General Murray Quotes in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

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

T.E. Lawrence: I have the same problem, sir.

T.E. Lawrence: It's my manner, sir.

General Murray: Your manner?

T.E. Lawrence: Yes. It looks insubordinate, but it isn't really.

General Murray: Shut up... and get out!

General Murray: [on the Arab Revolt] It's a storm in a tea cup, Mr. Dryden - a sideshow. If you want my own opinion, this whole theater of operations is a sideshow! The real war's not being fought against the Turks, but the Germans. And not here, but on the Western front in the trenches! Your Bedouin Army - or whatever it calls itself - would be a sideshow OF a sideshow!

Mr. Dryden: Big things have small beginnings, sir.

General Murray: Does the Arab Bureau want a "big thing" in Arabia? If we get them to rise against the Turks, does the Bureau think they'll sit down quietly under us when this war's over?

Mr. Dryden: The Arab Bureau thinks the job of the moment, sir, is to win the war.

General Murray: Don't tell me my duty, Mr. Dryden!

General Murray: I may as well tell you, it's my considered opinion and that of my staff that any time spent on the Bedouin will be time wasted.They're a nation of sheep-stealers.

Mr. Dryden: They did attack Medina.

General Murray: And the Turks made mincemeat of them.

Mr. Dryden: We don't know that.

General Murray: We know that they didn't take it. A storm in a teacup, a sideshow. If you want my own opinion, this whole theatre of operations is a sideshow. The real war's being fought against Germans, not Turks. And not here, but on the Western front in the trenches. Your Bedouin Army, or whatever it calls itself would be a sideshow of a sideshow.

Mr. Dryden: Big things have small beginnings, sir.

General Murray: Does the Arab Bureau want a "big thing" in Arabia? If we get them to rise against the Turks, does the Bureau think they'll sit down quietly under us when this war's over?

Mr. Dryden: The Arab Bureau thinks the job of the moment, sir, is to win the war.

General Murray: Don't tell me my duty, Mr. Dryden!