"Aida! Do not shame yourself, and me, with such witless sentiment! Do not tell me this Egyptian grieves for the Nubian men executed, the women ravaged, and the children taken into slavery. Any soft word you have given this Captain, any soft word, betrays the innocents who suffered at his hands and at the hands of every soldier he commands. You will cut this man from your heart!"
Aida is a tragic opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world. At
"Im sorry for everything Ive said and for anything I forgot to say too. When things get so complicated I stumble, at best, muddle through. I wish that our lives could be simple; I dont want the world: only you. I wish I could tell you this face to face, but theres never the time - never the place! So this letter will have to do; I love you. -- "Radames Letter"
"Im here to tell you we can never meet again. Simple really, isnt it? A word or two and then a lifetime of not knowing where, or how, or why, or when youll think of me, or speak of me, and wonder what befell that someone you once loved so long ago so well. -- "Written in the Stars"
"For years Ive been stealing from the palace. I thought, one day, I could get back to Nubia, but if I can send my king home..."
"I would not have thought it possible that these Egyptians could give me one more reason to hate them!"
"I knew you would survive, that I had trained my daughter well. At least I would not let myself believe anything else (after being reunited with Aida)"
"This should have been my time; Its over. It never began. -- "I Know the Truth"
"How seldom, Friend! a good great man inherits Honour or wealth, with all his worth and pains! It sounds like stories from the land of spirits, If any man obtain that which he merits, Or any merit that which he obtains.   . For shame, dear Friend! renounce this canting strain! … Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends! Hath he not always treasures, always friends, The good great man? Three treasures, and , And , regular as infants breath; And three firm friends, more sure than day and night, , his , and the Angel ."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge"He who loves is not ashamed before men of what he does for God, neither does he hide it through shame though the whole world should condemn it."
"Shamino: (when the player clicks repeatedly on a cat) Bloody cats!"
"A cloud was on the mind of men, and wailing went the weather, Yea, a sick cloud upon the soul when we were boys together. Science announced nonentity and art admired decay; The world was old and ended: but you and I were gay; Round us in antic order their crippled vices came — Lust that had lost its laughter, fear that had lost its shame."
"And then it happened. Suddenly, shamelessly, and without warning, as it must in all musical comedies, they were struck by... a love song."
"Prisoner in Castle British dungeon: "Shamino, speak up man!"