Kingdom of Heaven Quotes

Hospitaller: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here
[points to head]
Hospitaller: and here
[points to heart]

Hospitaller: and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man - or not.

Godfrey of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.
Godfrey of Ibelin: [cuffs Balian with the back of his hand] And that's so you remember it.
Hospitaller: Arise a

knight and Baron of Ibelin.

King Baldwin IV: Come forward. I am glad to meet Godfrey's son. He was one of my greatest teachers. He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut. It was he, not my father's physicians, who noticed that I felt no pain. He wept when he gave my father the news... that I am a leper. The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengence against the vanity of our

kingdom. As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell is far more severe and lasting. If that's true, I call it unfair. Come. Sit.
[they sit down on opposite sides of a chessboard]
King Baldwin IV: Do you play?
Balian of Ibelin: No.
King Baldwin IV: The whole world is in chess.

Any move can be the death of you. Do anything except remain where you started, and you can't be sure of your end. Were you sure of your end once?
Balian of Ibelin: I was.
King Baldwin IV: What was it?
Balian of Ibelin: To be buried a hundred yards from where I was born.
King Baldwin IV: And now?

Balian of Ibelin: Now I sit in Jerusalem, and look upon a king.
King Baldwin IV: [Baldwin chuckles] When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man

can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus," or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.

Balian of Ibelin: I will.

Saladin: Who defends?
Imad: Balian of Ibelin, the son of Godfrey.
Saladin: Godfrey? Godfrey nearly killed me in the Lebanon. Truly, I did not know he had a son.
Imad: It was his son at Kerak.
Saladin: The one you let live?
Imad: Yes.

Saladin: Perhaps you should not have.
Imad: Perhaps I should have had a different teacher.

English Sergeant: [walking along the waterfront at Messina] When we took the Holy Land, we took the Saracen trading ports. The Italian ships carry silks and spices... and pilgrims, if they have money. And Italy becomes rich, as the Savior intended.
Balian of Ibelin: [Balian sees a group of men praying on the beach] Who are those men?
English

Sergeant: Muslims. Saracens.
Balian of Ibelin: And they are allowed their prayers?
English Sergeant: If they pay the tax. "Subhana Rabbi'l Adhim."
[he turns to Balian]
English Sergeant: "Praise be to God. It is proper to praise him."
Balian of Ibelin: Sounds like our prayers.

Balian of Ibelin: [to the people of Jerusalem] It has fallen to us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is

Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?
[pause]
Balian of Ibelin: The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim.
[raises his voice]
Balian of Ibelin: All have claim!
Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem:

That is blasphemy!
Almaric: [to the Patriarch] Be quiet.
Balian of Ibelin: We defend this city, not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls.