"[propping up dead bodies] Everybody does his duty - and soon enough. Dead or alive. We'll make those Arabs think we got a thousand men. The rest of the bullets you stop won't hurt as much as that first one."

"[as the Arabs flee] Look at them. They come when I want them, and they go when I don't need them anymore. They're beaten, but they've put down a mutiny for me. They've given me the Legion of Honor, and they've made me an officer!"

"Beau Geste? Gallant gesture. We didn't name him wrongly, did we?"

"Discipline makes the strength of armies. It is necessary that superiors obtain from their subordinates immediate obedience without murmuring. Discipline will be firm but it will also be fatherly. Officers must use psychology when dealing with men. Any questions about the regulations? I am Sgt. Markoff. I make soldiers out of scum like you, and I don't do it gently. You're the sloppiest looking lot I've ever seen. It's up to me to prevent you from becoming a disgrace to the regiment. And I will prevent that if I have to kill half of you with work. But the half that lives will be soldiers - I promise you."

"The punishment for desertion is death by the firing squad. But I'm going to be merciful. You can escape again...I insist that you escape!...[To the scouts] Drive them out where you found them. And keep them away from the oasis. [Turning back with a scowl toward the legionnaires] Any more of you want to desert? If you do, you can go now. I won't stop you. Later, you may wish you'd taken my offer, I promise you."

"The attempt at mutiny is over, my children. You bungled it so much it wasn't really a mutiny. But you'll be punished as though it were. And now, you scum! It's my turn. I'm going to give you a lesson in putting down an attempted mutiny that'll be the last thing you'll ever see. Maybe this will make you die happy. Markoff thanks you. When he's an officer and has the Legion of Honor, he'll think often of the stupid, blundering pigs that put him where he is."

"[in a letter] Dear Dig: The Blue Water and my blue eyes go so well together that I couldn't resist taking it. I have no intention of sharing the loot, so don't follow me. Beau."

"Keep shooting, you scum! You'll get a chance yet to die with your boots on!"

"[about the Blue Water gem] It looks like a piece of sky that has become solid, with sunlight imprisoned in it. Cold sunlight, cold as the unhappiness it has brought so many people."

"Kevin Dunn - ANX Editor"

"Tom Cruise - Senator Jasper Irving (R-IL)"

"Michael Peña - Ernest Rodriguez"

"Andrew Garfield - Todd Hayes"

"Meryl Streep - Janine Roth"

"If you don't STAND for something, you might FALL for anything"

"What do you stand for? What do you fight for? What do you live for?"

"Derek Luke - Arian Finch"

"Robert Redford - Professor Stephen Malley"

"You're good with words, Todd. But you know what would make them even better? If they had a heartbeat."

"We walk, and Afghanistan reverts back to the Taliban. Only now the Taliban has metastasized into something infinitely more vicious and potent because they're now 2-0 versus superpowers. They butcher the people who helped us, who voted and were stupid enough to put their faith in our word. So call it not only the end of hope for tens of millions of Afghans, but the end of American credibility, the end of America as a force for righteousness in the world. And when we're forced to go back in a couple years, and please quote me on this, we'll be squared off against a shattered Iraq, a hopeless Afghanistan, and a nuclear Iran. How many troops are we going to need then? I guarantee you'll be adding some zeros."

"In a sense we're both on the same team. We're teammates. We're both have a responsibility. You've already sold the war. Now I'm asking you to help me sell the solution."

"I'm still here, Todd, because I'm a selfish man. I'm selfish for the rare times when you know you have someone in your class that has rare gifts to go on and do big things on a big scale. I realized my gifts aren't my theories but my ability to recognize great potential in others and maybe give them a little shove when they need it."

"We're fighting a brand of evil that thinks the last 1,300 years of human progress is heresy punishable by violent death."

"Peter Berg - Lt. Col. Falco"

"Rome is burning, son. And the problem is not with the people that started this; they're past irredeemable. The problem is with us, all of us, who do nothing. Who just fiddle. Who try to maneuver around the edges of the flame. And I'll tell you something - there are people out there, day to day, who are fighting to make things better."