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