I were a passing cloud, soon to be forgotten. I've failed. Utterly.
Hephaistion: You're mortal. And they know it. And they forgive you because you make them proud of

themselves.

Alexander: But you dream Crateros... Your simplicity long ended, when you took Persian mistresses and children, and you thickened your holdings with plunder and jewels... Because you have fallen in love with all the things in life that destroy men... do you not see... and you, as well as I, know, that as the year decline and the memories stale and all your great victories fade it

will always be remembered, you left your king in Asia

Philip: I'm sure you remember Achilles and the tales of Troy.
Young Alexander: He's my favorite.
Philip: Why?
Young Alexander: Because he loved Patroclus, and avenged his death. Because he lived without fear.
Philip: Some say he was a hotheaded fool, who fought only for himself and not

for Greece.
Young Alexander: But he was a hero! The greatest at Troy.
Philip: And his fate?
Young Alexander: That he must die young, with great glory.
Philip: Did he have a choice?
Young Alexander: Oh yes. He could've had a long life, but there would be no glory.

Cassander: Alexander, if we must fight, do so with stealth. Use your numbers well; we should attack tonight when they least expect us.
Alexander: I didn't cross Asia to steal this victory, Cassander.
Cassander: No, you are too honorable for that, no doubt influenced from sleeping with tales of Troy under your pillow. But your father

was no lover of Homer's.
Parmenion: The lands west of the Euphrates, Alexander, and his daughter's hand in marriage! Since when has a Greek ever been given such honors?
Alexander: These are not honors, Parmenion, they're bribes! Which the Greeks have accepted too long! You forget, Parmenion, that the man who murdered my father lies across the valley

floor.
Parmenion: Come, Alexander, we're not really sure if it was Persian gold behind the assassination. It is no matter! Your father taught you never to surrender your reason to your passion! I urge you, with all my experience, regroup! Fall back to the coast, raise a larger force!
Alexander: I would, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander. And no

more than earth has two suns will Asia bear two kings. These are my terms. And if Darius isn't a coward who hides behind his men then he'll come to me tomorrow. And *when* he bows down to Greece, Alexander will be merciful.

Alexander: A thousand ships we'll launch from here, Hephaistion! We'll round Arabia, and sail up the gulf to Egypt. From there, we'll build a channel through the desert, out to the middle sea. And then we'll move on Carthage, and that great island Cecily; they'll pay large tribute. After that the Romans - good fighters, but we'll beat them. And then explore the northern forests,

and add the pillars of Heracles to the western ocean. And then one day, populations will mix and travel freely. Asia and Europe will come together. And we'll grow old, Hephaistion, looking out our balcony at this new world.