Alfred: Why bats, Master Wayne?
Bruce Wayne: Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies shared my dread.
Bruce Wayne: I'm going to show the people of Gotham that the city doesn't belong to the criminals and the corrupt. People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. I can't do this as Bruce Wayne. A man is just flesh and blood and can be ignored or destroyed. But as a symbol... As a symbol, I can be incorruptible, everlasting.
[The Batmobile drives past Gordon and runs over a car.]
Gordon: I've got to get me one of those.
Police Officer: Can you at least tell me what it looks like? [Batmobile thunders by.] Never mind.
Henri Ducard: Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.
Bruce Wayne: You attacked Gotham before?
Henri Ducard: Of course. Over the ages, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one: Economics. But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens... Such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself... And Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice... You simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart.
Prisoner: You're in Hell, little man! And I am the Devil!
Bruce Wayne: You're not the Devil. You're practice.
Bruce Wayne: I seek... A means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.
[Bruce Wayne is trapped under a burning beam.]
Alfred: What is the point of all those pushups if you can't even lift a bloody log!?
Alfred: You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident.
Valet: Nice car.
Bruce Wayne: You should see my other one.
[Lucius Fox has just shown Bruce Wayne the bulletproof nomex survival suit.]
Lucius Fox: So what do you want with it, Mr Wayne?
Bruce Wayne: I want to borrow it. For spelunking. You know, cave-diving.
Fox: You get a lot of gunfiredown in those caves?
Alfred: Time to get up.
Bruce Wayne: Bats are nocturnal.
Alfred: That may be, but even for billionaire playboys,3:00 is pushing it.
Police Officer: Why should I care what your name is? You're a criminal!
Bruce Wayne: I'm not a criminal!
Police Officer: Tell that to the guy who owns these! [Kicks a box labelled "Wayne Enterprises"].
Prisoner: They're going to fight you.
Bruce Wayne: Again?
Prisoner: Until they kill you.
Bruce Wayne: Can't they kill me before breakfast?
[Rachel and Bruce watch as Joe Chill is killed in the courthouse.]
Rachel: Come on, Bruce. We don't need to see this.
Bruce Wayne: I do.
Alfred: Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Batman: It's not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me.
Detective Flass: That's all I know, I swear to God!
Batman: SWEAR TO ME!
[The batmobile screeches to a halt.]
Lucius Fox: So what you do you think?
Bruce Wayne: Does it come in black?
Answer: First, he follows it up by saying it's because Bruce's father failed to act against Joe (to try to stop him), implying that his father was weak and a coward. But overall Ducard's stance was crime cannot be tolerated. "Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding." The League had tried to destroy Gotham before with economics, but men like Thomas Wayne tried to help the poor and he was killed by the same people he tried to help. In Ducard's mind, had Thomas Wayne not tried to help the poor and criminals, he wouldn't have been shot.
Bishop73