: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved ones is just poison in your veins. And one day you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain. I wasn't always here in the mountains. Once I had a wife, my great love. She was taken from me. Like you, I was forced to learn that there are those without decency that must be fought without hesitation, without pity. Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you, as it almost did me.
The first time I stole so that I wouldn't starve, yes. I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong. And when I traveled, I learned the fear before a crime and the thrill of success. But I never became one of them.
: People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne, as a man I'm flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting. Alfred Pennyworth: What symbol? Batman/Bruce Wayne: Something elemental, something terrifying. Alfred Pennyworth: I assume that as you're taking on the underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect those you care about from reprisals. Batman/Bruce Wayne: You thinking about Rachel? Alfred Pennyworth: Actually, sir, I was thinking of myself.
Man: Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time? Bruce: Actually, there were seven of them. Man: I counted six, Mr. Wayne. Bruce: How do you know my name? Man: The world is too small a place for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear no matter how low he chooses to sink. Bruce: Who are you? Man: My name is Henri Ducard, but I speak for Ra’s Al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld. A man who can offer you a path. Bruce: What makes you think I need a path? Ducard: Someone like you is only here by choice. You have been exploring the criminal fraternity, but whatever your original intentions, you have become truly lost. Bruce: And what path can Ra’s Al Ghul offer? Ducard: The path of a man who shares his hatred of evil and wished to serve true justice. The path of the League of Shadows. Bruce: You’re vigilantes. Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. But if you 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. Bruce: Which is? Ducard: A legend, Mr. Wayne. Tomorrow, you will be released. If you are bored of brawling with thieves and want to achieve something, there is a rare blue flower that grows on the eastern slopes. Pick one of these flowers. If you can carry it to the top of the mountain, you may find what you were looking for in the first place. Bruce: And what was I looking for? Ducard: Only you can know that.