Prince Feisal Quotes in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Prince Feisal: No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing.

Prince Feisal: Gasim's time has come, Lawrence. It is written.

T.E. Lawrence: Nothing is written.

Sherif Ali: You will not be at Aqaba, English! Go back, blasphemer... but you will not be at Aqaba!

T.E. Lawrence: I shall be at Aqaba. That, IS written.

[pointing to forehead]

T.E. Lawrence: In here.

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

Prince 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.

Prince Feisal: Which is why my father made this war upon the Turks. My father, Mr Lawrence, not the English. But my father is old and I... I long for the vanished gardens of Cordoba. However, before the gardens must come the fighting.

Prince Feisal: You, I suspect, are chief architect of this compromise. What do you think?

Mr. Dryden: Me, your Highness? On the whole, I wish I'd stayed in Tunbridge Wells.

Prince Feisal: My friend Lawrence, if I may call him that. "My friend Lawrence". How many men will claim the right to use that phrase? How proudly! He longs for the greenness of his native land. He pines for the Gothic cottages of Surrey, is it not? Already in imagination, he catches trout and engages in all the activities of the English gentleman.

General Allenby: That's me you're describing, sir, not Colonel Lawrence.

Prince Feisal: The English have a great hunger for desolate places. I fear they hunger for Arabia.

T.E. Lawrence: Then you must deny it to them.

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

T.E. Lawrence: To England and to other things.

Prince Feisal: To England and Arabia both? And is that possible? I think you are another of these desert-loving English.

Prince Feisal: Do you know General Allenby?

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

Prince Feisal: Excuse me?

Jackson Bentley: A clever man.

Prince Feisal: Slim customer. It's very good... I'll certainly watch out for him. you're being very sympathetic Mr. Bentley.

Prince Feisal: But you know, Lieutenant, in the Arab city of Cordoba were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village?

T.E. Lawrence: Yes, you were great.

Prince Feisal: Nine centuries ago.

T.E. Lawrence: Time to be great again, my lord.

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

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

Prince Feisal: Well, General, I will leave you. Major Lawrence doubtless has reports to make upon my people and their weakness, and the need to keep them weak in the British interest... and the French interest too, of course. We must not forget the French now...

General Allenby: [indignantly] I've told you, sir, no such treaty exists.

Prince Feisal: Yes, General, you have lied most bravely, but not convincingly. I know this treaty does exist.

T.E. Lawrence: Treaty, sir?

Prince Feisal: He does it better than you, General. But then, of course, he is almost an Arab.

Jackson Bentley: [on his interest in Lawrence and the Arab Revolt] I'm looking for a hero.

Prince Feisal: Indeed, you do not seem a romantic man.

Jackson Bentley: Oh, no! But certain influential men back home believe the time has come for America to lend her weight to the patriotic struggle against Germany... and Turkey. Now, I've been sent to find material that makes this war seem more...

Prince Feisal: Enjoyable?

Jackson Bentley: Oh, hardly THAT, sir. But to show it in its more... adventurous aspects.

Prince Feisal: You are looking for a figure that will draw your country towards war?

Jackson Bentley: All right, yes.

Prince Feisal: Lawrence is your man.

Prince 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.

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

T.E. Lawrence: To England, and to other things.

Prince Feisal: To be great again, it seems that we need the english... or...

T.E. Lawrence: Or?

Prince Feisal: What no man can provide, Mr. Lawrence. We need a miracle.

Prince Feisal: What I owe you is beyond evaluation.