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Lawrence of Arabia Quotes

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Lawrence of Arabia (film) Summary

Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 film loosely based on the life of T.E. Lawrence, a flamboyant and controversial British military figure, and his conflicted loyalties during wartime service. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Directed by David Lean. Written by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson.

A mighty spectacle of action and adventure!

1 T.E. Lawrence
2 Sherif Ali
3 Prince Feisal
4 Col. Harry Brighton
5 Other
6 Dialogue
7 Cast
8 External Links

T.E. Lawrence

[to Dryden] Of course I'm the man for the job. What is the job, by the way?

[to Sherif Ali, who has just shot Tafas, his guide] My name is for my friends. None of my friends is a murderer.
Sherif Ali! So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people; a silly people; greedy, barbarous and cruel! As you are!
Not hurt at all. Didn't you know? They can only kill me with a golden bullet.
No prisoners! No prisoners!
Nothing is written... but here [he points at his own head]
I pray that I may never see the desert again. Hear me, God.
The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

Sherif Ali

This is the sun's anvil.
He for whom nothing is written may write himself a clan.
[about Lawrence] Be patient with him, God.

Prince Feisal

You understand, Lieutenant Lawrence, my people are unused to explosives and machines. First the guns and now this.
And I, I long for the vanished gardens of Cordoba. But before the gardens must come the fighting.
[to Lawrence,who is going away forever] What I owe you is beyond evaluation.

Col. Harry Brighton

[about Lawrence] He was the most extraordinary man I ever knew.
[about the Arabs] They simply will not understand what modern weapons do.

Other

Jackson Bentley: Just let me know if the man's in trouble. I've got an interest in that man. I've got a claim...You've read my stuff. I've made that boy a hero. When the war's over, that boy can be anything he wants.

Dialogue

Allenby: What! More words! The revolt in the desert played a decisive part in the Middle Eastern campaign.

Reporter: Yes, sir, but about Colonel Lawrence himself?

Allenby: No, no I didn't know him well, you know.

Reporter: Mr. Bentley. You must know as much about Colonel Lawrence as anybody does.

Bentley: Yes. It was my privilege to know him and to make him known to the world. He was a poet, a scholar, and a mighty warrior. [the reporter leaves] He was also the most shameless exhibitionist since Barnum and Bailey.

Lawrence: Michael George Hartley; this is a nasty, dark little room.

Hartley: That's right.

Lawrence: We are not happy in it.

Hartley: I am. It's better than a nasty dark little trench.

Lawrence: Then you're an ignoble fellow.

Hartley: That's right.

Potter: [trying to copy Lawrence's snuffing a match with his fingers] Oh, it damn well hurts.

Lawrence: Certainly it hurts.

Potter: Well, what's the trick, then?

Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

Murray: If you're insubordinate with me, Lawrence, I shall have you put under arrest.

Lawrence: It's my manner, sir.

Murray: Your what?

Lawrence: My manner, sir; it looks insubordinate but it isn't, really.

Murray: You know, I can't make out whether you're bloody bad-mannered or just half-witted.

Lawrence: I have the same problem, sir.

Murray: Shut up.

Lawrence: Yes, sir.

Murray: ...You're the kind of creature I can't stand, Lawrence. But I suppose I could be wrong. All right, Dryden. You can have him for six weeks. Who knows? Might even make a man of him.

Dryden: Find out what kind of man he is [Prince Feisal]. And find out what his intentions are. I don't mean his immediate intentions. That's Colonel Brighton's business, not yours. I mean, his intentions in Arabia all together...

Lawrence: Where are they now?

Dryden: Anywhere within three hundred miles of Medina. They are Hashimite Bedouins. They can cross sixty miles of desert in a day.

Lawrence: Oh thanks, Dryden. This is going to be fun.

Dryden: Lawrence. Only two kinds of creatures get fun in the desert. Bedouins and gods, and you are neither. Take it from me. For ordinary men, it's a burning, fiery furnace.

Lawrence: No, Dryden. It's going to be fun.

Dryden: It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun.

Tafas: Truly, you are a British officer?

Lawrence: Yes.

Tafas: From Cairo?

Lawrence: Yes.

Tafas: You did not ride from Cairo.

Lawrence: No. Thank heaven. It's 900 miles. I came by boat.

Tafas: And before? From Britain?

Lawrence: Yes.

Tafas: Truly?

Lawrence: From Oxfordshire.

Tafas: Is that a desert country?

Lawrence: No. Fat country. Fat people.

Tafas: You are not fat.

Lawrence: No. I'm different.

Ali: [about Tafas] He is dead.

Lawrence: Yes. WHY?

Ali: This is my well.

Lawrence: I have drunk from it.

Ali: You are welcome.

Lawrence: He was my friend.

Ali: That!

Lawrence: Yes. That.

Ali: ...You are angry, English. He was nothing. The well is everything. The Hasimi may not drink at our wells. He knew that. Sa'lam.

Lawrence: Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.

Ali: Come, I will take you to Feisal.

Lawrence: I do not want your company, Sherif.

Ali: Wadi Safra is another day from here. You will not find it. And not finding it, you will die.

Lawrence: I will find it, with this.

Ali: Good Army compass. How if I take it?

Lawrence: Then you would be a thief.

Ali: Have you no fear, English?

Lawrence: My fear is my concern.

Ali: Truly. God be with you, English.

Lawrence: I have been seconded to the Arab Bureau.

Brighton: Oh. What are you to do for the Arab Bureau?

Lawrence: It's rather vague sir. I'm to 'appreciate' the situation.

Brighton: Well, that won't be difficult. The situation's bloody awful. The morale, if anybody had any, which I doubt, the Turks knocked out of them in front of Medina with howitzers. They're fading away by dozens every night. What I want to say to you is this, that whatever you are, and whoever you're with, you're a British-serving officer and here's an order. When we get into that camp, you're to keep your mouth shut. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Brighton: I want a decision, sir.

Feisal: You want me to fall back on the Yenbo.

Brighton: Well, you're not doing much good here, sir. I'm sorry to rub it in, sir, but we can't supply you here.

Feisal: You could supply us through Aqaba.

Brighton: Aqaba? [laughs] Well, if you can get a hold of Aqaba sir, of course we can supply you. But you can't.

Feisal: You could.

Brighton: You mean the Navy? The Turks have 12 inch guns at Aqaba, sir. Can you imagine what that means?

Feisal: Yes, I can imagine.

Brighton: Put that out of your mind, sir. The Navy's got other things to do.

Feisal: Oh yes. Protecting the Suez Canal.

Brighton: The one essential sector of this front is and must be the Canal. You can see that, sir, surely.

Feisal: I see that the Canal is an essential British interest. It is of little consequence to us.

Brighton: I must ask you not to speak like that, sir. British and Arab interests are one and the same.

Feisal: Possibly.

Ali: Ha! Ha!

Lawrence: I think your book is right. The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped. And on this ocean, the Bedouin go where they please and strike where they please. This is the way the Bedouin has always fought. You are famed throughout the world for fighting in this way and this is the way you should fight now.

Brighton: I don't know.

Lawrence: I'm sorry sir, but you're wrong. Fall back on Yenbo, sir, and the Arab uprising becomes one poor unit in the British army.

Feisal: Colonel Brighton means to put my men under European officers, does he not?

Lawrence: In effect my lord, yes.

Feisal: And I must do it because the Turks have European guns. But I fear to do it. Upon my soul I do. The English have a great hunger for desolate places. I fear they hunger for Arabia.

Lawrence: Then you must deny it to them.

Feisal: You are an Englishman. Are you not loyal to England?

Lawrence: To England, and to other things.

Feisal: To England and Arabia both? And is that possible? I think you are another of these desert-loving English: Doughty, Stanhope, Gordon of Khartoum. No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees, there is nothing in the desert. No man needs nothing. Or is it that you think we are something you can play with because we are a little people? A silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel? What do you know, Lieutenant. In the Arab city of Cordova, there were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village...

Lawrence: Yes, you were great.

Feisal: ..nine centuries ago...

Lawrence: Time to be great again, my Lord.

Feisal: ...which is why my father made this war upon the Turks. My father, Mr. Lawrence, not the English. Now my father is old. And I, I long for the vanished gardens of Cordova. However, before the gardens must come fighting. To be great again, it seems that we need the English or...

Lawrence: ...or?...

Feisal: ...what no man can provide, Mr. Lawrence. We need a miracle!

Ali: You are mad. To come to Aqaba by land, you should have to cross the Nefud Desert.

Lawrence: That's right.

Ali: The Nefud cannot be crossed.

Lawrence: I'll cross it if you will.

Ali: You! It takes more than a compass Englishman. The Nefud is the worst place God created.

Lawrence: I can't answer for the place, only for myself. Fifty men?

Ali: Fifty? Against Aqaba?

Lawrence: If fifty men came out of the Nefud, there would be fifty men other men might join. The Howeitat are there I hear.

Ali: The Howeitat are brigands. They will sell themselves to anyone.

Lawrence: Good fighters, though.

Ali: Good...yes. There are guns at Aqaba.

Lawrence: They face the sea, Sherif Ali, and cannot be turned round. From the landward side, there are no guns at Aqaba.

Ali: With good reason. It cannot be approached from the landward side.

Lawrence: Certainly the Turks don't dream of it. [He points in the direction of Aqaba] Aqaba is over there. It's only a matter of going.

Ali: You are mad.

Ali: From here until the other side, no water but what we carry. For the camels, no water at all. If the camels die, we die. And in twenty days they will start to die.

Lawrence: There's no time to waste then, is there?

Ali: [about Gasim's riderless camel] In God's name understand, we cannot go back.

Lawrence: I can...

Ali: If you go back, you'll kill us all. Gasim you have killed already.

Lawrence: Get out of my way.

Arab: Gasim's time is come, Lawrence. It is written!

Lawrence: Nothing is written.

Ali: Go back, then. What did you bring us here for with your blasphemous conceit? Eh, English blasphemer? Aqaba? What is Aqaba? You will not be at Aqaba, English. Go back, blasphemer! But you will not be at Aqaba!

Lawrence: I shall be at Aqaba. That is written [He points at his head] ...in here!

Ali: English! English!

...

Lawrence: [after rescuing Gasim] Nothing is written.

Ali: El Aurens. Truly for some men, nothing is written unless they write it.

Lawrence: Not El Aurens. Just Lawrence.

Ali: El Aurens is better.

Lawrence: True.

Ali: Your father, too; just Mr. Lawrence?

Lawrence: My father was Sir Thomas Chapman.

Ali: Is that a lord?

Lawrence: A kind of lord.

Ali: So when he dies, you too will be a lord.

Lawrence: No.

Ali: Ah, you have an elder brother.

Lawrence: No.

Ali: But I do not understand. Your father's name is Chapman--

Lawrence: Ali, he didn't marry my mother.

Ali: I see.

Lawrence: I'm sorry.

Ali: It seems to me that you are free to choose your own name then.

Lawrence: Yes. I suppose I am.

Ali: El Aurens is best.

Lawrence: All right. I'll settle for El Aurens.

Lawrence: Auda! We are 50. You are 2. How if we shot you down?

Auda: Why then you have a blood feud with the Howeitat. You desire it?

Lawrence: Not the generals in Cairo nor the Sultan himself desire that. Call off your men.

Auda: Go now, boy. This honors the unworthy. I've only just begun to teach him.

Lawrence: And what are you teaching him today? Howeitat hospitality?

Auda: Be not clever with me, English! [To Sherif Ali] Who is he?

Lawrence: A friend of Prince Feisal's.

Auda: Oh. So you desire my hospitality.

Lawrence: Yes.

Auda: [Pointing at Lawrence but speaking to Ali] Is this your tongue?

Lawrence: We do not work this thing for Feisal.

Auda: No! For the English then?

Lawrence: For the Arabs.

Auda: The Arabs?...What tribe is that?

Lawrence: They are a tribe of slaves. They serve the Turks.

Auda: Well, they are nothing to me. My tribe is the Howeitat.

Sherif: Work only for profit.

Auda: Work at Auda's pleasure.

Lawrence: And Auda's pleasure is to serve the Turks.

Auda: Serve! I serve?

Lawrence: It is the servant who takes money.

Auda: I am Auda Abu Tayi. [Asking his men] Does Auda Abu Tayi serve?

All: No!..

Auda: I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemy's tents. I take away the flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden treasure yet I am poor, because I am a river to my people. [His men cheer] Is that service?

Lawrence: No.

Auda: The Turks pay me 100 golden guineas each month as service.

Lawrence: A 100, a 150, what matters? It's a trifle. A trifle which they take from a great box they have.

Ali: In Aqaba.

Auda: In Aqaba?

Lawrence: Where else?

Auda: You trouble me like women.

Lawrence: [Laughing] Friends, we have been foolish. Auda will not come to Aqaba.

Auda: No.

Lawrence: For money...

Auda: No.

Lawrence: For Feisal...

Auda: No.

Lawrence: Nor to drive away the Turks...He will come, because it is his pleasure.

Auda: Your mother mated with a scorpion.

[Lawrence has executed a Gasim, for murder]

Auda: What ails the Englishman?

Ali: That that he killed was the man he brought out of the Nefud.

Auda: Ah, it was written then. Better to have left him.

Ali: [to Lawrence] It was execution, Lawrence. No shame in that. Besides, it was necessary. You gave life and you took it. The writing is still yours.

Ali: The miracle is accomplished. Garlands for the conqueror. Tribute for the prince. Flowers for the man.

Lawrence: I'm none of those things, Ali.

Ali: What then?

Lawrence: Don't know. Thanks. My God, I love this country.

Lawrence: I'm going to tell the generals - in Cairo. Yes, cross Sinai. Come on.

Ali: Sinai?

Lawrence: Yes.

Ali: [gesturing to his two servant boys] With these?

Lawrence: They will be all right with me. Look Ali, if any of your Bedouin arrived in Cairo and said, 'We've taken Aqaba,' the generals would laugh.

Ali: I see. In Cairo, you will put off these funny clothes. You will wear trousers and tell stories of our quaintness and barbarity. And then they will believe you.

Lawrence: You're an ignorant man.

Lawrence: Did Auda come to Aqaba for gold?

Auda: For my pleasure as you said. But gold is honorable. And Aurens promised gold. Aurens lied.

Lawrence: See, Auda. [reading as he writes] The Crown of England promises to pay 5,000 golden guineas to Auda Abu Tayi. Signed in his Majesty's absence by me. [hands the voucher to Auda] In ten days, I'll be back with the gold - with gold, with guns, with everything.

Auda: In ten days. You will cross Sinai?

Lawrence: Why not? Moses did.

Auda: And you will take the children?

Lawrence: Moses did.

Auda: Moses was a prophet and beloved of God... [To Ali] He said there was gold here. He lied. He is not perfect.

Lawrence: We've taken Aqaba.

Brighton: Taken Aqaba? Who has?

Lawrence: We have. Our side in this war has. The wogs have. We have...

Brighton: You mean the Turks have gone?

Lawrence: No, they're still there but they've no boots. Prisoners, sir. We took them prisoners, the entire garrison. No that's not true. We killed some, too many really. I'll manage it better next time. There's been a lot of killing, one way or another. Cross my heart and hope to die, it's all perfectly true.

Brighton: It isn't possible.

Lawrence: Yes it is. I did it.

Allenby: Undisciplined, unpunctual, untidy. Several languages. Knowledge of Music, Literature, knowledge of, knowledge of ...You're an interesting man. There's no doubt about it. Who told you to take Aqaba?

Lawrence: Nobody.

Allenby: Sir.

Lawrence: Sir.

Allenby: Then why did you?

Lawrence: Aqaba's important.

Allenby: Why is it important?

Lawrence: It's the Turkish route to the canal.

Allenby: Not any more. They're coming through Beersheba.

Lawrence: I know. But we've gone forward to Gaza.

Allenby: So?

Lawrence: So that left Aqaba behind your right.

Allenby: True.

Lawrence: And it will be further behind your right when you go for Jerusalem.

Allenby: Am I going for Jerusalem?

Lawrence: Yes.

Allenby: I want you to go back and carry on the good work.

Lawrence: No thank you, sir.

Allenby: Why not?

Lawrence: Well, I, it's, uh, let me see, I killed two people, I mean two Arabs. One was a boy. That was yesterday. I led him into a quicksand. The other was a man. That was before Aqaba anyway. I had to execute him with my pistol. There was something about it I didn't like.

Allenby: Well, naturally.

Lawrence: No, something else.

Allenby: I see. Well that's all right. Let it be a warning.

Lawrence: No, something else.

Allenby: What then?

Lawrence: I enjoyed it.

Allenby: Rubbish...What do you mean by coming here dressed like that? Amateur theatricals?

Lawrence: Oh yes, entirely.

Allenby: Let me see that, uh, that hat thing or whatever it is. Fascinating gear that they wear. How do you think I would look in this, Harry?

Brighton: Downright ridiculous, sir.

Allenby: [to Lawrence] Here, you keep it.

Lawrence: What I'm trying to say is I don't think I'm fit for it.

Allenby: Really! What do you think, Dryden?

Dryden: Before he did it, sir, I'd have said it couldn't be done.

Allenby: Brighton?

Lawrence: I know what he thinks.

Brighton: I think you should recommend a decoration, sir. I don't think it matters what his motives were. It was a brilliant bit of soldiering.

Lawrence: A thousand Arabs means a thousand knives, delivered anywhere day or night. It means a thousand camels. That means a thousand packs of high explosives and a thousand crack rifles. We can cross Arabia while jolly Turkey is still turning round, and smash his railways. And while he's mending them, I'll smash them somewhere else. In thirteen weeks, I can have Arabia in chaos.

Allenby: You are going back then?

Lawrence: [smiling] Yes. Of course I'm going back.

Lawrence: Arabia is for the Arabs now. That's what I've told them anyway. That's what they think. That's why they're fighting.

Allenby: Oh surely.

Lawrence: They've only one suspicion. We let them drive the Turks out and then move in ourselves. I've told them that that's false, that we've no ambitions in Arabia. Have we?

Allenby: I'm not a politician, thank God. Have we any ambition in Arabia, Dryden?

Dryden: Difficult question sir.

Lawrence: I want to know sir, if I can tell them, in your name, that we've no ambitions in Arabia.

Allenby: Certainly.

Lawrence: Two thousand small arms, not enough. I need five.

Allenby: Right.

Lawrence: Money. It'll have to be sovereigns. They don't like paper.

Allenby: Right.

Lawrence: Instructors for the Lewis guns.

Allenby: Right.

Lawrence: More money.

Allenby: How much more?

Lawrence: Twenty-five thousand now. A lot more later.

Allenby: Dryden?

Dryden: It can be done, sir.

Lawrence: A couple of armored cars.

Allenby: Right.

Lawrence: Field artillery.

Allenby: Right. I know to give you every blessed thing I can, Major Lawrence, because I know you'll use it. Congratulations and thank you.

Dryden: You give them artillery and you've made them independent.

Allenby: Then I can't give them artillery, can I?

Dryden: For you to say, sir.

Allenby: No, it's not. I've got orders to obey, thank God. Not like that poor devil. He's riding the whirlwind.

Dryden: Let's hope we're not.

Bentley: Watch out for Allenby. He's a slim customer.

Feisal: Excuse me?

Bentley: A clever man.

Feisal: 'Slim customer.' It's very good. I will certainly watch out for him. You are being very sympathetic, Mr. Bentley.

Bentley: Your Highness. We Americans were once a colonial people, and we naturally feel sympathetic to any people anywhere who are struggling for their freedom.

Feisal: Very gratifying.

Bentley: Also, my interests are the same as yours. You want your story told. I badly want a story to tell.

Bentley: Major Lawrence is in charge of all this, is he?

Feisal: My army is made up of tribes. The tribes are led by the tribal leaders.

Bentley: Well, your people do think very highly of Major Lawrence though?

Feisal: Oh yes...In this country, the man who gives victory in battle is prized beyond every other man. One figure I can give you from my head because it never leaves my head. Since starting this campaign four months ago, we have lost 37 wounded, 156 dead. Do you remark at this proportion between our dead and wounded?

Bentley: Yeah. Four times as many.

Feisal: That's because those too badly wounded to bring away we ourselves kill. We leave no wounded for the Turks.

Bentley: You mean...

Feisal: I mean we leave no wounded for the Turks. In their eyes, we are not soldiers, but rebels. And rebels wounded or whole, are not protected by the Geneva Code and are treated harshly.

Bentley: How harshly?

Feisal: More harshly than I hope you can imagine.

Bentley: I see.

Feisal: Our own prisoners, Mr. Bentley, are taken care of, 'til the British can relieve us of them, according to the Code. I should like you to notice that.

Bentley: Yes, sir. Is that the influence of Major Lawrence?

Feisal: Why should you suppose so?

Bentley: Well, it's just that I heard in Cairo that Major Lawrence has a horror of bloodshed.

Feisal: That is exactly so. With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.

Bentley: It's very simple sir. I'm looking for a hero...certain influential men back home believe that the time has come for America to lend her weight to the patriotic struggle against Germany, uh and Turkey. Now I've been sent to find material which will show our people that this war is, uh...

Feisal: Enjoyable?

Bentley: Oh hardly that, sir. But to show them its more adventurous aspects.

Feisal: And you are looking for a figure who will draw your country towards war.

Bentley: All right. Yes.

Feisal: Lawrence is your man.

Bentley: Never seen a man killed with a sword before.

Lawrence: Why don't you take a picture?

Bentley: Wish I had.

Auda: How is it with thee, Lawrence? Ho! [Seizing Bentley's camera] Am I in this?

Bentley: Huh?

Lawrence: Did you take his picture?

Bentley: Yeah. [Auda smashes the camera to pieces]

Auda: [to Lawrence] You are using up your nine lives very quickly.

Bentley: Charming company you keep.

Lawrence: Auda? He's a bit old-fashioned. He thinks these things will steal his virtue. He thinks you're a kind of thief.

Bentley: What, in your opinion, do these people hope to gain from this war?

Lawrence: They hope to gain their freedom. Freedom.

Bentley: They hope to gain their freedom. There's one born every minute.

Lawrence: They're gonna get it, Mr. Bentley. I'm going to give it to them. Second question?

Bentley: Oh! Well, I was gonna ask, um, what is it Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert?

Lawrence: It's clean.

Bentley: Well now, that's a very illuminating answer.

Auda: When Aurens has got what he wants, he will go home. When you have got what you want, you will go home.

Brighton: Oh no I shan't, Auda.

Auda: Then you are a fool.

Brighton: Maybe. I am not a deserter.

Auda: Give thanks to God, Brighton, that when he made you a fool, he gave you a fool's face.

Brighton: You are an impudent rascal.

Auda: [to Lawrence] I must go Aurens, before I soil myself with a fool's blood.

Brighton: Talking to a brick wall. [To Lawrence] So, what will you do now? What can you do?

Lawrence: I'll go north. That's what Allenby wants.

Brighton: Allenby wanted the Arab army behind Deraa.

Lawrence: Tell Allenby to hurry up. Or we'll be in Deraa before he's in Jerusalem.

Brighton: Well, he hasn't one-tenth so many men, sir.

Allenby: He's lied, in fact.

Brighton:Yes and no. He doesn't claim to have done anything he hasn't done.

Allenby: So there is an Arab North Army.

Brighton: Well, no, sir, he has lied about that.

Allenby: Any idea why?

Brighton: It's his army, I suppose.

Allenby: It's Prince Feisal's army. Do you think he's gone native, Harry?

Brighton: No. [pause] He would if he could, I think. Not my line of country, this, sir.

Allenby: Oh, it doesn't matter, I was just curious. What matters is I believed it. The Turks believe it. They're offering twenty thousand pounds for him.

Brighton: Good heavens.

Allenby: I shouldn't say he's long to live, would you?

Brighton: Well, whatever else, sir, he's a brave man--

Allenby: Oh, surely, surely. If he's going north with twenty men, he doesn't lack guts. I wonder if they'd offer that much for me. What about next year? Will they still come back?

Brighton: I wouldn't be surprised. They think he's [Lawrence] a kind of prophet.

Allenby: They do or he does?

Ali: Aurens, one more failure, and you will find yourself alone. I do not include myself.

Lawrence: I do not include the others.

Ali: So say they love you. The more reason to be thrifty with them. Give them something to do that can be done. But you? No! No! They must move mountains for you. They must walk on water.

Lawrence: That's right! That's right! Who are you to know what can be done? If we'd done what you thought could be done, we'd be back at Yembo now and nowhere. Whatever I ask them to do can be done. That's all. They know that if you don't. Do you think I'm just anybody Ali? Do you? [To the men] My friends, who will walk on water with me? Who will come with me into Deraa?

One of the men: Deraa is garrisoned. Will you take twenty against two thousand?

Lawrence: I'll go by myself if I have to...Because I told the English generals, the Arab Revolt will be in Deraa when they would be in Jerusalem.

One of the men: Or perhaps you are here for the English generals?

Lawrence: Who says this?

Ali: Rumor.

[Lawrence spits in disgust to the ground]

One of the men: That is not an argument.

Lawrence: Oh, an argument. This afternoon, I will take the Arab Revolt into Deraa while the Arabs argue.

One of the men: Aurens? Can you pass for an Arab in an Arab town?

Lawrence: Yes, if one of you would lend me some dirty clothes.

Ali: This is madness! What are you looking for?

Lawrence: Some way to announce myself.

Ali: Be patient with him, God. Do you not see how they look at you? Come!

Lawrence: Please, Ali. I am invisible.

Lawrence: I'm going, Ali.

Ali: Why?

Lawrence: Why? Heavens.

Ali: Why?

Lawrence: I've come to the end of myself, I suppose.

Ali: And the end of the Arab Revolt?

Lawrence: I'm not the Arab Revolt, Ali. I'm not even Arab.

Ali: A man can be whatever he wants, you said.

Lawrence: I'm sorry. I thought it was true.

Ali: You proved it.

Lawrence: Look, Ali, look. [He pinches the white, fair skin of his chest] That's me. What color is it? That's me, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Ali: A man can do whatever he wants, you said.

Lawrence: He can, but he can't want what he wants. This is the stuff that decides what he wants. You may as well know. I would have told them anything. I would have told them who I am, I would have told them where you were. I tried to.

Ali: So would any man.

Lawrence: Well, 'any man' is what I am. I'm going back to Allenby to ask him for a job that 'any man' can do.

Ali: Allenby's in Jerusalem.

Lawrence: I'll make easy stages.

Ali: You?

Lawrence: Oh yes. Easy stages. Look Ali, I think I see a way of being just ordinarily happy...

Ali: And these? [gesturing to the men] Having led them here, have you no care for them?

Lawrence: You lead them. They're yours. Trust your own people, and let me go back to mine.

Dryden: Mr. Sykes and Mr. Picot met, and they agreed that after the war, France and England would share the Turkish Empire, including Arabia. They signed an agreement, not a treaty sir. An agreement to that effect.

Lawrence:There may be honour among thieves, but there is none in politicians.

Dryden: Let's have no displays of indignation. When we told lies you told half-lies. And a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.

Lawrence: The truth is, I'm an ordinary man. You might have told me that, Dryden. [To Allenby] And I want an ordinary job, sir. That's my reason for resigning. It's personal.

Allenby: Personal?

Lawrence: Yes sir.

Allenby: Personal? You're a serving officer in the field. And as it happens, a damned important one. Personal? Are you mad?

Lawrence: No. And if you don't mind, I'd rather not go mad. That's my reason too.

Allenby: Look, Lawrence, I'm making my big push on Damascus the 16th of next month and you are part of it. Can you understand that? You're an important part of the big push!

Lawrence: [pounding on the table] I don't want to be part of your big push!

Allenby: What about your Arab friends? What about them?

Lawrence: I have no Arab friends. I don't want Arab friends.

Allenby: What in hell do you want, Lawrence?

Lawrence: I told you. I just want my ration of common humanity.

Allenby: I believe your name will be a household word when you have to go to the War Museum to find who Allenby was. You're the most extraordinary man I ever met.

Lawrence: Leave me alone...Leave me alone.

Allenby: Well, that's a feeble thing to say.

Lawrence: I know. I'm not ordinary.

Allenby: That's not what I'm saying.

Lawrence: All right. I'm extraordinary. What of it?

Allenby: Not many people have a destiny, Lawrence. It's a terrible thing for a man to flunk it if he has.

Lawrence: Are you speaking from experience?

Allenby: No.

Lawrence: You're guessing then. Suppose you're wrong.

Allenby: Why suppose that? We both know I'm right.

Lawrence: Yes...

Allenby: After all...

Lawrence: I said 'Yes.' The 16th?

Allenby: Can you do it? I'll give you a lot of money.

Lawrence: Artillery?

Allenby: I can't.

Lawrence: They won't be coming for money. Not the best of them. They'll be coming for Damascus, which I'm going to give them.

Allenby: That's all I want.

Lawrence: All you want is someone holding down the Turkish right. But I'm going to give them Damascus. We'll get there before you do. And when we've got it, we'll keep it. You can tell the politicians to burn their bit of paper now.

Allenby: Fair enough.

Lawrence: Fair? What's fair got to do with it? It's going to happen. I shall want quite a lot of money.

Allenby: All there is.

Lawrence: Not that much. The best of them won't come for money. They'll come for me!

Ali: [after the massacre at Tafas] Does it surprise you, Mr. Bentley? Surely, you know the Arabs are a barbarous people. Barbarous and cruel. Who but they? Who but they?

Bentley: [to Lawrence] Oh, you rotten man. Here, let me take your rotten, bloody picture, for the rotten bloody newspapers.

Brighton: [as Damascus falls and burns] Look, sir, we can't just do nothing.

Allenby: Why not? It's usually best.

Auda: What is it? Is it this? I tell you, this is nothing. Is it the blood? The desert has dried up more blood than you could think of.

Lawrence: I pray that I may never see the desert again. Hear me God.

Auda: You will come. There is only the desert for you.

Ali: I had no thought of it when I met you. You tried very hard to give us Damascus.

Lawrence: It's what I came for. And then - it would be something.

Ali: Yes. Much.

[Ali leaves the room and is confronted by Auda]

Auda: He is your friend.

Ali: Get your hand away from me.

Auda: You love him.

Ali: No, I fear him.

Auda: Why do you weep?

Ali: If I fear him and love him, how must he fear himself who hates himself? [Ali draws his dagger] Take your hand away, Howeitat!

Auda: Oh, so you are not yet entirely politician.

Ali: Not yet.

Auda: Well, these are new tricks and I am an old dog. An Arab, be thanked. I'll tell thee what though. Being an Arab will be thornier than you suppose, Harith!

Feisal: [about Lawrence] He longs for the greenness of his native land. He pines for the Gothic cottages of the Surrey, is it not? Already, in his imagination, he catches trouts and all the activities of the English gentleman.

Allenby: That's me you're describing sir, not Colonel Lawrence. [To Lawrence] You're promoted, Colonel.

Lawrence: Yes. What for?

Feisal: Take the honor, Colonel. Be a little kind.

Allenby: As a Colonel, you'll have a cabin to yourself on the boat home.

Lawrence: Then, thank you.

Allenby: Well then, Godspeed.

Feisal: There's nothing further here, for a warrior. We drive bargains, old men's work. Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men - courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men - mistrust and caution. It must be so. [Lawrence leaves the room] What I owe you is beyond evaluation.

Feisal: The world is delighted at the picture of Damascus liberated by the Arab army.

Allenby: Led, may I remind you, sir, by a British-serving officer.

Feisal: Ah yes. But then Aurens is a sword with two edges. We are equally glad to be rid of him, are we not?

Allenby: I thought I was a hard man, sir.

Feisal: You are merely a general. I must be a king...

Allenby: Well...

Dryden: Well, it seems we're to have a British Water Works with an Arab flag on it. Do you think it was worth it?

Allenby: Not my business. Thank god I'm a soldier.

Dryden: Yes, sir. So you keep saying.

Feisal: [to Dryden] You, I suspect, are chief architect of this compromise...