War & Peace (TV Series)

Sounds of War (1972)

Alan Dobie: Prince Andrei Bolkonsky

Quotes 

• Pierre Bezukhov : You must have gained something from your marriage. And soon you'll have a child.

  Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : What I've gained, I couldn't tell you. What I've lost, I could fill a whole evening talking about. You mentioned Bonaparte.

  Pierre Bezukhov : Yes.

  Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : You admire him?

  Pierre Bezukhov : Yes. Yes, I do. One must. Because he is a man of such tremendous will. He is a mover of events.

  Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : But he wasn't always.

  Pierre Bezukhov : No, no. For too long, he was nothing, an artillery officer, until he showed them how to raise the siege.

  Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : Then step by step he moved towards his goal. But while he did it, he was free. There was nothing for him, but the goal. Tie yourself to a woman and you lose that freedom, the freedom to act, to pursue an idea. All your aspirations, all your abilities wither away in drawing rooms. Women reduce everything to the trivial, to the banal.

• Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : We can't always fight for one's own convictions. If that were the case, there would be no wars.

  Pierre Bezukhov : Wouldn't that be a good thing?

  Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : Perhaps, but it'll never happen.

  Pierre Bezukhov : What are you fighting for?

  Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : What for? I don't know. Because I have to. And because... the life I lead here is not to my taste.

• Prince Andrei Bolkonsky : Never, never marry, my dear fellow. That's my advice. Until you can say to yourself that you've done all that you're capable of doing. And until you cease to love the woman of your choice and see her as she is. Otherwise you'll be making a cruel and irreparable mistake. Marry when you're old and good for nothing else. Or you'll fritter away your life in trifles. Yes, yes, don't look at me in such surprise. What I say is true.