18 quotes
The Nile's Bloodstained Legacy of Khartoum
Taglines
They say the Nile still runs red from the Battle of Khartoum!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A World Without Gordons Returns to Sands
Narrator
...but there is this: A world with no room for the Gordons, is a world that will return to the sands.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Demand for Accountability and Compliance
Muhammad Ahmed
Take it away! Where is Abdullah? I forbade it, I forbade it!
[in horror at seeing Gordon's decapitated head on the end of a pole]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Personal Convictions in a Complex Mission
Col. J.D.H. Stewart
Why did you let them talk you into this mission?
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
As is well known, I, ah..regard myself as a religious man, yet I belong to no church. I'm an able soldier, yet I abhor armies. I can even add that I've been introduced to hundreds of women, but never married. in other words, no one's ever talked me into anything.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Adventure Begins at the Nile's Divide
Taglines
Khartoum -- where the Nile divides, the great Cinerama adventure begins!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Conflict of Faith and Legacy
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
If you, as a servant of your god, must use one hundred thousand warriors to destroy me, a solitary servant of my God, then you whisper to me Muhammed Ahmed: who will be remembered from Khartoum, your god or mine?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Illusion of Hope in Despair
Muhammad Ahmed
It is sometimes wise, Gordon Pasha, to provide the man with a few sunny hours of fraudulent hope so that when night comes he will have a more perfect inward vision of the truth of his hopelessness.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Responsibility and Perception of Duty
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
And when the Mahdi floats me down the Nile, the government will assume a pained expression and will say to her majesty and the churchmen and the anti-slavery people well, we sent Gordon; we did the best we could'.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Final Weapon of Every Man
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
Every man has a final weapon: his own life. If he's afraid to lose it, he throws the weapon away.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Aide's Loyalty in Uncertain Circumstances
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
Colonel, what are the chances of my sacking you as my aide?
Col. J.D.H. Stewart
If any exist, General, please be assured that I'd be the first to point them out to you.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Clash of Convictions in Khartoum Siege
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
The Mahdi plans to lay siege to Khartoum. Take it by force. To slaughter all the Egyptians - and those Sudanese who haven't accepted him.
Col. J.D.H. Stewart
But... there are 35,000 people in Khartoum.
[incredulous]
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
Those are his purposes. And I believe him. The man is sincere. He believes utterly in the Divine necessity for what he's doing. How could I have been such a stumbling fool! I'm a man who will question anything, except my own religious convictions. The Mahdi's no different. There's vanity for you! I seem to have suffered from the illusion that I have a monopoly on God.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Reflection on the End of a Journey
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
So we ride beneath no more desert stars, then. Ah, all things must end.
[patting his camel in goodbye]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Courage in Life and Fear of Failure
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
If my life has a single point, it's this: I've learned to be unafraid of death but never to be unafraid of failure.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Call for Peace in Khartoum
Muhammad Ahmed
I should prefer, Gordon Pasha, that you leave Khartoum now. You are not my enemy. Why should your blood sweeten the Nile?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Questioning Identity and Allegiance
Muhammad Ahmed
Is it the Englishman whose name was Frank Power? Is it the Frenchman whose name was Herbin? Is it not your own ring?
[removes a head from a large pot; removes another head from a second pot; places a severed arm and hand in Gordon's hands; Gordon stares horrified]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Complex Reflection on Divine Responsibility
William Ewart Gladstone
God go with you. And I don't envy God.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Clash of Grief and Responsibility
Zobeir Pasha
The General will defend me. The great Christian hero will defend Zobeir the slaver. Before I receive my country from your bloody hands, I shall see it die. You killed my son!
[disbelieving; angry]
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
I executed him.
Zobeir Pasha
Do you have sons, Gordon Pasha? Do you have sons? No! You killed mine!
Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon
God forgive me, Zobeir, but let the dead bury their dead.
Zobeir Pasha
You killed my flesh, my blood, my Suleiman! Get thee from my house and may ye die in the desert untended! May vultures consume thy flesh, sands thy blood!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Distrust in Divine Consultation
William Ewart Gladstone
I don't trust any man who consults God before he consults me.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.