Roots

Kintango:
Who can tell me if there was a tribal war, and the men of Mandinka had the enemy surrounded on three sides, what should be the next thing done?

Boy:
The men of the Mandinka will enclose the circle and surround the enemy.

Kintango:
No, the goal of war is not to kill. The goal of war is to win. By surrounding the enemy, you would force him only to fight more desperately. If you surround him on three sides and leave him an escape route, he will leave your land and there will less blood spilled on both sides. For a warrior of the Mandinka, courage is not enough.

Kunta Kinti:
But sir, won't an enemy who escapes alive fight you again?

Kintango:
It is impossible to kill an enemy. You may end a man's life, but his son becomes your new enemy. A warrior respects another warrior, even he is his enemy. A warrior kills only to protect his family, or to keep from becoming a slave. We believe not in death, but in life, and there is no object more valuable than a man's life. The way of the Mandinka is not easy, but it is best.

Captain Thomas Davies:
I'm a Christian Man and I command a Christian Ship! I will not lead men into sin!

Kunta Kinti:
I'm a Mandinka warrior!

Fiddler:
[turns to stable horse] Horse! I hear tell that you ain't a horse at all. I hear tell that you think you a mighty crow! I hear tell that you fly from here 'bouts all the way to Annapolis and back again. Now horse... you look mighty like a horse to me. And you sure SMELLS mighty like a horse. So I'm saying to you, that you... is... a horse! What you think you is don't matter a damn bit.

Kunta Kinti:
What's snow, Fiddler?

Fiddler:
Never you mind, boy, never you mind. Let's get on back to home. I got enough trouble teaching you the difference between manure and massa. 'Course there ain't all that much difference when you gets right down to it.

Omoro, Kunta's father:
[holding his infant son up to starry sky] Kunta Kinte, behold the only thing greater than yourself!

John Carrington:
Uh, did you have a good voyage, Captain?

Captain Thomas Davies:
My First Officer is dead, ten seaman and the ship's boy... more than a third of my crew.

Evan Brent:
And every step I take, every time my leg twinges on me I recollect who's responsible for all the pluses and minus that I got to live with now! Yeah, I recollect who done it to me... N*ggers!

Tom Harvey:
Listen to me, Jimmy Brent! Listen to me! And take this message with you to Hell! The last hands to touch you in this Earth... was my BLACK hands!

Kunta Kinti:
Chains ain't right for n*ggers, Fiddler!

Kunta Kinti:
What Christmas, Fiddlah?

Fiddler:
Christmas is when White folk give each other stuff don't neither of em need.

Wrestler:
Kunta Kinte, the panther has courage. So does the warthog. Which kind of courage should a man have?

Kunta Kinte:
The best kind.

Wrestler:
If it is for certain that you are not yet a man - and that is for certain - then it is more certain that you are not a philosopher. "The best kind" is not an answer, Kunta Kinte.

Kunta Kinte:
Well... a warthog's courage, then.

Wrestler:
Why?

Kunta Kinte:
Well, a warthog never retreats, he never gives up.

Wrestler:
And all the hunters admire that warthog's courage.

Kunta Kinte:
That's right.

Wrestler:
They all say what a brave animal that warthog is.

Kunta Kinte:
That's right.

Wrestler:
And all the hunters usually end up killing that warthog. They all usually end up eating that brave warthog.

Kunta Kinte:
You think I should have given up today when we were wrestling?

Wrestler:
We were not wrestling. I was wrestling. You were charging and flying and landing.

[Ligonier crew members are letting the slaves out in order to muck out the hold]

Kunta Kinte:
If they let me out of here, I'll jump off this canoe house, and swim to the riverbank!

Kunta Kinte:
[seeing the Ligonier is in the middle of the ocean] There's no riverbank. Wrestler, where's the riverbank? Where's the earth? The earth is gone!

Wrestler:
Kunta Kinte, you do not eat?

Kunta Kinte:
When I eat the white man food, my stomach comes up.

Wrestler:
So does mine. But eat the food, Kunta. Listen to me! Listen carefully. You are a warrior, and a warrior must eat because he must be strong to kill his enemy. So eat the white man's food. Live, Kunta. Live and be strong! Be strong to kill the white man!

Tom Harvey:
Because if we ain't givin' the law a chance, then freedom ain't worth a damn!

Fiddler (talking to Kunta Kinte as they ride on the ox-cart):
We in america, you hear me talking to you n*gger? we in america...