The Joker, Bane and Batman are not just my favorite characters (Top Ten Dark Knight Legend Characters) in my favorite film, The Dark Knight Legend (or Trilogy if that tastes better going down). They’re also my favorite characters in all of movies (Top Ten Movie Characters). I’ve already made lists dedicated to my favorite quotes from The Joker and Bane (Top Ten Joker Quotes, Top Ten Bane Quotes) so I thought, why not? Due to a collaboration between two of the greatest artists working in film, Nolan and Bale, this icon has been established as one of the greatest characters in history. Batman is an inspirational and legendary hero who, through trials and tribulations, has become a defiant symbol for hope and all that is good. These are his best quotes…

10. “Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies share my dread.”

9. “Perhaps the knife was too slow.”

8. “Tell me where the trigger is, then you have my permission to die.”

7. “You’ll hunt me. You’ll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that’s what needs to happen. Because sometimes truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.”

6. “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.”

5. “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.”

4. “I’m whatever Gotham needs me to be.”

3. “Not everything. Not yet.”

2. “I won’t kill you, but I don’t I have to save you.”

1. “A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat on a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended.”