Natasha Rostov: Did you notice he almost never smiles? While I was singing, I turned around suddenly and caught him looking at me and he was smiling then. And I felt - but it's almost impossible to describe - I felt as if someone had given me the most enormous, beautiful present.

- Audrey Hepburn (as Natasha Rostova) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Natasha Rostov: When I finally say I love you to any man and really mean it, it will be like a defeated general who's lost all his troops, surrendering and handing his sword to the enemy.

- Audrey Hepburn (as Natasha Rostova) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Napoleon: [Thinking to himself as he gazes through the window] Already the wild geese are flying south. What if we are trapped here through winter?

- Herbert Lom (as Napoleon) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Napoleon: I warn you, gentlemen; I cannot sit here much longer - watching my army decay!

- Herbert Lom (as Napoleon) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Platon Karatsev: [about the camp followers of Napoleon's retreating army] Russian women!
Pierre Bezukhov: They're the lice that live on the conquerors. They have to leave or die.

- Henry Fonda (as Pierre Bezukhov) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Platon Karatsev: [explaining why a boy was executed] Where there's law, there's injustice.
[to his dog]
Platon Karatsev: C'mon, boy, get up, get up!
[to Pierre]
Platon Karatsev: But the maggot eats the cabbage - yet dies first.
Pierre Bezukhov: What did you say?
Platon Karatsev: I say things happen not as we plan them but as God judges.

- John Mills (as Platon Karataev) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Platon Karatsev: [to the French soldier who is about to execute him during the retreat] Are you afraid too, friend?

- John Mills (as Platon Karataev) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Pierre Bezukhov: [Before the Battle of Borodino] Such an enormous event! All our lives will be different from now on because of what is going to happen here tomorrow.

- Henry Fonda (as Pierre Bezukhov) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Pierre Bezukhov: [opens the bedroom drapes, while his spoiled wife sleeps on] Come on, Helene! We've got lots to do if we want to leave for the country.
Helene Kuragina: [very sleepy] Oh Pierre, it's so early!
[he kisses her, and she gets a crafty look on her face]
Helene Kuragina: Besides, it's so boring in the country.
Pierre Bezukhov: [Seriously] I'm sorry, my dear, but I promised those peasants I'd come and see them. They need a new hospital, and a new school, and many other things besides.
Helene Kuragina: [very spoiled] Well they can starve just as well without a school, and they can die just as well without a hospital!
[catches herself, changes her tune]
Helene Kuragina: Pierre, why don't you go on without me? You can do what you have to do, and I'll come visit you in a few months time.
[Slyly]
Helene Kuragina: You'll appreciate me so much more after a few months of sleeping alone.

- Anita Ekberg (as Helene Kuragina) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)

Pierre Bezukhov: I have sinned, Lord, but I have several excellent excuses.

- Henry Fonda (as Pierre Bezukhov) in War and Peace (1956) (1956)