Krystyna: Look. An old crypt. An inscription. "So often are you as a blazing torch with flames of burning hemp falling about you flaming, you know not if the flames bring freedom or death, consuming all that you most cherish. Will only ashes remain, and chaos whirling into the void." The letters are blurred. I can't read it.

Maciek Chelmicki: It's by Norwid. "Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond, the Morning Star of everlasting triumph."

Krystyna: That's beautiful. "Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond..." And what are we?

Maciek Chelmicki: You - are definitely a diamond.
Szczuka: I'd be a bad communist, comrades, if I were to reassure you like a bunch of naive kids. The end of the war isn't the end of our fight. The fight for Poland and what kind of country it's to become has only just begun. Today or tomorrow or the day after, any one of us could die.
Maciek Chelmicki: Warsaw girls. Makes me want to stay.
Waga: You're too experienced a soldier not to realize that as your superior officer I have the right to ignore that question.
Krystyna: In a hurry?

Maciek Chelmicki: No, I'm meeting someone.

Krystyna: A woman?

Maciek Chelmicki: Happy?

Krystyna: Who?

Maciek Chelmicki: You.

Krystyna: Me?
Maciek Chelmicki: No need to take things so seriously. The main thing is to find a way through this mess without being tricked or getting bored. What else is there?
Hanka Lewicka: [singing] Years will pass and ages will roll by, But traces of bygone days will remain, And all the poppies of Monte Cassino, Will be redder from growing in Polish blood.
Andrzej: Listen, I'm responsible to Florian.

Maciek Chelmicki: That's all right. I'm responsible to you. Everyone's got to be responsible to somebody.
Krystyna: Why do you always wear those dark glasses?

Maciek Chelmicki: A souvenir of unrequited love for my homeland.
Szczuka: [Franek holds out a handful of bullets, Szczuka examines one] German. Did you find them?

Franek Pawlicki: No, but we will. Some of these are English too. At close range, there's not the slightest difference.

Ashes and Diamonds Quotes

Extended Reading

Ashes and Diamonds short comments

Hildegard 2022-03-25 09:01:19

The first Andre Vajda work I saw. Freedom is so sweet, but why does it change its taste when it reaches our mouths?
Nyasia 2022-03-17 09:01:08

I have not watched one of the trilogy, but according to this chronological order, the third "Ashes and Diamonds", which reflects on the overall war and greets the unknown before dawn, is really a great finishing touch. How important is it to have a beautiful girl in a movie? She is equal to the last light that shines into the house.