Best Quotes from A Knight’s Tale
Heath Ledger played a dreamy Aussie from 10 Things I Hate About You, the deranged Joker in The Dark Knight, and a conflicted cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, but many fans will smile remembering his entertaining performance as William Thatcher in A Knight’s Tale.
The film debuted May 11, 2001, and combined a classic story from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (and Paul Bettany as the wildly amusing Chaucer in the film) with a classic rock soundtrack.
Here are 15 of the most quotable lines from the movie:
William: Welcome to New World. God save you, if it is right that he should do so.
Chaucer: I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.
Adhemar: And how would you beat him?
Fence: With a stick. While he slept. But on a horse, with a lance? That man is unbeatable.
Wat: I miss you like the sun misses the flower. Like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to.
John Thatcher: Change your stars and live a better life than I have.
William: It’s not in me to withdraw.
Adhemar: You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.
Kate: Love should end with hope. My husband, God rest him, told me something I’ll never forget. Hope guides me. It is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you’re gone from my sight it will not be the last time I look upon you.
John Thatcher: If he believes enough, a man can do anything.
William: My pride is the only thing that they can’t take from me.
Jocelyn: Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy with a horse and a stick.
Wat: It’s called a lance. Hello?
William: Perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.
Chaucer: You know, I write, with ink and parchment. For a penny I’ll scribble you anything you want. From summons, decrees, edicts, warrants, patents of nobility. I’ve even been know to jot down a poem or two if the muse descends.
Roland: Well you may feel like a poet, but you sound like an idiot.
Wat: I don’t understand women.
Chaucer: Nor do I. But they understand us. Well, maybe not you.
A Knight’s Tale Quotes
My pride is the only thing that they can’t take from me.
- A Knight’s Tale
If I could ask God one thing, it would be to stop the moon. Stop the moon and make this night and your beauty last forever.[to Jocelyn]
- A Knight’s Tale
You know, I write, with ink and parchment. For a penny I’ll scribble you anything you want. From summons, decrees, edicts, warrants, patents of nobility. I’ve even been know to jot down a poem or two if the muse descends.
- A Knight’s Tale
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Love has given me wings, so I must fly.
- A Knight’s Tale
If he believes enough, a man can do anything.
- A Knight’s Tale
I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every last pimple, every last character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.
- A Knight’s Tale
Welcome to the New World. God save you, if it is right that he should do so.[to Adhemar]
- A Knight’s Tale
Perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.[to Jocelyn]
- A Knight’s Tale
It’s not in me to withdraw.
- A Knight’s Tale
It is strange to think I haven’t seen you since a month. I have seen the new moon, but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises, but nothing of your beautiful face. The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle. I miss you like the sun misses the flower; like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to, the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to. I’ll next compete in the city of Paris. I’ll find it empty and in the winter if you’re not there. Hope guides me. It is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you are gone from my sight it will not be the last time I look upon you.[in a letter to Jocelyn]
- A Knight’s Tale
Change your stars and live a better life than I have.[to William]
- A Knight’s Tale
“A Knight’s Tale” quotes
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“- William Thatcher: My pride is the only thing that they can’t take from me.
– Jocelyn: They can take it away from you; they can, and they will. Oh, they will. But love they cannot take.”
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“I miss you like the sun misses the flower. Like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to.”
in a letter
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“Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough.”
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“Hope guides me. It is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you’re gone from my sight it will not be the last time I look upon you.”
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“- Wat: I don’t understand women.
– Geoffrey Chaucer: Nor do I. But they understand us. Well, maybe not you.”
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“- French Squire 1: An Englishman will not win this French tournament. English legs are unsteady on French soil.
– French Squire 2: And because French wine is too much for English bellies.
– French Squire 3: And most importantly, because the Pope himself is French.
– Roland: Well, the Pope may be French, but Jesus is English! You’re on!”
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“- William Thatcher: I can’t explain it. She makes me feel like a poet.
– Roland: Well you may feel like a poet, but you sound like an idiot. You don’t even know her name.”
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“- Wat: What do you mean, dead?
– Roland: The spark of his life is smothered in shite. His spirit is gone but his stench remains. Does that answer your question?”
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“- William Thatcher: Oi sir, what are you doing?
– Geoffrey Chaucer: Uh… trudging. You know, trudge? To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.”
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“If I could ask God one thing, it would be to stop the moon. Stop the moon and make this night and your beauty last forever.”
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“And one and two and three and four and your hands should be light like a birdie on a branch. And one and two and three and four and Wat doesn’t lead, he follows like a girl.”
keeping beat for a dance lesson with Wat
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“I haven’t seen you since a month. I have seen the new moon, but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises, but nothing of your beautiful face.”
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“- Jocelyn: Your name makes no matter to me, so long as I may call you my own.
– William Thatcher: Oh, but I am your own, Jocelyn.”
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“All human activity lies within the artist’s scope.”
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“- Jocelyn: Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy with a horse and a stick.
– Wat: It’s called a lance. Hello?”
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“- Jocelyn: A flower is only as good as its petals. Don’t you think?
– William Thatcher: A flower is good for nothing. You can’t eat a flower, a flower can’t keep you warm.”
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“- William Thatcher: Were you robbed?
– Geoffrey Chaucer: [laughs] Funny really, yes, but at the same time a huge resounding no. It’s more of an… involuntary vow of poverty… really.”William Thatcher and his friend meet Geoffrey Chaucer walking naked down the road
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“- Count Adhemar: And you are?
– William Thatcher: Well, I am, um.
– Count Adhemar: You’ve forgotten, or your name is Sir Um?
– William Thatcher: Ulrich von Lichtenstein from Gelderland.
– Count Adhemar: Well, I’d forget as well, what a mouthful.”
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“Change your stars and live a better life than I have.”
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“- Jocelyn: I demand poetry, and when I want it, and I want it now.
– William Thatcher: Your breasts… they’re beneath your throat.”
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“- William Thatcher: Your name lady, I still need to hear it.
– Jocelyn: Sir hunter, you persist.
– William Thatcher: Or perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.”
