Chariots of Fire Monologues

Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.

...name after name which I cannot read. And which we, who are older than you, cannot hear without emotion. Names which will be only names to you, the new college, but to us summon up face after face full of honesty and goodness, zeal and vigor.

My dear boy, your approach has been, if I may say so, a little too plebeian. You are the elite - and are therefore expected to behave as such.

Here in Cambridge, we've always been proud of our athletic prowess. We believe, we've always believed that our games are indispensable in helping to complete the education of an Englishman. They create character they foster courage, honesty and leadership. But most of all an unassailable spirit of loyalty, comradeship, and mutual responsibility. Would you agree?

Abrahams, there is a growing suspicion in the bosom of this university and I tell you this without in any way decrying your achievements in which we all rejoice, that in your enthusiasm for success you have perhaps lost sight of some of these ideals.

For the past year, you've concentrated wholly on developing your own technique in the headlong pursuit, may I suggest, of individual glory. Not a policy very conducive to the fostering of esprit de corps.

Life slips by, Abrahams, life slips by!

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.

You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe your dinner's burnt. Maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, "Believe, have faith," in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me." If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.

God made countries, God makes kings, and the rules by which they govern. And those rules say that the Sabbath is His. And I for one intend to keep it that way.

Sir, God knows I love my country. But I can't make that sacrifice.

The impertinence lies, sir, with those who seek to influence a man to deny his beliefs!

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up - with wings as eagles. They shall run - and not be weary."

When we were in China, my father here was always waxing lyrical about his wee home in the glen. But being Oriental-born myself, like my brothers and my sister here, I suffered from a natural incredulity. But looking about me now, the heather and the hills, I can see he was right. It's very special.