Why was I not made of stone, like thee?

When I first saw this remarkable film I was only a young child. It was one of those classics that was repeatedly aired on "Million Dollar Movie", on Channel 9 in New York City. In those formative years certain phrases, incidents and cultural phenomena have an intense impression on an eager mind, so much as to remain ingrained in not only the memory, but on an individual's entire weltanschauung ("world-view"). Of course, when Laughton speaks those words it's at the end of the film and thereby it naturally makes its impression more vividly than were they to be spoken randomly placed within the text of the script. But the depth of their meaning as well as the beauty in which Laughton expressed them made such an indelible impression on me I almost feel as if I had invented them myself out of the psychological impact that depression makes on a young mind. But Laughton's thespian acumen is so marvelous that his body language when he wraps his arm around the gargoyle and utters them is almost enough to deliver the meaning in its entirety even without listening to him recite them.
I was so enthralled with the early Renaissance portrayed in the sets and dialog I went on to major in Medieval and Northern Renaissance History and Art at University. This film is so auspicious I'm of the opinion that it stands out as one of the truly great works of art of the 20th century, in that cinema has established itself as a true art, new as a cultural phenomena that comprise a genuine art form. I feel privileged just to have seen it, in the way I feel blessed by viewing the works of Jan Van Eyck and all of the Northern Renaissance artists that introduced the seeds of our modern culture born out of Europe in that equally auspicious age of great beginnings.