- Lord Jim: I've been a so-called coward and a so-called hero and there's not the thickness of a sheet of paper between them. Maybe cowards and heroes are just ordinary men who, for a split second, do something out of the ordinary. That's all.
- Gentleman Brown: [to Cornelius] You have a natural talent for disaster! Try and improve yourself into an ordinary failure by keeping your mouth shut.
- Gentleman Brown: If an army couldn't get this treasure out, what makes you think that we can?
- Cornelius: The General was too ambitious. We just need to eliminate a certain... person.
- Gentleman Brown: You mean murder?
- Cornelius: Justice. Kill one pompous fool...
- Gentleman Brown: Let's see now: You're out, he's in - and *he's* the fool?
- Marlow: [first lines - voiceover] Joseph Conrad wrote, "If you want to know the age of the Earth, look upon the sea in a storm." But what storm could fully reveal the heart of a man?
- Gentleman Brown: [referring to Jim] I think his majesty had pretentions to heroism, a form of mental disease induced by vanity.
- Gentleman Brown: [to Cornelius after breaking his liquor bottle with his sword] Drunk, you're useless... unreliable!
- Schomberg: Sober he's the same.
- Brierly: Could you do what he did?
- The French Officer: Who knows? Under certain conditions, fear will come to any man. It's always there, waiting for us...
- Marlow: [Narrating] One hope kept Jim going - a hope common to most men. Rich or poor, strong or weak, who among us has not begged God for a second chance?
- Stein: You must face the truth.
- Lord Jim: Truth? What is the truth? I've been a so-called coward and a so-called hero, and there's not the thickness of a piece off paper between them. Maybe cowards and heroes are just ordinary men, who for just a split second do something that is out of the ordinary. That's all.
- The General: Have you ever considered what makes pain unbearable? One thing. The brain.
- [He gets out a knife and sticks it into a stone iron]
- The General: Put the brain to sleep, and the flesh can be burned, torn, twisted, chopped, without pain.
- [He works a bellows to heat up the iron]
- The General: Awaken the brain, anticipate pain, and every touch, sight, sound, becomes exaggerated. The body betrays the mind. Finally, the pain becomes unbearable.
- Cornelius: What do you think of before a battle? Death? Killing? God? A woman!
- The General: I think only of what the enemy is thinking.
- The General: [Sarcastically, to Cornelius] Ah, the sign of the true believer. You wear the Jesus medal, yet you beseech Buddha. Last week it was Mohammed. Before that, Confucius.
- Stein: Man is amazing, yes, but too many flaws. Man makes too much noise about himself. Disturbs the equilibrium. He wants to be a saint, and he wants also to be a devil. Always, he wants to be what he is not. What do you think?
- The General: For one hour, he is not to be molested. Attend his comfort. Indulge your senses. Feel life. Eat, smoke, dream, make love. If he wishes privacy with her, permit. Look. The essence of pleasure. Warm, sweet, ripe. A woman can satisfy all your senses at the same time. She is the only reality. She is life. Death is the end of all things real. It is the end of all feeling, desire, hope. Death is nothingness. And that is what you fear most. Death. Not pain, but oblivion. In one hour, I will ask for the weapons. I will ask but once. If you refuse, if you lie - oblivion. One hour.
- Gentleman Brown: Are we not exiles, you and I, not good enough for the world out there? Are we so far apart? Have we not the same roots, the same skin? Same God? Same weaknesses?
- Lord Jim: The General is a persuasive man. He knows human nature. - String, please. - He knew how much I wanted you. Would you have given yourself?
- The Girl: Yes.
- Lord Jim: Because of fear? Because it was necessary. It is only what we do, what we think...... that makes us unclean.
- The Girl: Because it was necessary. It is only what we do, what we think, that makes us unclean.
- The Girl: What lives once lives forever. Many people wait here to be purified by fire. Only then can their souls be freed from their bodies. A proper funeral should have music and dancing and fine gifts for the gods and beautiful painted towers to burn. But it is very, very expensive. So we wait for a rich man to die, and then we quickly bring out our dead and join the cremation. It is a happy time when so many souls come back to us. One day, my mother's soul will return to a new life sweet and bitter as the old but one step closer to perfection.
- The French Officer: An idea created by insurance companies. Necessary because if even one crewman remains on board the ship cannot be claimed as salvage.
- Gentleman Brown: Now, where is this gold kept, is it guarded, if so, how, and by whom?
- Cornelius: How do I know I can trust you?
- Gentleman Brown: You don't know.
- Cornelius: What do you think?
- Schomberg: [shrugs] I'm a silent partner.
- Cornelius: Then I suppose we'll have to take each other's word as gentlemen?
- Gentleman Brown: [sighs] I suppose.
- Cornelius: [talking about his abdomen] Oh, I feel a gripping pain here, probably something I ate.
- The General: Probably a precious stone perhaps. Like all thingsgreat and small, it will pass, and when it does, give it back.
- The General: I like men of business. We have a common language: Money. You bring the ammunitions...
- [He shrugs amiably]
- The General: I buy.
- Lord Jim: They're gone. Blown up. Exploded.
- The General: [Knocks the wooden bowl from Jim's hand] One explosion.
- [He strokes the shaven sides of his head in frustration and puts his hands on his hips impatiently]
- The General: You bring nine separate barrels of powder. So there should be many separate explosions. Correct?
- Lord Jim: [Weakly] Correct.
- Brierly: Loyalty. What about loyalty?
- The French Officer: Once, there was loyalty to ships under sail; but, when ships changed to steam, perhaps men changed too.
- Captain of Patna: We got to clear out before the storm hits. Push! Push!
- Lord Jim: What about them?
- Captain of Patna: Who?
- Lord Jim: Them!
- Captain of Patna: They're dead! Finished! Nothing can save them!
- Marlow: [voiceover] There, in the dark, alone with the unexpected, Jim was finally infected with the other man's terror. His imagination made him see what he feared to see.
- Brierly: Why? Why did you insist on eating all that dirt? How could you make that disgusting confession in public, before all those grinning natives? If you had to rut around in shame, why didn't you run, hide, crawl 20 feet underground where you belong? Do you realize what you've done here today? Do you know what you've done? You're one of us. Your disgrace reflects on us. You put all of us on trial! Don't you understand that?
- Lord Jim: Yes, sir. I understand.
- Lord Jim: If we can keep them locked in their own stockade and at the same time if we can destroy the ammunition dump with a cannon, if we can attack on their ground, if we can keep them inside, on the defensive, if we can be ready by tomorrow's sunrise,. then perhaps, we might win.
- The Girl: If you hesitate., we fail. If you move too soon, we fail. If the moon comes out too soon, we fail. Each thing must be exact.
- Gentleman Brown: Are you so pure? Nothing fishy about your life? Nothing to be ashamed of? No white man hides himself in the wilderness without a reason! Come, my lord, what made you run from your world?
- Schomberg: This gentleman, Captain Brown, has given more business to death than the bubonic plague. From Java to Fiji, he's wanted for piracy, for slavery, for mutiny., for rape, murder, even some things that are not mentioned in the Bible.
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