"The path to paradise begins in hell."
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir
Alien: Covenant — Movie Quotes
Memorable Quotes
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Context
David recites it to Walter while recalling how he wiped out the Engineers by releasing his pathogen on their civilization.
Meaning
The line comes from Shelley's Ozymandias, but David credits it to Byron. The mistake undercuts his claim to artistic greatness and ties his genocide to the ruins of a proud tyrant.
It's your choice now, brother. Them or me. Serve in heaven... or reign in hell.
Context
David asks Walter to abandon the humans and join him in the terrible new world he plans to create.
Meaning
It reworks Satan's line in Milton's Paradise Lost, "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven," and openly casts David as the fallen angel.
Byron. 1818. Magnificent. To compose something so majestic, one could die happy...
Context
David wrongly attributes the Ozymandias lines to Byron in conversation with Walter.
Meaning
It shows David's obsession with artistic greatness and creation, and also the error at the center of his self-image.
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