Highlander Quotations

Highlander is a 1986 fantasy movie starring Christopher Lambert, who plays Connor MacLeod, the Highlander of the title. The original movie spawned three subsequent theatrical releases and a television series of relative success.

Highlander

Tagline: There can be only one.

Movie's catch phrase: a reference to the fact that in the end only one Immortal may survive The Game and gain The Prize.

Ramirez

From the dawn of time we came, moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the gathering, when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you.....until now.
When only a few of us are left, we will feel an irresistible pull towards a far away land, to fight for The Prize.
You cannot die MacLeod. Accept it!
Crude and slow clansman, your attack was no better than that of a clumsy child!
Don't lose your temper. If your head comes away from your neck, it's over.
[Explaining the rules of The Game] We must fight until only one remains. You are safe only on Holy Ground. None of us will violate that rule. It's tradition.

Connor MacLeod

[MacLeod's unanswered question to Ramirez, when he defeats him for the first time.] If it came down to us two, would you take my head?
I am Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal.

Dialogue

Garfield: You a faggot Nash?

Nash: Why Garfield, you cruising for a piece of ass?

Connor: Stop it, you pompous Haggis!

Ramirez: Haggis? What is haggis?

Connor: Sheep's stomach, stuffed with meat and barley.

Ramirez: And what do you do with it?

Connor: You eat it!

Ramirez: How revolting!!

Ramirez: Never overextend your thrust. You are vulnerable... and off balance!

[MacLeod stumbles to his knees while Ramirez places his blade on his neck. MacLeod's wife, Heather, laughs at the scene.]

MacLeod: Heather, Please!

Heather: My beautiful man...my husband.

MacLeod: I am that, my love.

Heather: I've never really known...

MacLeod: What?

Heather: Why you stayed.

MacLeod: Because I love you as much now as the first day we met

Heather: And I love you. I don't want to die. I want to stay with you...forever.

MacLeod: I want that, too.

Heather: Will you do something for me, Connor?

MacLeod: What, blossom?

Heather: In the years to come, will you light a candle and remember me on my birthday?

MacLeod: Aye, love. I will.

Heather: I wanted to have your children.

MacLeod: They would have been strong, and fine.

Heather: Don't see me, Connor. [Heather hides her face.] Let me die in peace...where are we?

MacLeod: We're in the Highlands. Where else? Darting down the mountainside, the sun is shining. It's not cold. You've got your sheepskins on, and the boots I made for you.

[We see Connor bury Heather later that day, and then leave Heather's grave-marker.]

MacLeod: Good night, my bonny Heather.

[The Kurgan enters a church MacLeod is praying at. As he enters he makes the sign of the cross and puts out prayer candles. He leans over a praying MacLeod.]

Kurgan: Kastagir is gone. Only you and I remain.

MacLeod: Nice to see you, Kurgan. Who cut your hair?

Kurgan: I am in disguise. This way, no one will recognize me.

MacLeod: I do. What do you want?

Kurgan: Your head... [MacLeod scoffs.] ...and the Prize.

[A group of nuns walk by.]

Kurgan: Happy Halloween, ladies! [He leans out of his seat and barks at the nuns. The nuns cross themselves, otherwise ignoring him.] Nuns...no sense of humor.

MacLeod: Ramírez's blade did not cut deeply enough. He was right about you. You are slime.

Kurgan: Ramírez was an effete snob. He died on his knees. I took his head and raped his woman before his blood was even cold! [MacLeod absorbs the information, glaring at Kurgan.] I see...Ramírez lied. She was not his woman. She was your woman, and she never told you. I wonder why..? Perhaps I gave her something you never could... [MacLeod grabs Kurgan by the collar. Kurgan looks at MacLeod's hand.] ...and secretly, she yearned for my return. [Kurgan releases himself from MacLeod's grip. He rises, bringing MacLeod up with him.] Holy ground, Highlander! Remember what Ramírez taught you.

MacLeod: You can't stay in here forever!

[The two sit down.]

Kurgan: You are weak, Highlander. You will always be weaker than I.

[MacLeod grabs Kurgan by the throat.]

MacLeod: I'll be out front.

[Kurgan releases himself from Connor's grip once again.]

Kurgan: Good-bye, MacLeod. We will meet soon enough.

[MacLeod exits.]]

Minister:[Approaching the laughing Kurgan in the church after MacLeod leaves.] These people are trying to pray. You are disturbing them.

Kurgan: He cares for these helpless mortals?

Priest: Of course he does. He died for our sins.

Kurgan: That shall be his undoing. [He rises from his seat and takes the priest's hand.] Father, forgive me. I am a worm. [He kneels, licks the priest's hand, and squeezes it. He prepares to leave, turning around.] I have something to say! It's better to burn out, than to fade away! [He dances out of the church, cackling.]]

Connor: It seems like 100 years.

Kastagir: It's been 100 years.

General Katana

[Taking over a subway composition after taunting a boy by offering him the control first.] I'll bet you've always wanted to drive one of these...Me too!
[To MacLeod, at Brenda Wyatt's grave.] Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if you don't take it out and use it, it's going to rust.

Dialogue

David Blake: You're still alive?

MacLeod: Always!

MacLeod: Don't worry. We'll be okay.

Louise: Easy for you to say. You don't have to worry about getting killed.

[MacLeod and Ramirez resurrect in a morgue after being shot at by the entire security detail of the Power Factory. They proceed to compare how many times each has been shot.]

MacLeod: 108.

Ramirez: I win. I count 112 bullet holes.

MacLeod: You're not counting that scratch!

Ramirez: Scratch?! It went right through my lung!

Others

Monk: For leading the revolution, you are exhiled to the planet Earth. Once there, you will be immortal. You can only die if your head is cut from your body. When one of you becomes the last of us on Earth, he will claim the prize. He can return to Zeist, or chose to grow old and die on Earth.
Monk: Prepare yourselves...There can be only one.

Connor MacLeod

From the dawn of time we came, moving silently among you, down through the centuries...immortals. I'm Connor MacLeod of the clan MacLeod, the Highlander. After the death of my friend Ramírez and my beloved wife Heather, I left my home in the Highlands of Scotland and began to wander the world, searching for answers. Finally I came to Japan, to the mountains of Niri, and the cave of the sorcerer Nakano.

Dialogue

Kane: I'll see you...in hell!

Connor: I'll be the judge of that.

[Kane attacks Connor. Connor cuts Kane down.]

Dialogue

[During Duncan's wedding with Kate.]

Connor: You know Kate is like us, immortal?

Duncan: Aye, I sensed something the day we met, but I wasn't sure.

Connor: Well now you know, and you also know as well as I do that her immortality can only be triggered by the shock of a violent death.

Duncan: Yes, I do. Without such a death, she will simply grow old and die. Yes, I know Connor. Is that what you came to tell me on my wedding day? Come on, drink up man!

Connor: No, I was wondering, does she know?

Duncan: Why?

Connor: Many years after I was married, one night, I found Heather in front of the house. She had a knife in one hand, and her hair in the other. When I asked her why she had done such a thing to herself, she said it was the one part of her that would never age. It would remain the same as when I first fell in love with her. That's how she wanted me to remember her.

Duncan: Why are you telling me this?

Connor: Because I once loved a woman, more than life itself...and I watched her die. Unlike me, you have a choice.

Duncan: What would you have me tell her?

Connor: I'd tell her nothing. She wouldn't believe you anyway.

Duncan: Then I can do nothing!

Connor: She's in the flare of her youth. Enjoy the moment, and let it pass!

Duncan: And if it were you in my place?

Connor: I was in your place! But I thank god I never had the choice.

Duncan: I love Kate, and I will hold on to her as long as I can, and that is all I can do!

[Duncan storms off.]

Highlander: The Series

[Original narration] Adrian Paul: I'm Duncan MacLeod, born four hundred years ago in the Highlands of Scotland. I am immortal and I am not alone. For centuries we've waited for the time of the Gathering, when the stroke of a sword and a fall of a head will release the power of the Quickening. In the end, there can be only one.
[Second narration] Adrian Paul: I was born four hundred years ago in the Highlands of Scotland. I am immortal and I am not alone. Now is the time of the Gathering, when the stroke of a sword will release the power of the Quickening. In the end, there can be only one.
[Third narration] Joe Dawson: He is immortal, born in the Highlands of Scotland four hundred years ago. He is not alone. There are others like him, some good, some evil. For centuries he has battled the forces of Darkness, with Holy Ground his only refuge. He cannot die, unless you take his head and with it, his power. In the end there can be only one. He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander.
[Fourth and final version] Joe Dawson: He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander. Born in 1592 in the Highlands of Scotland and he is still alive. He is immortal. For four hundred years he's been a warrior, a lover, a wanderer, constantly facing other Immortals in combat to the death. The winner takes his enemy's head and with it, his power. I'm a Watcher, part of the secret society of men and women who observe and record, but never interfere. We know the truth about Immortals. In the end there can be only one. May it be Duncan MacLeod, The Highlander.

Methos

It's good to be a myth.
That's what I'd ask, if I'd just met me.
I'm in charge of finding myself and I make sure it never happens.
Remember, Highlander: live, grow stronger, fight another day.
People living forever running around cutting each others' heads off with swords... It'll be filed away with alien abductions and Elvis sightings.
Only you and Joe know that I'm Methos the Immortal. To the rest of the world I'm still Adam Pierson, mild-mannered Watcher.
Live, grow stronger, fight another day.
A couple of medieval songwriters came up with the idea of chivalry one rainy day, and you embrace it as a lifestyle.
I've known a lot of us in five thousand years, MacLeod. Of them all, you were the best I'd seen.
I haven't felt guilt since the 11th century.
It is the ultimate in arrogance to think that one person can alter the course of history.
History makes men, MacLeod, men don't make history.
I am Methos. You live to serve me. Never forget that.
The times were different, MacLeod. I was different. The whole bloody world was different.
Just because I don't like to fight doesn't mean I can't.
Don't go, MacLeod! It's a trap, MacLeod! MacLeod, your pants are on fire!

Duncan

Can you imagine going in to somebody and saying, 'Hello, I'm Duncan MacLeod and I've gotten a little neurotic over the past four hundred years and I'd like to talk to you about it'? They'd lock you away.
You're still who you are. You don't change when you become immortal, you just live longer.
You know, I once heard it said that the main difference between a wise man and a fool is that the fool's mistakes never teach him anything.
If something's always done it does not make it right.
You know what they say - two's company, and four is... not sanitary.
You know, I don't know who or what you are, Methos, and I know you don't wanna hear this, but you did teach me something. You taught me that life is about change, about learning to accept who you are, good or bad - and I thank you for that.

Other

Kalas: Fetch me another, this one is broken
Richie: These guys should sell tickets!
Darius: I wasn't always a priest, you know. When I was a young man the first thing you had to do when introduced to a woman was compliment her father's horse.
Richie: Okay, everybody who's Immortal, raise their hand.
Robert: What's with you guys and the swords? There are easier ways to kill people.
Mary MacLeod: Let no man tell you different. You are Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod.
Joe Dawson: I know damn near everything about you, Duncan MacLeod. I know who you fought, who you killed. I know who you loved. I know it ALL!
Carolyn Marsh: Duncan MacLeod is every woman's sexual fantasy: a warrior with the heart of a poet.
Connor MacLeod: Do you think we ever lived like this? Like a tribe? Together, with a common language, a reason and a name for each living thing? Did we once belong somewhere? A time, and a place, however briefly?

Cast (Highlander)

Highlander

Christopher Lambert - Connor 'The Highlander' MacLeod / Russell Edwin Nash
Sean Connery - Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez
Clancy Brown - Victor Kruger / The Kurgan
Roxanne Hart - Brenda J. Wyatt
Alan North - Lieutenant Frank Moran
Jon Polito - Det. Walter Bedsoe
James Cosmo - Angus MacLeod
Edward Wiley - Garfield

Cast (Highlander II)

Michael Ironside - General Katana
John C. McGinley - David Blake
Virginia Madsen - Louise Marcus

Quoternity