| |

100 Best Quotes from the Batman Universe

Since Batman’s first introduction in 1939, the character has been depicted in countless comics, television series, and films with a number of iconic quotes.

Over the decades Batman as a character and a franchise has shifted considerably in tone, from the Adam West Batman of the 60s known for comedic remarks to the dark and gritty caped crusader we see Robert Pattinson play in 2022’s The Batman.

Here is a list of the best quotes that highlight the triumph and honor of Batman, as well as the madness of his villains. 

Here’s the scoop on the best quotes from the Batman Universe!

the batman
Warner Bros

1. “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” -Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight

2. “I fear dying in here, while my city burns and there’s no one there to save it.” -Batman, The Dark Knight Rises

3. “Men are still good. We fight. We kill. We betray one another. But we can rebuild. We can do better. We will. We have to.” -Batman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

4. “Twenty-five years. My parents were murdered in front of my eyes. Too long ago. Too long to feel the loss. All those things that made me. I can’t remember my mother.” -Batman, Batman: Death and the Maidens

5. “No. No, stay with me, Don’t leave me!” -Batman, Superman/Batman 

6. “As a man, I’m flesh and blood; I can be ignored, I can be destroyed. But as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.” -Batman, Dark Knight

7. “I won’t kill you, but I don’t have to save you.” -Batman, Dark Knight

8. “Death is powerless against you if you leave a legacy of good behind.” -Batman, JLA: The Obsidian Age

9. “I believe what doesn’t kill you simply makes you stranger.” -Joker, The Dark Knight

10. “What’s black and blue and dead all over? You.” -The Riddler, The Batman

the riddler
Warner Bros

11. “We all look for meaning behind the tragedies that befall us. And sometimes the meaning is there. But sometimes, Master Bruce, terrible things just happen. No sinister plots. No secret societies. They just happen.” -Alfred Pennyworth, Batman vs. Robin 

12. “You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak.” -Batman, The Dark Knight Rises

13. “You won’t let me live, you won’t let me die.” -Superman, Justice League 

14. “You won’t kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won’t kill you because you’re just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.” -Joker, The Dark Knight

15. “They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered, I caught a glimpse of something. I’ve looked for it ever since. I went around the world and searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge. -Batman, Batman Begins

16. “I’ve failed him in life. I won’t fail him in death.” -Batman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

17. “Hello. I came to talk. I’ve been thinking lately. About you and me. About what’s going to happen to us in the end. We’re going to kill each other, aren’t we? Perhaps you’ll kill me. Perhaps I’ll kill you. Perhaps sooner. Perhaps later.” -Batman, Batman: The Killing Joke

18. “It’s life and death that I’m discussing here. Maybe my death. Maybe yours. I don’t fully understand why ours should be such a fatal relationship, but I don’t want your murder on my hands.” -Batman, Batman: The Killing Joke

19. “Don’t you understand? I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want either of us to end up killing the other. But were both running out of alternatives. And we both know it. Maybe it all hinges on tonight. Maybe this is our last chance to sort this bloody mess out. If you don’t take it, then we’re both locked onto a suicide course.” -Batman, Batman: The Killing Joke

20. “We could work together. I could rehabilitate you. You needn’t be out there on the edge anymore. You needn’t be alone. We don’t have to kill each other. What do you say?” -Batman, Batman: The Killing Joke

batman killing joke animation
© 2016 Warner Bros. Animation

21. “There is no way for me to save them or myself… This is all one giant death trap.” -Batman, Batman Forever

22. “Hell! We want him dead! And nothing brings out the Batman like a little murder and mayhem, baby.” -Two-face, Batman Forever 

23. “You will make the kill, but your pain doesn’t die with Harvey, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won’t know why.” -Batman, Batman Forever

24. “Why can’t you just die!” -Two-Face, Batman Forever

25. “When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die.” -Bane, The Dark Knight Rises

26. “Tell me where the trigger is, then you have my permission to die.” -Batman, The Dark Knight Rises

27. “Your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you. As it almost did me.” -Henri Ducard, Batman Begins

28. “Don’t talk like one of them. You’re not! Even if you’d like to be. To them, you’re just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don’t they’ll cast you out, like a leper. You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these, these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.” -Joker, The Dark Knight

29. “They can bury me in the ground, as deep as they like. But I’ll grow back. We always grow back.” -Poison Ivy, Batman: The Animated Series

poison ivy
DC Comics – Warner Bros

30. “We mourn lives lost, including our own.” -Batman, All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder

31. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t let you kill all those people.” -Batman, The Dark Knight

32. “Should I just bury the past out there with my parents, Alfred?” -Batman, Batman Begins

33. “I bet your parents taught you that you mean something, that you’re here for a reason. My parents taught me a different lesson, dying in the gutter for no reason at all. They taught me the world only makes sense if you force it to.” -Batman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

34. “You want to know something funny? Even after everything you’ve done. I would have saved you.” -Batman, Batman: Arkham City

35. “I’m Batman.” -Batman, Batman Begins

36. “The night is darkest just before the dawn, and I promise you, the dawn is coming.” -Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight 

37. “Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.” -Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight

38. “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” -Joker, The Dark Knight

39. “Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?” -Joker, Batman

40. “If you can make yourself more than just a man if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely. Legend, Mr. Wayne.” -Henri Ducard, Batman Begins

henri ducard
Warner Bros

41. “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.” -Batman, Batman Begins

42. “All men have limits. They learn what they are and learn not to exceed them. I ignore mine.” -Batman, Batman: Knightfall 

43. “He’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” -Commissioner Gordon, The Dark Knight

44. “All you care about is money. This city deserves a better class of criminal, and I’m gonna give it to them.” -Joker, The Dark Knight

45. “Criminals, by nature, are a cowardly and superstitious lot.” -Batman, Batman: Hush

46. “It’s obvious. Only a criminal would disguise himself as a licensed, bonded guard yet callously park in front of a fire hydrant.” -Batman, Batman

47. “I am vengeance, I am the night. I am Batman.” -Batman, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

48. “For once, I’m stuck without a punchline.” -Joker, Batman: Mask of Phantasm

49. “Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.” -Batman, The Dark Knight

50. “Come on, I want you to do it, I want you to do it. Come on, hit me!” -Joker, The Dark Knight

the joker in batman
Warner Bros

51. “You’re harder to kill than a cockroach on steroids!” -Joker, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

52. “Madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away forever.” -Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke 

53. “All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.” -Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke

54. “Madness, as you know, is a lot like gravity. All it takes is a little push.” -Joker, The Dark Knight

55. “The true crimefighter always carries everything he needs in his utility belt, Robin.” -Batman, Batman

56. “Maybe that’s what Batman is about. Not winning, but failing, and getting back up. Knowing he’ll fail, fail a thousand times, but still won’t give up.” -Batman, Batman: Zero Year 

57. “You’ve got to admit, I’ve played this stinking city, like a harp from hell.” -The Penguin, Batman Returns

58. “You think the darkness is your ally.” -Bane, The Dark Knight Rises

59. “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.” -Batman, The Dark Knight Rises

60. “Do you wanna know how I got these scars?” -Joker, The Dark Knight

joker with gun in batman
Warner Bros

61. “There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back at us, you blinked.” -Batman, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

62. “You fight like a younger man, with nothing held back. Admirable, but mistaken.” -Bane, The Dark Knight Rises

63. “Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies shared my dread.” -Batman, Batman Begins

64. “Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” -Alfred Pennyworth, Batman Begins

65. “I’m gonna show the people of Gotham their city doesn’t belong to the criminals and the corrupt.” -Batman, Batman Begins

66. “Drive sports cars, date movie stars, but things that are not for sale, who knows, Master Wayne? You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident.” –Alfred Pennyworth, Batman Begins

67. “They think I am hiding in the shadows, but I am the shadows.” -Batman, The Batman

68. “If this continues, it won’t be long before you’ve nothing left.” -Alfred Pennyworth, The Batman 

69. “Isn’t that just terrible? Them raining on your parade like that? What is it they say? One day you’re on top, the next you’re a clown.” -Arkham Prisoner, The Batman

batman in crowd
Warner Bros

70. “You showed me what was possible. You showed me all it takes is fear and a little focused violence. You inspired me.” -The Riddler, The Batman

71. “A rat with wings? You know what that sounds like to me? A friggin’ bat! Huh? You ever think of that?” -The Penguin, The Batman

72. “You don’t fear death… You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe.” -Bane, The Dark Knight Rises

73. “You see only one end to your journey. Leaving is all I have to make you understand, you’re not Batman anymore. You have to find another way. You used to talk about finishing a life beyond that awful cape.” -Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight Rises

74. “It means your hatred… and it also means losing someone that I have cared for since I first heard his cries echo through this house. But it might also mean saving your life. And that is more important.” -Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight Rises

75. “How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death.” -Prisoner, The Dark Knight Rises

76. “Well, that’s what a dose of reality will do to you. It’s why I never touch the stuff. I find it waters down the hallucinations.” -Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke

77. “Remembering’s dangerous. I find the past such a worrying, anxious place.” -Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke

78. “By clinging to reality, you’re denying the reality of the situation. I mean do you ever think about how close we’ve come to World War 3 over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Silly goose it’s all a joke everything we valued or struggled for… It’s Monstrous.” -Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke

79. “So when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, headed for places in your past where the screaming is unavoidable. Remember this, there’s always madness.” -Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke 

80. “I now understand the role I must play. I am no longer the Batman. I will be what the Bat Clan calls me. I will be their prophecy. I will be the legendary ninja who will bring peace to their land.” -Batman, Batman Ninja 

batman ninja
Warner Bros. Japan

81. “No! God Almighty, no. It’d be too damned easy. All I’ve ever wanted to do is kill him. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he’s dealt out to others, and then… end him.” -Batman, Batman: Under the Red Hood

82. “The first boy blunder had some manners. I suppose I’m going to have to teach you a lesson so you can better follow in his footsteps. Nah, I’m just gonna keep beating you with this crowbar.” -Joker, Batman: Under the Red Hood

83. “You can never escape me. Nothing harms me. But I know pain. I know pain. Sometimes I share it with someone like you.” -Batman, Batman: Year One

84. “Hand me down the shark-repellent Batspray.” -Batman, Batman: The Movie 

85. “Now you wanna get nuts? Come on! Let’s get nuts.” -Batman, Batman

86. “I’m not going to kill you. I want you to do me a favor. I want you to tell all your friends about me.” -Batman, Batman

87. “You see, I’m both Bruce Wayne and Batman, not because I have to be, now, because I choose to be.” -Batman, Batman Forever

88. “This is why Superman works alone.” -Batman, Batman & Robin

89. “Vengeance isn’t power. Anyone can take a life, but to give life, that’s true power.” -Batman, Batman & Robin

90. “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne.” -Batman, Batman Begins

Gary Oldman and Christian Bale in Batman Begins (2005)
Photo by David James (c) 2002 – © 2004 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved

91. “I’ll be standing where I belong. Between you and the people of Gotham.” -Batman, Batman Begins

92. “My father once told me, to succeed, we need only pick a star and follow it.” -Batman, Batman & Robin

93. “I’m starting to see now. I have had an effect here… but not the one I intended. Vengeance won’t change the past, mine, or anyone else’s. I have to become more. People need hope. To know someone’s out there for them.” -Batman, The Batman

94. “When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call. It’s a warning.” -Batman, The Batman 

95. “Twenty years in Gotham, Alfred; we’ve seen what promises are worth. How many good guys are left? How many stayed that way?” -Batman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

96. “Well, I grew up in Gotham, and I turned out alright.” -Batman, The Dark Knight

97. “Batman has no limits.” -Batman, The Dark Knight

98. “I wear a mask. And that mask, it’s not to hide who I am but to create what I am.” -Batman, Batman: Broken City

99. “The voice kept calling me Bruce. In my mind, that’s not what I call myself.” -Batman, Batman Beyond

batman flying off buildings
Warner Bros. Animation (1999)

100. “If I allow myself to go down into that place. I’ll never come back.” -Batman, Batman: Under the Red Hood 

Whether comics are more your style or a film series to binge is what you’re looking for, this list features quotes from many different eras of the world’s greatest detective.

Found quotes you liked? Give the film, animation, or comic a try and see just what the DC Batman universe has to offer. 

Which Batman quote is your favorite? Comment below!

batman quotes

Get the scoop on more awesome quotes by visiting the articles below:

This post may contain affiliate links. Thanks for the support!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.