Henri Ducard Quotes in Batman Begins (2005)

Henri Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just... poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.

Bruce Wayne: You're vigilantes.

Henri Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.

Bruce Wayne: Which is?

Henri Ducard: Legend, Mr. Wayne.

Henri Ducard: But a criminal is not complicated. What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.

Henri Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.

Bruce Wayne: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.

[from trailer]

Henri Ducard: You traveled the world... Now you must journey inwards... to what you really fear... it's inside you... there is no turning back. Your parents' death was not your fault. Your training is nothing. The will is everything. If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely. Are you ready to begin?

Henri Ducard: You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.

Henri Ducard: Your parents' death was not your fault.

[Bruce attacks Ducard with his sword]

Henri Ducard: It was your father's.

[Bruce furiously attacks Ducard, but is easily defeated]

Henri Ducard: Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.

Bruce Wayne: The man had a gun!

Henri Ducard: Would that stop you?

Bruce Wayne: I've had training!

Henri Ducard: The training is nothing! The will is everything!

[Ducard bests Bruce once again]

Henri Ducard: The will to act.

Henri Ducard: Are you ready to begin?

Bruce Wayne: I-I can barely stand...

Henri Ducard: [kicks him] Death does not wait for you to be ready! Death is not considerate, or fair! And make no mistake: here, you face Death.

Henri Ducard: When you lived among the criminals, did you start to pity them?

Bruce Wayne: The first time I stole so that I wouldn't starve, yes. I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong. And when I traveled, I learned the fear before a crime and the thrill of success. But I never became one of them.

[meeting someone introduced as Ra's al Ghul]

Bruce Wayne: You're not Ra's al Ghul. I watched him die.

Henri Ducard: [from behind Bruce Wayne] But is Ra's al Ghul immortal?

[Bruce turns around to face Ducard]

Henri Ducard: Are his methods supernatural?

Bruce Wayne: [to Ducard] Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity, "Ra's"?

Henri Ducard: Surely, a man who spends his nights scrambling over the rooftops of Gotham wouldn't begrudge me dual identities?

Bruce Wayne: I saved your life.

Henri Ducard: I warned you about compassion, Bruce.

Henri Ducard: Always mind your surroundings.

Henri Ducard: You have learned to bury your guilt with anger. I will teach you to confront it, and to face the truth. You know how to fight six men. We can teach you how to engage six hundred. You know how to disappear. We can teach you to become truly invisible.

Bruce Wayne: Invisible?

Henri Ducard: [Ducard shouts in a different language and 2 people dressed in black flip down from the ceiling] A Ninja understands that invisibility is a matter of patience... and agility.

[Bruce Wayne begins to burn down Ra's Al Ghul's temple]

Henri Ducard: What are you doing?

Bruce Wayne: What is necessary, my friend.

Bruce Wayne: Yield.

Henri Ducard: You haven't beaten me. You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke.

[he taps the ice with his sword, plunging Bruce into the water]

Soldier: Get in!

Henri Ducard: Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?

Bruce Wayne: Actually, there were uh, seven of them.

Henri Ducard: I counted six, Mr. Wayne.

Bruce Wayne: How do you know my name?

Henri Ducard: The world is too small for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear, no matter how deep he chooses to sink.

Bruce Wayne: Who are you?

Henri Ducard: My name is merely Ducard, but I speak for Ra's al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld. A man who could offer you a path.

Henri Ducard: [to Bruce] Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding.

Bruce Wayne: Who is he?

[implying the man imprisoned in a wooden cage]

Henri Ducard: He was a farmer. Then he tried to take his neighbor's land and became a murderer. Now he is a prisoner.

Bruce Wayne: What'll happen to him?

Henri Ducard: Justice. Crime can not be tolerated. Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding.

Henri Ducard: Theatricality and deception are powerful agents.

Henri Ducard: You are stronger than your father.

Bruce Wayne: You didn't know my father.

Henri Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you.

Henri Ducard: And do you still feel responsible for your parents' death?

Bruce Wayne: My anger outweighs my guilt.

Henri Ducard: Come.

Bruce Wayne: I will go back to Gotham and I will fight men like this, but I will not become an executioner.

Henri Ducard: Bruce, please! For your own sake. There is no turning back.

Henri Ducard: Men fear most what they cannot see.

Henri Ducard: Your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you. As it almost did me.

Bruce Wayne: What stopped it?

Henri Ducard: Vengeance.

Henri Ducard: You've traveled the world to understand the criminal mind and conquer your fears.

Bruce Wayne: I thought the point of solitary confinement was the solitary part.

Henri Ducard: These men have mistaken you for a criminal, Mr. Wayne...