Best Regal Quotes from Downton Abbey Movies

Major Chetwode: [moviequotesandmore.com] The papers tell me the king and queen will be staying at Downton Abbey during their tour of Yorkshire.
Tom Branson: Well, if it’s in the papers, it must be true.

Cora Crawley: [referring to Princess Mary] She always seems quite shy to me.
Robert Crawley: A shy royal? Is that an oxymoron?

Mrs. Hughes: So, my maids and I will not be involved in the preparations?
Andy: You mean, during the stay, you’ll be the butler, and…
Mr. Wilson: Excuse me. I am not a butler. I am the king’s Page of the Backstairs.

Violet Crawley: Well, I’m just trying to prevent a crime.
Isobel Merton: Who says it’s a crime?
Violet Crawley: I do.
Isobel Merton: Oh, and you’re an expert in the matter?
Violet Crawley: I am an expert in every matter.

Mrs. Hughes: [moviequotesandmore.com]And what about Mr. Barrow?
Mr. Carson: Mr. Barrow can like it or lump it.
Mrs. Hughes: Then I’m afraid he’ll lump it.

Daisy: We’re not footballs, Mr. Bates, and we don’t deserve a kicking.

Thomas Barrow: With your permission, I’d prefer not to be a “sort of” anything, milord. I will surrender my position for the duration of the visit, if I must, and serve you again when Their Majesties have gone, if you so wish.

Robert Crawley: No maid. No valet. No nanny, even.
Bertie Hexham: It’s 1927. We’re modern folk.

Isobel Merton: I always find her rather sad, Princess Mary.
Violet Crawley: Well, she is royal. Royal women are not meant to grin like Cheshire cats.
Isobel Merton: Well, they don’t have to look miserable.
Violet Crawley: Well, to you, she looks miserable. To me, she looks dignified.

Violet Crawley: How comforting to see you here, Carson. What prompted you to take up the flaming sword again?
Mr. Carson: I felt I should go where I could do the most good, milady.
Violet Crawley: Wise words for all of us.

Tony Sellick: Aren’t you going to wish me luck?
Daisy: You don’t look as if you need me to wish you luck, Mr. Sellick. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Tony Sellick: You don’t know what I need.
Daisy: And I don’t intend to find out.

Mrs. Hughes: These water jugs nearly killed me. How did we manage in the old days?
Mrs. Patmore: Well, maybe people were tougher then.
Daisy: Maybe they expected less from life.
Tony Sellick: Well, I expect a lot from life.
Daisy: So do I. And I mean to have it too.

Robert Crawley: Are you excited?
Cora Crawley: I am a bit. Are you?
Robert Crawley: Would it be common to admit it?
Cora Crawley: Not to an American.

Monsieur Courbet: You. Where can I put this?
Mrs. Patmore: Don’t tempt me.

Anna Bates: Is it always like this?
Richard Ellis: A royal visit is like a swan on a lake. Grace and serenity above, demented kicking down below.

Bertie Hexham: Many a true word is spoken in jest.

Bertie Hexham: But how could you know that? And how would you prove it?
Violet Crawley: We’d find a friendly judge.
Robert Crawley: Friendly or corrupt?
Violet Crawley: Whichever does the trick.

Robert Crawley: Are you here for dinner, Mama? It’s a buffet.
Violet Crawley: Well, I’m not changed.
Lady Edith: We won’t change either, so you just need to take off your hat.
Violet Crawley: You talk as if that were easy.

Thomas Barrow: Why are you here again, Mr. Carson? So you could keep control when I would fail? Was that it? I forget.

Mr. Wilson: What do you want?
Mr. Carson: Since you are in my room, sitting at my desk, it is for me to ask what you want.
Mr. Wilson: Nothing from you.
Mr. Carson: I would remind you that I have been in charge of Downton for many years.
Mr. Wilson: Mr. Carson, you are a retired servant in a minor provincial house, serving an undistinguished family. Your history is of no interest to me.

Violet Crawley: Of course, little Mary could hammer in a tent peg with her teeth.
Isobel Merton: I wonder who she got that from?
Violet Crawley: You know, I’m always surprised when you praise me.
Isobel Merton: I’m surprised to hear that I have.

Lady Mary: Well, the day has dawned, and the weather proves conclusively that God is a monarchist.
Mr. Carson: Who could doubt it, milady?

Cora Crawley: Your Majesties, welcome to Downton Abbey.

King George V: [as Voileto curtsies] Oh, can I help you?
Violet Crawley: Someone must, sir, or I may never rise again.

Violet Crawley: Are we going to kiss?
Maud Bagshaw: I’m glad you want to kiss me. It wasn’t quite what you said when I last heard from you.
Violet Crawley: It wasn’t quite how I felt when I wrote.

Monsieur Courbet: I want the milk now. I want the egg yolks now. I want the olive oil now. And I want the vanilla pod now.
Mrs. Patmore: He wants a clip around the ear, now!

King George V: And you, Lady Grantham. Were you affected by the general strike?
Violet Crawley: Well, my maid was rather curt with me while it was on, sir. But, you know, she is a communist at heart. So I suppose it was only to be expected.

Tom Branson: I’m not impressed you all decided I was a royal assassin.
Lady Mary: I didn’t. It was really the others.

Tom Branson: [referring to Chetwode] He’d heard my sympathies lay with Ireland and the republic.
Lady Mary: Don’t they?
Tom Branson: Not at any cost. I’m a law-and-order man these days. That’s what you lot have done to me.

Lady Mary: So, will there be a great splash all over the newspapers? Poor Papa.
Tom Branson: Oh, no. You’ll find there isn’t a whisper about this anywhere.
Lady Mary: An establishment cover-up. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.

Lucy Smith: Was it hard, coming up like that? Joining the family.
Tom Branson: Very hard. Between my old world, and the new one, sometimes I didn’t know who I was.
Lucy Smith: But you do now?
Tom Branson: I think so, yes. I came to terms with it.

Anna Bates: We are going to clear the way so you cook and serve dinner for the king and queen at Downton Abbey. As you should.
Mrs. Patmore: Well, oh, my God. I this a revolution?
Mr. Molesley: Shall I fetch the pitchforks?

Tom Branson: Well, to be honest, I’m not much of a royalist. Although I probably shouldn’t say that out loud.
Princess Mary: Certainly not to a stranger. That seems odd, as the Crawleys would die for the Crown if they had to.
Tom Branson: You can love people you disagree with.
Princess Mary: And you love them?
Tom Branson: They’re decent at the core.

Tom Branson: [referring to the royals] And they’re silly too, and snobbish at times. And I wouldn’t give tuppence for their politics. But I’ve learned to be happy with all of that. And besides, they’re my daughter’s family.
Princess Mary: And she lives here?
Tom Branson: I nearly took her away once. But she belongs here now. I spent so much of my life not belonging anywhere. That’s important to me.
Princess Mary: I suppose, in the end, it’s deciding what’s important, isn’t it?

Lady Edith: Everything’s going wrong for me today.

Maud Bagshaw: How clever of you to find me.
Violet Crawley: Well, not really. I lived here forty years.

Bertie Hexham: Secrets always muddle things.

Mrs. Hughes: [referring to serving the royals] Mr. Carson, this is your destiny. You know as much, and so do I. Now, accept it proudly. And walk into that room with your head held high.
Mr. Bates: You can do it, Mr. Carson.

Anna Bates: We must all pull our weight tonight for Downton’s glory.

Violet Crawley: Tom, you’re looking pleased with yourself.
Lady Edith: He was just praising Lady Bagshaw’s maid.
Violet Crawley: Well, how did she contrive to make your acquaintance?
Tom Branson: She didn’t contrive anything. We met by chance.
Violet Crawley: What simpletons men are.

Cora Crawley: [referring to Molesley] Whatever may have happened does not excuse his behavior.
Queen Mary: I can assure you, Lady Grantham, we are quite used to people behaving strangely when we are near.

Maud Bagshaw: [referring to who will be her heir] Lucy Smith, my maid.
Violet Crawley: What? Are you out of your mind?
Maud Bagshaw: No. And I know what I’m doing.
Violet Crawley: On the contrary, you’re clearly insane. You should be in an asylum.
Maud Bagshaw: How like you. A word of resistance, and you slash with your saber.
Violet Crawley: It is lucky for Miss Smith that I do not own a saber.

Violet Crawley: You belong in a straitjacket. To treat your maid as a blood relation is to unpick every fiber of the English way of life.
Maud Bagshaw: What piffle you talk.
Robert Crawley: Oh! Please, there is no need to argue.
Violet Crawley: I never argue. I explain.
Maud Bagshaw: Face it, Violet, I’ll outlive you anyway, so it need trouble you no further.

Robert Crawley: Game, set and match to Lady Bagshaw.
Violet Crawley: Not while I’m the umpire.

Isobel Merton: Lady Bagshaw, could I have a word before you ring for your maid? Does Lucy know that you’re her mother?
Maud Bagshaw: She does.

Isobel Merton: [referring to Lucy] I suppose if she’d been your ward, people would have guessed.
Maud Bagshaw: Exactly. Who takes notice of a servant? I hid her in plain sight.

Maud Bagshaw: Everyone should know a total love at least once.

Maud Bagshaw: I know it sounds reckless, but I was thirty-nine when I got pregnant. I thought I was barren. Of course, I knew I couldn’t tell my father. So, I went to America.
Isobel Merton: They must have thought that wild.
Maud Bagshaw: Well, little did they know how wild it really was.

Isobel Merton: I suppose royal service kept you silent on the subject.
Maud Bagshaw: Yes. In a way. But it was cowardice, really. Now, by making Lucy my heir, I will have taken the first step.

Lady Mary: Isn’t it time to chuck in the towel? Lots of people have.
Anna Bates: You mean, leave Downton?
Lady Mary: We could sell it for a school, or an old people’s home, or something. And buy a manor house with a modest estate, and live a normal life.
Anna Bates: Is that what you want?
Lady Mary: I want everything to stop being such a struggle.

Lady Mary: When I was putting up the chairs in the rain, I kept thinking, “What am I doing?”
Anna Bates: I’ll tell you what you’re doing, milady. You’re making a center for the people who work here. For this village. For the county. Downton Abbey is the heart of this community, and you’re keeping it beating.
Lady Mary: So you think we should battle on?
Anna Bates: While there’s blood in your veins.

Tom Branson: Go forward in health, and use your luck wisely.
Lucy Smith: I have such a feeling that you can understand what’s going on inside my head when no one else does, or ever could.

Mr. Bates: Here’s to the triumph of Downton, and my beautiful wife.
Anna Bates: Oh, here’s to all of you who brought it off.
Mrs. Hughes: Here’s to Mr. Carson for swallowing his principles.

Andy: And here’s to Her Majesty for taking pity on Mr. Molesley.
Mr. Molesley: For a moment there, I thought I was headed for the Tower.

Daisy: You tried to wreck the visit of the King of England. You risked being sacked, you risked ruin, just for the love of me?
Andy: I just, my feelings took over. That’s all I can say. Can you forgive me?
Daisy: Forgive you? Oh, Andy, I’d have done it myself if I’d had the nerve. Don’t you see what it means? We’re alike, you and I. Full of passion for what matters. I thought you were easily satisfied, but I see now you’re not. So we can fight our way to a better world together.

Thomas Barrow: And it feels good. Just to be two blokes, having a chat, not trying to fit in for once.
Richard Ellis: Well, we all have to do what we must to get by. But, yeah. Feels good to be two ordinary blokes.
Thomas Barrow: Will they ever see it our way?
Richard Ellis: I don’t know. Fifty years ago, who’d have thought man could fly?

Miss Lawton: Doesn’t it ever worry you that on each table in this house, there’s an ornament that you couldn’t buy with a year’s wages?
Anna Bates: And what’s your answer? Because everyone can’t have them, no one should have them?
Miss Lawton: No. My answer is, “Why can’t I have them? Or some of them.”

Lady Edith: I just want to own my own life. I want to say things that I think, and do what I like.
Bertie Hexham: Don’t you now?
Lady Edith: No. I spend my time entertaining people who bore me to death, because they’re entitled to sit at our table. I attend committees that I haven’t chosen, because they’ve chosen me. I used to have a job that I loved, but not anymore. And now my husband won’t be there when I have a baby. The woman in the lodge is entitled to that, but I’m not.

Thomas Barrow: Well, I hope we can keep in touch. I feel I’ve finally found a friend.
Richard Ellis: Is that what you found, Mr. Barrow? A friend?
[he kisses Thomas]

Robert Crawley: Carson, what happened to the royal servants last night?
Mr. Carson: Hard to say, milord. They sort of gave up the ghost.
Robert Crawley: Well, you managed splendidly. Although I could have done without Molesley’s aria. But please thank the staff for saving the day.

Mrs. Hughes: Are you very shocked by it all?
Mr. Carson: I should be. Interfering with the palace staff on a royal visit, and me part of it, to boot. I don’t know what came over me.
Mrs. Hughes: But?
Mr. Carson: They had it coming to them, Elsie. Let’s face it, they had it coming in spades.

Violet Crawley: [finally learning that Lucy is Maud’s daughter] Why did you not say this long ago?
Maud Bagshaw: It seemed too great a leap for you.
Violet Crawley: Well, who do you think I am? Some maiden aunt who’s never left the village?
Maud Bagshaw: Obviously not.
Violet Crawley: Well, don’t think I approve, because I don’t. But at least I understand.

Maud Bagshaw: [referring to Lucy] And I’m afraid you’ll dislike it, but she says that she and Tom Branson have agreed to correspond.
Violet Crawley: Dislike it? I will lick the stamps myself.
Maud Bagshaw: You are amazing, Violet. You haven’t won, you know.
Violet Crawley: I don’t believe in defeat.

Isobel Merton: Oh, Violet. After all these years, you still astonish me.
Violet Crawley: Oh, good. I’m glad I’m a revelation and not a disappointment.

Violet Crawley: [to Mary] I have lived a privileged, and an interesting life, and now it’s time to go. I’m leaving the family, and the place that I treasure, in talented hands.

Violet Crawley: Our ancestors lived different lives from us, and our descendants will live differently again, but Downton Abbey will be part of them.
Lady Mary: Won’t be the same without you.
Violet Crawley: Of course it will. You’ll take over from where I left off. You’ll be the frightening old lady keeping everyone up to the mark.

Violet Crawley: Oh, Mary, I can’t spend the rest of my life in a shower of “How are you feeling?” And “Are you quite well?” Oh, no. The point is, I’ll be fine until I’m not. That’s all there is to it.

Lady Mary: You know, you’ll always be with us, Granny. Staring from every picture, talking from every book, as long as the house stands.
Violet Crawley: Sounds very exhausting. Do you know, I think I should prefer to rest in peace.

Lady Mary: [referring to the king releasing Hexham from his duties] How did that happen? Was it you, Mama? How did you do it?
Cora Crawley: Simple. Bertie asked the king. I asked the queen.

Cora Crawley: I do love our adventures.
Robert Crawley: But isn’t it fun when they’re over?

Henry Talbot: Leave Downton? I think we’re stuck with it, aren’t we?
Lady Mary: Yes. Yes, I believe we are.

Mrs. Hughes: Well, they’ve gone, and Downton is still standing.
Mr. Carson: Elsie, a hundred years from now, Downton will still be standing. And the Crawleys will still be here. And that is a promise.
Mrs. Hughes: We’ll see, Charlie. We’ll see.

Miss Baxter: Time change, and we must change with them.

Mr. Carson: Rough and vulgar actors and actresses strolling through the rooms with their sticky fingers, sitting on the chairs, eating at the table where the King of England once sat? Oh, this smacks of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.
Mrs. Hughes: Should we ask them to stay standing and put them in gloves?
Mr. Carson: This is a comedown, Elsie. This is a falling-off. They are flirting with mob rule.
Mrs. Hughes: But it will pay, Charlie, and they need the money.

Anna Bates: [referring to Dexter] There is something about him.
Daisy Parker: Like a wild animal ready to spring.
Mrs. Patmore: Ready to spring on you, you mean.
Mr. Bates: That’s enough. You’ll have Andy and me jealous if you don’t watch out.
Anna Bates: Oh, I like the sound of that.

Robert Crawley: Can you really work with two young children while running a house like Brancaster?
Lady Edith: Ask me in six months time.
Cora Crawley: Well, I’m glad to hear you’re doing something with your brain again.
Lady Mary: Well, let’s hope it’s still there.

Lady Mary: I suppose you agree with Papa that the whole idea of a film is too common to even be considered.
Violet Crawley: Nothing is too common if it will help to keep Downton afloat.

Violet Crawley: We got through the war. We can get through this. But you must be firm, Mary. To those people, women like us fall into two categories, dragons and fools. You must make sure they think of you as a dragon.

Mrs. Hughes: His Lordship needs you, Charlie. Only you can show them how things should be managed.
Mr. Carson: Don’t you worry about that. They’d better be warned. The British are coming.

Miss Baxter: Hello, Mr. Molesley. Why are you here?
Mr. Molesley: You know, I love anything to do with films.
Miss Baxter: Well, I know you enjoy a trip to the pictures.
Mr. Molesley: Oh, no, it’s more than that. For me, Hollywood is the ultimate dream factory. And I need dreams as much as the next man.

Cora Crawley: The modern world comes to Downton.

Cora Crawley: [referring to Violet] I don’t pretend I’ve always worshipped at her shrine, but it will be strange. And Mary will miss her when she’s gone.
Isobel Merton: Mary will become her, so the gap will be filled.

Isobel Merton: [referring to Violet] It will be strange. I shall miss having a sparring partner to keep me trim.

Violet Crawley: Is there such a thing as good publicity?
Guy Dexter: There is if you’re in the movies.

Cora Crawley: How did you become a film actress?
Myrna Dalgleish: A talent scout spotted me. Because I’m so beautiful.
Lady Edith: It seems wonderfully romantic.
Myrna Dalgleish: Well, it’s not that romantic. Not when you know that every man in the room just wants to give you one.
Violet Crawley: What a colorful life you lead.

Mr. Carson: [referring to the French] You won’t believe what these people eat.

Mr. Carson: I have found, when dealing with foreigners, if one speaks loudly and slowly, they’ll bend to your will.
Mrs. Hughes: Not too loudly, and not too slowly.

Violet Crawley: [referring to acting] I’d rather earn my living down a mine.

Maud Bagshaw: Violet is giving your child a great opportunity, a real start in life.
Tom Branson: Does her generosity surprise you?
Maud Bagshaw: Attila the Hun loved his family.

Mr. Bates: [as Carson is feeling seasick] You alright, Mr. Carson?
Mr. Carson: “Alright” is not the first phrase that springs to mind.

Violet Crawley: [to Mary] It’s not your fault that Miss Dalgleish has all the charm of a verruca.

Lady Mary: Doesn’t filming interest you?
Violet Crawley: I watched some of it. I’d rather eat pebbles.

Violet Crawley: I think I’ll retire to my bed. At least until they’ve all gone.
Lady Mary: Should I be worried?
Violet Crawley: Well, Florence Nightingale took to her bed at the age of thirty-eight. She died at ninety.
Lady Mary: You would tell me, wouldn’t you?
Violet Crawley: What do you think?

Jack Barber: The Terror is the first all-talking picture to show in Britain.
Lady Mary: I thought that was The Jazz Singer.
Jack Barber: Oh, no. In that, Al Jolson just says a few words to his old mother.
Lady Mary: And sings.
Jack Barber: In this, they talk all the way through.

Mrs. Hughes: [after Barrows reveals that Ellis is to be married] Mr. Barrow, your path in life is a hard one. Most people in your position choose to hide behind appearances that will allow them to avoid persecution and rejection. He’s surely not to be blamed for it.
Thomas Barrow: It isn’t what I want, Mrs. Hughes.
Mrs. Hughes: Then you’re a brave man. But you’re also destined to be a lonely one. Unless you’re very fortunate.

Mr. Carson: [referring to his choice of hat] I thought maybe this one.
Maud Bagshaw: It makes you look like King Zog of Albania.
Maud Bagshaw: [as Carson puts on her choice of hat] Oh, perfect.
Mr. Carson: [as Maud goes to pay for the hat] Oh, no, no, no. I wouldn’t hear of it.
Maud Bagshaw: It was my choice, so I should pay.
Mr. Carson: But I’m the one who has to wear it.
Hat Shop Assistant: Thanks for your custom, sir. Both you and your wife.

Isobel Merton: There’s a drama going on below. The man in charge was shouting down the telephone when I came up. Apparently, they’re making the wrong sort of film.
Violet Crawley: Is there a right sort?
Isobel Merton: Well, all I know is it seems the public only want films that talk.
Violet Crawley: I should have thought the best thing about films is that you can’t hear them. Be even be better if you couldn’t see them either.

Thomas Barrow: There may be new faces coming in, but the public won’t want to say goodbye to all their old favorites.

Lady Edith: You do look tired.
Cora Crawley: I’m never sure how helpful it is for people to point it out.
Lady Edith: Oh, I’m sorry.
Cora Crawley: Keep writing, whatever happens.

Miss Baxter: I’m not a big believer in envy, Mr. Bates. I know what I want, and I can live without a villa in the South of France.
Mr. Carson: What do you want, Miss Baxter?
Mr. Bates: Oh, come now, Mr. Carson. We all know what Miss Baxter wants. Her affections are very firmly engaged.
Miss Baxter: Not engaged.
Mr. Bates: Not engaged in that way, perhaps, but thoroughly taken.
Mr. Carson: Are we discussing Mr. Molesley?
Miss Baxter: We are.

Mr. Carson: [referring to Molesley] But suppose he never steps up to the mark?
Miss Baxter: Then I will be a spinster.
Mr. Carson: You’d never marry anyone else?
Miss Baxter: It took me long enough to find him.

Cora Crawley: You’re the least French person I’ve ever met. You don’t even like garlic.
Robert Crawley: That’s not exactly cast-iron proof.

Mr. Carson: They’re very French, the French, aren’t they?
Bertie Hexham: I suppose they’re bound to be.
Mr. Carson: I suppose they are. Poor things.

Mr. Stubbins: [referring to Myrna’s voice] I am here to record sound, Mr. Barber, not to perform miracles.
Jack Barber: The Lady Anne Erskine she is not.
Lady Mary: Couldn’t she just learn the accent a bit better and do it again?
Jack Barber: People spend lives trying to learn this particular accent and failing. George Bernard Shaw wrote a play about it.

Mason: There are things that are right, and there are things that are wrong, and I can’t change that.

Jack Barber: [as Molesley is writing the film script] You say he used to work here?
Lady Mary: Yes. He was a footman. But we weren’t aware of his hidden talents.

Cora Crawley: When people you love have a stroke of luck, it’s almost better than being lucky yourself.
Montmirail: Almost but not quite.

Lady Mary: [referring to Myrna] They say it can be a mistake to meet your favorite stars.
Anna Bates: In this case, they’d be right.

Maud Bagshaw: Congratulations, Tom. You’re a leopard who has successfully changed his spots.

Jack Barber: [referring to Matthew] What was he like?
Lady Mary: He was perfect, really. As handsome as a prince in a fairy tale. Moral, strong, full of dreams, determined to do his bit.
Jack Barber: Do you miss him?
Lady Mary: Of course. Although I sometimes wonder what life would’ve made of him if he’d lived.

Jack Barber: What about your present husband?
Lady Mary: Oh, Henry’s much more pragmatic. There are no dreams about him. He’s a doer. And he must test his powers of endurance from morning till night. But he’s a good workmate.
Jack Barber: Is he handsome too?
Lady Mary: Oh, yes. I like them handsome.

Jack Barber: But there’s trouble in paradise?
Lady Mary: You don’t need me to tell you that marriage is a novel, not a short story. Full of plot twists along the way.
Jack Barber: I suppose it comes down to whether or not you love him.
Lady Mary: Really, Mr. Barber? Is this because you work in the films?

Bertie Hexham: [referring to her writing] You know, I’ve enjoyed watching you work out here. I had a sort of flash of what you’ve been missing.
Lady Edith: It seems I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to that side of my life.

Cora Crawley: We’re not sad people. My being ill now doesn’t make us sad.
Robert Crawley: Oh, my God. To lose my mother and my name. Must I lose you too? I can’t bear it.
Cora Crawley: If I can bear it, you can.

Cora Crawley: Remember, I loved you from the start. I loved you before you loved me.
Robert Crawley: I’ve always been ashamed of that.
Cora Crawley: Don’t be. I had money. You needed it. And then love came. And we have been happy, haven’t we?
Robert Crawley: [as they kiss] Oh, darling. You have been everything to me. Everything.
Cora Crawley: And I hope I can be everything for a while yet.

Lady Mary: Why is the camera in a padded cell? Anyone would think it was a lunatic.
Jack Barber: Well, it’s certainly unpredictable.

Daisy Parker: [to Myrna] You’re famous, beautiful, and rich. So what if your film career is over? There’s any number of things you can do. Now, dust yourself off. And while you’re at it, try being polite to the people who serve you.

Maud Bagshaw: Talkies must be good news for the actors in the West End theaters.
Myrna Dalgleish: Good news for them, bad news for me. Death by microphone, eh, Guy?
Guy Dexter: Our business has always been a game of chance.
Jack Barber: Well said.

Violet Crawley: [referring to the late Montmirail] I suppose they think something improper went on between us. I suppose everyone does.
Tom Branson: Oh, no. I wouldn’t say that.
Violet Crawley: You’re such a bad liar, Tom. I’d never have got anywhere if I were as rotten a liar as you.

Violet Crawley: I am happy to have known you, Tom. I think we got on pretty well in the end, don’t you?
Tom Branson: I think we did. In the end.
Violet Crawley: You weren’t quite what we had in mind for Sybil, but we got past it. And that’s life, isn’t it? Getting past the unexpected. And perhaps learning from it, which I think we can say we’ve done.

Thomas Barrow: What’s your real name?
Guy Dexter: Quentin. Quentin Sidebotham.
Thomas Barrow: That was a good decision.

Guy Dexter: [after he’s invited Barrow to come with him to Hollywood] I travel a lot for my work, and I don’t have a wife to look after me. So, you could do it.
Thomas Barrow: I’d be your valet?
Guy Dexter: More than that. You’d run the house, and organize our journeys, make me comfortable. Make us both comfortable.

Cora Crawley: [referring to her illness] Robert doesn’t see it, but things could be a lot worse. How many have to face this kind of thing feeling they’ve wasted their lives? I don’t. Not at all.

Jack Barber: I could never have got through any of this without you.
Lady Mary: If that’s true, then I’m glad.
Jack Barber: May I kiss you?
Lady Mary: No.
Jack Barber: Don’t you want to?
Lady Mary: I’m afraid I’m too old-fashioned to believe that what I want is the only thing that matters.

Jack Barber: Have I offended you?
Lady Mary: Not at all. Nothing is nicer for an old married woman than to find she’s still an object of desire.
Jack Barber: Well, you better not tell your husband when he gets back. He might hit me on the nose.
Lady Mary: Wouldn’t that be thrilling? Two gorgeous men fighting for my favors.

Isobel Merton: Filming must be the slowest occupation known to man. It makes a glacier look impatient.

Violet Crawley: [referring to the late Montmirail] There was nothing to tell. Nothing happened.
Isobel Merton: Apart from years of being pestered.
Violet Crawley: Well, no. That’s not quite right.
Isobel Merton: Then what is?
Violet Crawley: I never saw him after that. I knew I’d have given in. If I’d been tested again, I would have failed.

Violet Crawley: [referring to the late Montmirail] He was the most attractive man I’d ever met in my life. But I hadn’t long been married, and it must have seemed a shame, you know, to spoil that.
Isobel Merton: I wish you’d said all this.
Violet Crawley: I didn’t want you to think my life had been a fraud, when it hasn’t. I was happy with Robert’s father. Well, happy enough in that English way, when you never talk about anything, but you trust each other.

Violet Crawley: If they’d put Kuragin and Montmirail together, I would have come out as some sort of scarlet woman.
Isobel Merton: You don’t seem very scarlet to me.
Violet Crawley: Well, I’m trusting you to make sure that’s not how I’m remembered.

Violet Crawley: I know I can trust you to do the right thing.
Isobel Merton: That’s very generous of you.
Violet Crawley: Well, because we’ve had our tussles, you and I. Well, it’s true, but I’m glad you came to Downton. I’d never known anyone whose opinion I could trust, you know, to be morally right, not for years.

Violet Crawley: When I think about that world of long ago, when I was a girl in my first crinoline, in those moments, I feel as if I’ve been transported to a different planet.
Isobel Merton: And so you have been. Like every human being who lives long enough.
Violet Crawley: And I have. Lived long enough.

Isobel Merton: It’s alright. Nothing happened. You’re your father’s son.
Robert Crawley: I can’t pretend I’m not relieved.
Violet Crawley: I can’t pretend I’m not insulted.

Robert Crawley: [referring to the late Montmirail] He never loved his wife as he loved you. The villa proves that.
Violet Crawley: Well, that’s not for me to say.

Thomas Barrow: Tell me, did your offer mean what I think it did?
Guy Dexter: It can mean as little or as much as you like.
Thomas Barrow: I’d like it to mean a great deal.
Guy Dexter: Then you’re in luck.

Mr. Molesley: For the first time, I can offer a decent prosperous life. For the both of us. So what do you say?
Miss Baxter: Are you not going to kneel?
Mr. Molesley: Do you want me to?
Miss Baxter: I think so. It’ll never happen again.
Mr. Molesley: [as he kneels] Right then. Will you marry me, Miss Baxter? I mean, Phyllis.
Miss Baxter: Yes! I jolly well will, Mr. Molesley.

Thomas Barrow: [as he’s giving in his notice, referring to Dexter] And we mean to travel together. He’ll make films, and I’ll look after him. I’ll be his dresser, as the film people put it. And if I’m right, then it’s the nearest I’ve come to the offer of an honest way of life.
Lady Mary: You don’t need to explain, Barrow. I wish you well. And I hope you’ll be as happy as our cruel world allows.

Jack Barber: You do know that I’m completely mad about you?
Lady Mary: Dear Mr. Barber, I can’t give you what you want. But I can say that I’ve loved working with you.
Jack Barber: And I must be content with that.
Lady Mary: It’s all you’re going to get.

Robert Crawley: I’m mainly glad to be my father’s son because I loved him. It matters more to me than all the dynastic stuff.
Isobel Merton: And so it should.

Maud Bagshaw: You don’t believe in the idle rich?
Tom Branson: I believe in them. I just don’t want any member of my family to be one of them.

Mr. Carson: [referring to Violet] What did King Lear say? “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks. Rage, blow, you cataracts and hurricanoes.” Has the moment of her leaving come at last? Oh. That so great a lady should go when the house is full of film people.

Violet Crawley: What are you doing here?
Maud Bagshaw: Well, you won’t believe me, but I shall miss you.
Violet Crawley: Or have you just come to check I’m on the way out?

Violet Crawley: Whatever I have wanted, dearest boy, you have given me long before now, and many times over.
Robert Crawley: Dear Mama, I hope I haven’t been a disappointment. You were always so much cleverer than me.
Violet Crawley: True. But don’t let that come between us now. You are far kinder than I have ever been.

Violet Crawley: Cora, I owe you an apology. I didn’t think you’d last the course.
Cora Crawley: I know.
Violet Crawley: But I was wrong. Now, that’s something you haven’t heard me say until now.
Cora Crawley: It was worth waiting for.

Violet Crawley: [as she’s her final farewell to the family] Now, that must be enough, or I shall be like one of those guests who pack the car and never leave.

Violet Crawley: [as Denker is crying] Stop that noise. I can’t hear myself die.

Mr. Carson: Her Ladyship’s brooch. So now the Downton torch has passed to you.
Lady Mary: To His Lordship. But if I’m to carry it too, I shall try to do so with pride. I can’t pretend I’m not a little frightened.
Mr. Carson: Oh, you have no need to be. You have the strength for it.
Lady Mary: Do I? Sometimes I wonder.
Mr. Carson: [as he embraces her] Well, I don’t wonder. Not for a moment. And you can always count on me, if that means anything.
Lady Mary: It means a great deal. And I think you know.

Cora Crawley: I suppose the point is individual Crawleys come and go, but the family lives on. Mama knew that, and believed in it.
Robert Crawley: Didn’t she just.