Richard Harris credited as playing...
King Arthur
- King Arthur: [singing] Don't let it be forgot / That once there was a spot / For one brief shining moment / That was known as Camelot!
- King Arthur: I love them and they answer me with pain and torment. Be it sin or not sin, they have betrayed me in their hearts and that's far sin enough. I can see it in their eyes, I can feel it when they speak, and they must pay for it and be punished. I shall not be wounded and not return it in kind! I'm through with feeble hoping! I demand a man's vengeance!
- [Calming down]
- King Arthur: Proposition: I'm a king, not a man. And a very civilized king. Could it possibly be civilized to destroy the thing I love? Could it possibly be civilized to love myself above all? What about their pain? And their torment? Did they ask for this calamity? Can passion be selected? Is there any doubt of their devotion to me? To our table?
- King Arthur: All we've been through, for nothing but an idea! Something that you cannot taste, smell, or feel; without substance, life, reality, memory.
- King Arthur: We must arrange for your knighthood.
- Lancelot Du Lac: No, sire! Invest me because of deeds, not words! Give me an order!
- King Arthur: Now?
- Lancelot Du Lac: This moment! Is there some wrong I can right, some peril I can face, some quest I can undertake?
- King Arthur: Well... actually... there's not much going on today. The Queen and some of her court have gone a-maying.
- Lancelot Du Lac: Gone... a-maying?
- King Arthur: Well, it's a sort of... um... picnic? They pick flowers and chase young...
- Lancelot Du Lac: Picnic?
- King Arthur: It's a custom we have here. This is England, you know. And this is the season for gathering flowers.
- Lancelot Du Lac: Knights? Gathering FLOWERS?
- King Arthur: Well, SOMEONE has to do it!
- King Arthur: Proposition. It is far better to be alive than dead.
- Guinevere: Hmm. Far better.
- King Arthur: If that is so, then why do we have wars in which peopIe can get kiIIed?
- King Arthur: I can't quite remember all that Merlyn taught me, but I do remember this. That happiness is a virtue. No one can be happy and wicked. Triumphant, perhaps, but not happy.
- [last lines]
- King Pellinore: Arthur, who was that?
- King Arthur: One of what we aII are, PeIIi! Less than a drop in the great bIue motion of the sunIit sea. But it seems that some of the drops sparkIe, Pelli! Some of them *do* sparkIe! Run, boy! Run, boy! Run! Oh, run - my boy!
- King Arthur: [sardonically] Mordred, I must remind you that I am a civilized man. With occasional lapses.
- King Arthur: [to Mordred] Far more seasoned rascals than you have polished their souls, I advise you, get out the wax. Better to be rubbed clean than rubbed out.
- King Arthur: By God, I shall be a king! This is the time of King Arthur, when we shall - reach for the stars! This is the time of King Arthur when violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness. We are civilized!
- King Arthur: Wait, please. Don't run, I won't harm you.
- Guinevere: You Iie! You'II Ieap on me and throw me to the ground!
- King Arthur: I won't do any such thing.
- Guinevere: You'II sling me over your shoulder and carry me off!
- King Arthur: No, no, no, no. I swear by the sword ExcaIibur, I won't touch you.
- Guinevere: Why not? How dare you insuIt me in this fashion? Do my Iooks repeI you?
- King Arthur: Merlyn told me once, "Never be too disturbed if you don't understand what a woman is thinking. They don't do it very often." But what do you do whiIe they're doing it?
- Lancelot Du Lac: Ginny, I - I love you. God forgive me, but I do.
- Guinevere: Then God forgive us both, Lance.
- King Arthur: [King Arthur runs into the room] Ginny, Ginny! Oh, what a glorious day!
- Lancelot Du Lac: The next time you traffic with me, remember... you challenge the right hand of King Arthur!
- King Arthur: I *am* King Arthur!
- Lancelot Du Lac: What? You... are the king?
- King Arthur: Almost the *late* king...
- [first lines]
- A Knight: The rules of battle are not for Lancelot Du Lac, Your Majesty! Let us attack now while they sleep!
- King Arthur: [firmly] We will attack when I give the command - at dawn.
- [the knight leaves, and Arthur begins to talk to himself]
- King Arthur: Oh, Merlyn, Merlyn, why is Ginny in that castle, behind walls I cannot enter? How did I blunder into this agonizing absurdity? Where did I stumble? How did I go wrong? Should I not have loved her?
- [sighs]
- King Arthur: Then I should not have been born! Oh, Merlyn, I haven't got much time. Within an inch of sunlight, the arrows begin to fly. If I am to die in battle, please, please do not let me die bewildered!
- Merlyn: [voice only, far off in the distance] Think back, Arthur! Think back!
- King Arthur: Proposition. Right or wrong. They have the might. So, right or wrong. They're always right. That's wrong. Right?
- King Arthur: Proposition. If I could choose from every woman who breathes on this earth, the face I would most love, the smile, the touch, the heart, the voice, the laugh, the soul, itself, every detail and feature to the last strand of the hair, they would all be Ginny's.