Quintus Arrius: [a galley's 200 rowers are gradually told to increase their pace] Battle speed!... Attack speed!... Ramming speed!

Quintus Arrius: [startled from sleep to find Ben-Hur standing over him] Why are you here?
Judah Ben-Hur: I was ordered to report to you during my relief.
Quintus Arrius: Yes, I had forgotten... You could have killed me as I lay there! You're a condemned man, why didn't you?
Judah Ben-Hur: I'm not ready to die.
Quintus Arrius: What do you think will save you?
Judah Ben-Hur: The God of my fathers.
Quintus Arrius: Your God has forsaken you. He has no more power than the images I pray to. My gods do not help me; your God will not help you.

Quintus Arrius: In his eagerness to save you, your god has also saved the Roman fleet.

Esther: Oh, Judah, rest. Sleep. For a few hours of the night, let your mind be at peace.
Judah Ben-Hur: [bitterly] Peace! Love and peace. Do you think I don't long for them as you do? Where do you see them?
Esther: If you had heard this man from Nazareth...
Judah Ben-Hur: Balthasar's word.
Esther: He is more than Balthasar's word. His voice traveled with such a still purpose... It was more than a voice... a man more than a man! He said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
Judah Ben-Hur: Children of God? In that dead valley where we left them? I tell you every man in Judea is unclean, and will *stay* unclean, until we've scoured off our bodies the crust and filth of being at the mercy of tyranny. No other life is possible except to wash this land clean!
Esther: In blood?
Judah Ben-Hur: Yes, in blood!
Esther: I know there is a law in life, that blood gets more blood as dog begets dog. Death generates death, as the vulture breeds the vulture! But the voice I heard today on the hill said, "Love your enemy. Do good to those who despitefully use you."
Judah Ben-Hur: So all who are born in this land hereafter can suffer as we have done!
Esther: As you make us do now! Are we to bear nothing together? Even love?
Judah Ben-Hur: I can hardly draw breath without feeling you in my heart. Yet I know that everything I do from this moment will be as great a pain to you as you have ever suffered. It is better not to love me!
Esther: It was Judah Ben-Hur I loved. What has become of him? You seem to be now the very thing you set out to destroy, giving evil for evil! Hatred is turning you to stone. It is as though you had become Messala!
[Judah looks back at Esther, in extreme shock]
Esther: [sadly] I've lost you, Judah.

Messala: [greedily] Drusus, as a boy I dreamed of commanding this garrison. And now the wheel has turned. I am in command.

Messala: By condemning without hesitation an old friend, I shall be feared.

Messala: By what magic do you bear the name of a Consul of Rome?
Judah Ben-Hur: You were the magician, Messala. When my ship was sunk, I saved the Consul's life.

Messala: Look to the West, Judah! Don't be a fool, look to Rome!
Judah Ben-Hur: I would rather be a fool than a traitor... or a killer!
Messala: I am a soldier!
Judah Ben-Hur: Yes! Who kills! For Rome! Rome is evil!
Messala: I warn you...
Judah Ben-Hur: No! I warn you! Rome is an affront to God! Rome is strangling my people and my country, the whole Earth! But not forever. I tell you the day Rome falls there will be a shout of freedom such as the world has never heard before!

Messala: Sextus, you ask how to fight an idea. Well I'll tell you how... with another idea!

Sheik Ilderim: [about his wives] I've got six... no, seven.
Balthasar: I have counted eight, and that is because he is traveling. At home, he has more.