[Regarding women]
William of Baskerville: I find it difficult to convince myself that God would have introduced such a foul being into creation without endowing her with some virtues, hmmm?
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Bernardo Gui: Why did you kill them?
Remigio da Varagine: Why? I don't know... why.
Bernardo Gui: Were you inspired by the Devil?
Remigio da Varagine: Yes. That's it. I was inspired by the Devil! I am... inspired by the DEVVVVILLL! Lucifer! I summon you!
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William of Baskerville: She is already burnt flesh, Adso. Bernardo Gui has spoken: she is a witch.
Adso of Melk: But that's not true, and you know it!
William of Baskerville: I know. I also know that anyone who disputes the verdict of an Inquisitor is guilty of heresy.
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William of Baskerville: Have you ever found a place where God would have felt at home?
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[opening narration]
Voice of Adso as an Old Man: Having reached the end of my poor sinner's life, my hair now white, I prepare to leave on this parchment my testimony as to the wondrous and terrible events that I witnessed in my youth, towards the end of the year of our Lord 1327. May God grant me the wisdom and grace to be the faithful chronicler of the happenings that took place in a remote abbey in the dark north of Italy. An abbey whose name it seems, even now, pious and prudent to omit.
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The Abbot: We found the body after a hailstorm, horribly mutilated, dashed against a rock at the foot of the tower, under a window which was, uh, how shall I say this, I trust...
William of Baskerville: Which was found closed.
The Abbot: Somebody told you?
William of Baskerville: Had it been found open, you would not have spoken of spiritual unease - you would have concluded that he'd fallen.
The Abbot: Brother William, the window cannot be opened! Nor was the glass shattered, nor is there any access to the roof above.
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William of Baskerville: I too was an Inquisitor, but in the early days, when the Inquisition strove to guide, not to punish. And once I had to preside at a trial of a man whose only crime was to have translated a Greek book that conflicted with the Holy Scriptures. Bernardo Gui wanted him condemned as a heretic; I - acquitted the man. Then Bernardo Gui accused ME of heresy, for having defended him. I appealed to the Pope. I - I was put in prison, tortured, and... and I recanted.
Adso of Melk: What happened then?
William of Baskerville: The man was burned at the stake and I am still alive.
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Remigio da Varagine: In the twelve years I have lived here, I have done nothing but stuff my belly, shag my wick, and squeeze the hungry peasants for tithes!
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[last lines]
Voice of Adso as an Old Man: I have never regretted my decision for I learned from my Master much that was wise and good and true. When at last we parted company, he presented me with his eyeglasses. I was still young - he said - but someday they would serve me well. And in fact, I'm wearing them now on my nose as I write these lines. Then he embraced me fondly - like a father - and sent me on my way. I never saw him again, and know not what became of him, but I pray always that God received his soul, and forgave the many little vanities to which he was driven by his intellectual pride. And yet, now that I'm an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past, the one I see most clearly is that of the girl whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love in my life, yet
[pause]
Voice of Adso as an Old Man: I never knew, nor ever learned, her name.
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William of Baskerville: Adso, if I knew the answers to everything, I would be teaching theology in Paris.
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[after seeing a rat while searching for a secret route to the library]
William of Baskerville: The rats love parchment even more than scholars do. Let's follow him!
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William of Baskerville: The only evidence I see of the antichrist here is everyones desire to see him at work.
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William of Baskerville: You see, Adso... the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy... is all too brief.
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William of Baskerville: My dear Adso, we must not allow ourselves to be influenced by irrational rumors of the Antichrist, hmm? Let us instead exercise our brains and try to solve this tantalizing conundrum.
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William of Baskerville: How peaceful life would be without love, Adso. How safe, how tranquil... and how dull.
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Jorge de Burgos: Laughter is a devilish wind which deforms, uh, the lineaments of the face and makes men look like monkeys.
William of Baskerville: Monkeys do not laugh. Laughter is particular to men.
Jorge de Burgos: As is sin. Christ never laughed.
William of Baskerville: Can we be so sure?
Jorge de Burgos: There is nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did.
William of Baskerville: And there's nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did not. Why, even the saints have been known to employ comedy, to ridicule the enemies of the Faith. For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurice into the boiling water, he complained that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put his hand in... scalded himself.
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William of Baskerville: But what is so alarming about laughter?
Jorge de Burgos: Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith, because without fear of the Devil there is no more need of God.
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