The Emperor's Club
2002
William Hundert: Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?
Louis Masoudi: I am such an asshole.
William Hundert: Aristophanes once wrote, roughly translated; "Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but STUPID lasts forever."
William Hundert: Well... Senator... The Greeks and the Romans provided a model of democracy, which I don't need to tell you, the framers of our own constitution, used as their inspiration. But more to the point I would think when the boys read Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Julius Caesar even, they're put in direct contact with men, who in their own age, exemplified the highest standards of statesmanship, of civic virtue, character, conviction.
Senator Bell: (chuckling) That's a horse that can talk. So you're saying my son Sedgwick has his head up his ass.
Older Deepak Mehta: A great teacher has little external history to record. His life goes over into other lives. These men are pillars in the intimate structure of our schools. They are more essential than its stones or beams, and they will continue to be a kindling force and a revealing power in our lives.
William Hundert: The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure or a solitary success.
William Hundert: However much we stumble, it is a teacher's burden always to hope, that with learning, a boys' character might be changed. And, so, the destiny of a man.
William Hundert: As I've gotten older, I realize I'm certain of only two things. Days that begin with rowing on a lake are better than days that do not. Second, a man's character is his fate.
William Hundert: Excuse me? Louis Masoudi: Huh? What me? William Hundert: Yes, sir. What is your name? Louis Masoudi: Uh, Louis. William Hundert: Just Louis? Louis Masoudi: Louis Masoudi, sir. William Hundert: Mr Masoudi, could you define the word "path" for me? Louis Masoudi: Well, there are several definitions, I suppose. William Hundert: Would "a route along which someone or something moves" be among them? Louis Masoudi: Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. I'm s-sorry, sir. William Hundert: Follow the path, Mr Masoudi. Walk where the great men before you have walked. Louis Masoudi: Yes, sir. It's, uh - It's better for the grass. William Hundert: It's better for you.
William Hundert: Sir, it's my job to mold your son's character, and I think if - Senator Bell: Mold him? Jesus God in heaven, son. You're not gonna mold my boy. Your job is to teach my son. You teach him his times tables. Teach him why the world is round. Teach him who killed who and when and where. That is your job. You, sir, will not mold by son. I will mold him.
Martin Blythe: (from the plate above Mr Hundert's classroom) I am Shutruk Nahunte, King of Anshand and Sussa, Sovereign of the land of Elam. I destroyed Sippar, took the stele of Niran-Sin, and brought it back to Elam, where I erected it as an offering to my god. Shutruk Nahunte - 1158 B.C.