When the player is at war with France against Louis XIV and he refuses an offer to end the war, he would occasionally say, "It is too late for peace, you silly (your nation here)! Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"
This is referring to the French Taunters in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
It's even made more evident if the player uses English civilization, since in the movie the French Taunters also said "Silly English K-nnnigets."
When the player is at war with America against Roosevelt and he refuses an offer to end the war, he occasionally says, "America does not negotiate with terrorists."
Elvis Presley has had some form of appearance in every Civilization title so far: in Civilization IV, the clothes of the Great Artist units, from the Industrial to the Modern Ages, and the "Rock and Roll" wonder are tributes to him.
When starting or loading a game hints will pop up in the bottom of the screen. One such hint is "Never start a land war in Asia." This is a quote from The Princess Bride by the Sicilian, Vizzini, based on Douglas MacArthur's advice to President John F. Kennedy. Another is, "Snacks are good in moderation." And another includes: "Never bring a sword to a gunfight".
When selecting what size and style of map a player wants to use in a new game, a globe with seemingly random land masses rotates in a space within the selection window. The globe is actually an upside-down planet Earth with oceans in the shape of earth's continents.
When the player builds a theatre in a city, the music played is borrowed from Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004), where the player dances with the Governor's daughter in a lavishly decorated ballroom.
In the movie for the Hollywood wonder, the blueprints include a picture of Clara Bow and a Hollywood Walk of Fame star for Hoot Gibson.
When a player makes a decision that pleases another leader, he or she sometimes replies with the lyrics "Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're everything I wished I could be." from the song "Wind beneath My Wings". Another diplomatic statement quoting the same song is "[Player's name], you make me so happy!" A third is, simply, "You are the wind beneath my wings."
When a player is at war, the unhappy citizens in the cities will say "War... What is it good for? Absolutely nothing... Unh!" in tribute to Edwin Starr's song "War"
The animation shown when beginning a new game (commencing with the Biblical words In the beginning, the Earth was without form, and void...) is a tribute to the original Civilization game, where very similar animation accompanied with the same text was played.
When another leader starts a war against you, they sometimes tell you: "I suppose you realize that this means war". That is a quotation from the classic Marx Brothers film Duck Soup, where Groucho Marx, who has become the leader of the country of Fredonia, insults a foreign ambassador who has been too attentive to Margaret Dumont; Groucho ends his stream of vituperation with this statement before striding away.
A quote also spoken by Warner Bros. character Daffy Duck on multiple occasions to Bugs Bunny, when the comical rabbit antagonizes the duck one too many times.
When you first encounter the leader of another civilization, the statement you pick if you want to express peaceful intentions is "There will be peace in our time", an obvious reference to Neville Chamberlain's words when he returned to London after having given in to Hitler's demands over Czechoslovakia in 1938.