Benjamin Walker: Abraham Lincoln
Photos
Quotes
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[from trailer]
Abraham Lincoln : History prefers legends to men. It prefers nobility to brutality, soaring speeches to quiet deeds. History remembers the battle, but forgets the blood. Whatever history remembers of me, if it remembers me at all, it shall only remember a fraction of the truth. For whatever else I am - a husband, a lawyer, a president - I shall always think of myself first and foremost as a hunter.
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Henry Sturgess : [about the weapons] So, Abe... which one takes your fancy?
Abraham Lincoln : Actually, I haven't had the best luck with shooting irons.
[catches sight of an axe on a stump outside]
Abraham Lincoln : But... I was a rail splitter.
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Abraham Lincoln : Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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Abraham Lincoln : [after Henry has saved Abraham and Will from falling train] Thank you, Henry. I suppose... some vampires CAN be trusted.
Henry Sturgess : As can some men, Abraham.
[pauses]
Henry Sturgess : If the train was a decoy, where is the silver?
Will Johnson : This isn't the only railroad.
Abraham Lincoln : [Henry nods, Abraham grins knowingly] A wise man once taught me... always have a contingency plan.
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Adam : [after Lincoln's attempt to help the slaves] Bravo, Mr. Lincoln! Bravo. You're even better then I've heard. A shame to sacrafice so many of my best men... but I needed to know if you were up to the task.
Abraham Lincoln : [being held down by Vadoma] What do you want with me?
Adam : To see you liberated. To see you rise up and destroy your oppressor.
Abraham Lincoln : [angrily] That's interesting coming from a slave owner!
Adam : Men have enslaved each other... since they invented gods to forgive them for doing it.
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[Henry leads Abe to the cellar of his home, to test him on what he has learned]
Henry Sturgess : Before you protect others from darkness, you must first be able to protect yourself. Your enemies have the power to render themselves invisible. You must have the ability to fight blind. To see without seeing.
[He shuts the door, plunging the room into darkness. There are the sounds of grunts, blows landing and Abe moaning. The door opens, revealing Abe, coughing and bloody, crawling slowly towards the door as if to leave]
Abraham Lincoln : Again.
[He shuts the door]
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Henry Sturgess : I'd like you to chop this tree down, in a single swing.
Abraham Lincoln : That tree? It's got to be more than a foot across. That's impossible.
Henry Sturgess : But it isn't a tree. It's what you hate most in the world. So tell me, Mr. Lincoln: what do you hate?
Abraham Lincoln : I hate Jack Barts.
Henry Sturgess : [motions to the tree] Then strike him down.
[Abe swings, chopping into the tree, but fails to cut it down]
Henry Sturgess : Well, clearly you don't hate him that much. What do you *really* hate?
Abraham Lincoln : [swings, but again the tree stays upright] I hate that my mother was taken away.
Henry Sturgess : Inadequate.
Abraham Lincoln : [swings] I hate that we were afraid.
Henry Sturgess : And?
Abraham Lincoln : [swings] That my mother, father, everyone that we knew, lived in fear!
Henry Sturgess : Pathetic.
Abraham Lincoln : [swings] I hate that I was too small!
Henry Sturgess : Weak.
Abraham Lincoln : Yes!
Henry Sturgess : And that you failed.
Abraham Lincoln : Yes!
Henry Sturgess : To protect her.
Abraham Lincoln : Yes!
Henry Sturgess : That you... Let her die.
[With a roar, Abe swings, chopping straight through the trunk of the tree and toppling it to the ground. Abe looks stunned]
Henry Sturgess : Power, Lincoln, *real* power, comes not from hate, but from truth.
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Abraham Lincoln : [after she uses his hat to come to eye level] Miss Todd, you are a woman of ravishing resourcefulness.
Mary Todd Lincoln : Mr. Lincoln, you have no idea.
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Abraham Lincoln : I'm sorry, Mary. I'm sorry I've kept you in the dark all these years... I need you, Mary.
Mary Todd Lincoln : I've waited a long time to hear you say those words.
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Abraham Lincoln : Vampire are just myths.
Henry Sturgess : Myths don't beat you senseless after you've put a bullet in their brain!
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Mary Todd Lincoln : I came to Springfield for some one different. Some whose life was a bit more adventorous, and well... My apologies. I'm never this...
Abraham Lincoln : Honest?
Mary Todd Lincoln : Rude.
Abraham Lincoln : Miss Todd, may I speak candidly? I, too, came here to better myself.
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Will Johnson : [entering the store, with his back to Lincoln] A stock boy reading a law book. What? Studying to be a lawyer?
Abraham Lincoln : As a matter a fact, I am.
Will Johnson : Alright, what about a little test? What's the law for free slaves in the north?
Abraham Lincoln : According to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, Enforcing Article 4, Section 2 of the United States Constitution: "All runaway slaves must be returned to their owners." However, personal liberty laws state that: "Anyone born free cannot be taken under this act."
Will Johnson : [turning slowly] I heard a good woman once say, "Until we are all free, we're all slaves."
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Abraham Lincoln : Do you really want the truth, Mary?... Each and every night I go out... hunting vampires.
Mary Todd Lincoln : [after a moment of silence] Well, how do you hunt these vampires?
Abraham Lincoln : With an axe... a special silver axe, of course.
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[first lines]
Abraham Lincoln : [voice-over in his journal] History prefers legends to men. It prefers nobility to brutality, soaring speeches to quiet deeds. History remembers the battle and forgets the blood. Whatever history remembers of me, if it remembers anything at all, it shall only be a fraction of the truth. For whatever else I am - a husband, a lawyer, a President - I shall always think of myself as a man who struggled against darkness.
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Abraham Lincoln : My mother was murdered.
Henry Sturgess : And if I teach you how to murder her murderer... so what? How will that honor her memory? How will that benefit the next boy whose mother was taken?
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Abraham Lincoln : A great man once said, "What we do, we do not for ourselves, not for one man, but for the good of all mankind."
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Henry Sturgess : You cannot take on slavery, Abraham! You cannot take on the whole south!
Abraham Lincoln : Why? Because of Adam?
Henry Sturgess : No!
Abraham Lincoln : Are you afraid of him?
Henry Sturgess : Because it is the only thing that has kept them sated all these years... and you take that away and no one is safe!
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Abraham Lincoln : [in a note with his journal] I leave in your trusted hands, my dear friend Henry... this record that begins when I was just a boy.
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Mary Todd Lincoln : It's called a dance. If we were meant to sit down, they would've call it something else.
Abraham Lincoln : [smiling] Yes, I suppose they would have.
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Abraham Lincoln : I hate that we were afraid!
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Henry Sturgess : [in the bath with Gabriella as Lincoln bursts in] Might I suggest we begin by... closing the door.
Abraham Lincoln : [stammering as he backs out of the room] Y-y-yeah, I'm sorry... I didn't see anything!
Henry Sturgess : [coming out and walking through the house] Should we dive right in? Or were you finding Gabriella's egress too distracting?
Abraham Lincoln : I'm sorry, sir but who are you?
Henry Sturgess : Who I am is Henry Sturges. And where you are is my home. And what happened... I saved your life... during you rather pathetic attempt at taking another's.
Abraham Lincoln : What were you doing there and... how did you know I would try to kill Barts?
Henry Sturgess : How? I watched this boy carry out his first long-awaited mission. Drunk, I might add.
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Henry Sturgess : [to Lincoln] You know I can restore the dead.
Mary Todd Lincoln : [entering the room] Do it... do it.
Abraham Lincoln : Mary...
Mary Todd Lincoln : Do it...
[to Lincoln]
Mary Todd Lincoln : Your journal... the one you always kept in your coat pocket... I know I shouldn't have, Abe, but I needed to know what you were hiding...
[to Henry]
Mary Todd Lincoln : If what you say is true, I beg you... give us our little boy back.
Abraham Lincoln : Mary, he wouldn't be our little boy. He would be something else, something terrible. Trust me, you don't want that.
Mary Todd Lincoln : You're asking me to trust you, after you lied to me for all these years?
Abraham Lincoln : I did it to protect you, to protect our family.
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Abraham Lincoln : [repeating his journal entry] History prefers legends to men. It prefers nobility to brutality, soaring speeches to quiet deeds. History remembers the battle, and forgets the blood. However history remembers me, if it does at all, it shall only remember a fraction of the truth.
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Abraham Lincoln : [in his journal] In the weeks that followed, Henry endeavored to impart a life time of vampire hunting secrets... Their ability to adapt in sunlight. Their power to render themselves invisible. But most of all, he taught me how to destroy them.
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Abraham Lincoln : [in his journal] Henry sent me out into the world with a reminder. No distractions, no attachments. No friends or family.
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[from trailer]
Abraham Lincoln : I shall kill them all!
