"I am Colonel Saito. In the name of His Imperial Majesty, I welcome you. I am the commanding officer of this camp, which is Camp 16 along the great railroad which will soon connect Bangkok with Rangoon."

"You British prisoners have been chosen to build a bridge across the River Kwai. It will be pleasant work, requiring skill, and officers will work as well as men."

"The Japanese Army cannot have idle mouths to feed. If you work hard, you will be treated well, but if you do not work hard, you will be punished!"

"A word to you about escape. There is no barbed wire. No stockade. No watchtower. They are not necessary. We are an island in the jungle. Escape is impossible. You would die."

"Let me remind you of General Yamashita's motto: be happy in your work."

"Attention, English prisoners! Notice I do not say 'English soldiers'. From the moment you surrendered, you ceased to be soldiers."

"You will finish the bridge by the twelfth day of May. You will work under the direction of a Japanese engineer, Lieutenant Mioura. Time is short. All men will work."

"Your officers will work beside you. This is only just. For it is they who betray you by surrender. Your shame is their dishonor."

"It is they who told you: 'Better to live like a coolie than die like a hero.' It is they who brought you here, not I."

"I hate the British! You are defeated but you have no shame. You are stubborn but you have no pride. You endure but you have no courage. I hate the British!"

"Do you know what will happen to me if the bridge is not built on time?"

"I'll have to kill myself. What would you do if you were me?"

"Do not speak to me of rules. This is war! This is not a game of cricket!"

"You speak to me of code. What code? The coward's code. What do you know of the soldier's code? Of bushido? Nothing. You are unworthy of command."

"All work and no play make Jack a dull boy."

"I haven't the foggiest."

"I suppose if I were you... I'd have to kill myself."

"Cheers!"

"I tell you, gentlemen, we have a problem on our hands. Thanks to the Japanese, we now command a rabble. There's no order, no discipline. Our task is to rebuild the battalion."

"We can teach these barbarians a lesson in Western methods and efficiency that will put them to shame. We'll show them what the British soldier is capable of doing."

"It's going to be a proper bridge. Now here again, I know the men. It's essential that they should take a pride in their job."

"One day the war will be over. And I hope that the people that use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it."

"Not a gang of slaves, but soldiers! British soldiers, Clipton, even in captivity."

"It is quite understandable; it's a very natural reaction. But one day - in a week, a month, a year - on that day when, God willing, we all return to our homes again, you're going to feel very proud of what you have achieved here in the face of great adversity."

"What you have done should be, and I think will be, an example to all our countrymen, soldier and civilian alike."

"You have survived with honor - that, and more - here in the wilderness. You have turned defeat into victory. I congratulate you. Well done."

"I've been thinking. Tomorrow it will be 28 years to the day that I've been in the service. 28 years in peace and war. I don't suppose I've been at home more than 10 months in all that time."

"Still, it's been a good life. I loved India. I wouldn't have had it any other way."

"But there are times... when suddenly you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning. And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total of your life represents."

"What difference your being there at any time made to anything - or if it made any difference at all, really. Particularly in comparison with other men's careers."

"I don't know whether that kind of thinking's very healthy, but I must admit I've had some thoughts on those lines from time to time. But tonight... tonight!"

"Without law, Commander, there is no civilization."

"Then we have the opportunity to introduce it."

"Frankly, the consensus of opinion is that it's impossible... but we'll certainly give it a go."

"After all, we mustn't forget that we've wasted over a month through an unfortunate disagreement for which I was not to blame."

"Yes, I'm sure Jennings has a plan. But escape? Where, into this jungle? That fellow Saito was right: no need for barbed wire or fence, one chance in a hundred of survival."

"Six hundred years... That would be quite something."

"I'm adamant. I will not have an officer from my battalion working as a coolie."

"Yes, Clipton. I understand, truly. But don't you see it's a matter of principle? If we give in now, there will be no end to it. No!"

"What have I done?"

"I realize how difficult it's going to be in this god-forsaken place where you can't find what you need, but there's the challenge."

"You'll go on without me. That's an order. You're in command now, Shears."

"I belong to a rather rum group called Force 316. Our headquarters is up in the botanical gardens."

"Sir, it's most annoying. They say, in view of the time element, they don't think a few practice jumps would be worthwhile."

"They say if you make one jump, you've only got 50% chance of injury, two jumps, 80%, and three jumps, you're bound to catch a packet."

"Kill him... Kill him!"

"You make me sick with your heroics! There's a stench of death about you. You carry it in your pack like the plague."

"Explosives and L-pills - they go well together, don't they? And with you it's just one thing or the other: destroy a bridge or destroy yourself."

"This is just a game, this war! You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what?"

"How to die like a gentleman, how to die by the rules - when the only important thing is how to live like a human being!"

"I'm not going to leave you here to die, Warden, because I don't care about your bridge and I don't care about your rules. If we go on, we go on together."

"I'd say the odds against a successful escape are about 100 to one. But may I add another word, Colonel? The odds against survival in this camp are even worse."

"Here lies Corporal Herbert Thompson, serial number 01234567, valiant member of the King's own, and Queen's own, or something, who died of beriberi in the year of our Lord 1943."

"For the greater glory of...[pause] what did he die for?...I don't mock the grave or the man. May he rest in peace. He found little enough of it while he was alive."

"Mostly Aussies, some Lime, some British, Indians, Burmese, Siamese...They died, of malaria, dysentery, beriberi, gangrene."

"Other causes of death: famine, overwork, bullet wounds, snake bites, Saito. And then there were some who just got tired of living."

"We're going to be a busy pair of gravediggers."

"You give me powders, pills, baths, injections, enemas; when all I need is love."

"I can think of a lot of things to call Saito, but 'reasonable'... that's a new one."

"Well, I'm an American, if that's what you mean."

"You couldn't be more wrong!"

"You mean, you intend to uphold the letter of the law, no matter what it costs?"

"That's just my point; here, there is no civilization."

"With or without a parachute?"

"The fact is, what we're doing could be construed as - forgive me, sir - collaboration with the enemy. Perhaps even as treasonable activity."

"Must we work so well? Must we build them a better bridge than they could have built for themselves?"

"Sir, you can't stand much more of this. And wouldn't the men be better off working rather than being kept in those cells?"

"The men are doing a wonderful job of it, they're going as slow as they dare; but Saito's cut their food rations. If they don't get put to work, they're going to die. And that's all there is to it."

"Sir, we're lost in the jungle, a thousand miles from anywhere. We're under the heel of a man who will stop at nothing to get his way. Principle? No one will know or care what happens to us! Give in, sir! Please!"

"Are they both mad? Or am I going mad? Or is it the sun?"

"Is this your soldier's code? Murdering unarmed men?"

"Madness! Madness!"

"Jennings has a plan, sir. He seems to think..."

"I'm sorry, Sir. I thought you were the enemy."

"Well, sir, I just checked columns and columns of figures which three or four people had checked before me, and then there were other people who checked them after I had checked them."

"Sir, it was a frightful bore."

"By the way, sir, I meant to tell you, there are trees in this forest very similar to elm. And the elm piles of London Bridge lasted six hundred years."

"Yes, sir."

"I know, you're terribly sorry, but you're standing me up tonight."

"What makes you so sure you'll get a medical discharge?"

"Because I'm a civilian at heart, lover, and I always follow my heart."

"If you had to operate on Saito, would you do your job or would you let him die?"

"Would you have it said that our chaps can't do a proper job?"

"Don't you realize how important it is to show these people that they can't break us, in body or in spirit?"

"You're a fine doctor, Clipton, but you've a lot to learn about the army."

"We must fix the daily work quota for your men. At first I thought of setting it at a yard and a half, so as not to overtire them, but don't you think it would be best if we make it the same as the British soldiers?"

"That would also create a healthy competitive spirit."

"I have already given the order."

"I have already given the order."

"Protecting rare plants from the enemy?"

"You!"

"You!"

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

"Are you alright, Clipton? We're prisoners of war, we haven't the right to refuse work."

"Take a good look, Clipton."

"Yes sir."

"Uh, not really an accountant, sir. That is, I didn't have my charter."

"Exactly what did you do?"

"Sounds a frightful bore."

"Today you rest. Tomorrow you will begin."