HBO’s The Gilded Age Quotes

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Bertha] Is it that woman again?
Ada Brook: You must be pleased they’re moving in and we have peace at last.
Agnes van Rhijn: I don’t know which is worse, the noise of the builders, or the chance of running into her in the street.

George Russell: Did you know they shot Jesse James?
Bertha Russell: He had his troubles. I have mine.

George Russell: We have been in New York City for three years, Bertha, watching this house rise from the sidewalk.
Bertha Russell: But we’ve been stuck down on 30th Street with yesterday’s men.
George Russell: You chose the house.
Bertha Russell: I didn’t know how things worked then. Now I do.

George Russell: They don’t care. They don’t know we exist.
Bertha Russell: Well, they will now. And there’s no need to sound superior. We cannot succeed in this town without Mrs. Astor’s approval. I know that much.
George Russell: So we are to bow down before a woman who has less money than me, and less of absolutely everything than you.

Bertha Russell: You can laugh, but we’ll get there. I just have to manage it carefully.
George Russell: The Russell family has managed pretty well so far, if you ask me.
Bertha Russell: Because they didn’t know any better.

Bertha Russell: Mrs. Van Rhijn and her sad sister were spying on me when I came back.
George Russell: I don’t know why you bother with them.
Bertha Russell: I don’t bother with them.

Bertha Russell: [as George puts his feet on the table] Careful, that table belonged to King Ludwig of Bavaria.
George Russell: He had it once. I’ve got it now.

Ada Brook: Oh, Mrs. Bauer, I hope she won’t make extra work for you. Miss Marian, I mean. You must say if it’s too much.
Mrs. Bauer: Oh, I don’t mind. I think she may brighten the place up a bit.
Ada Brook: Yes, that’s rather what Mrs. Van Rhijn is afraid of.

George Russell: You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Tom Raikes: Have you slept at all? You look worn out.
Marian Brook: Just what every woman wants to hear.

Peggy Scott: [after helping Marian get on the train] I’m sorry it’s not first class.
Marian Brook: Nonsense. You’ve been very kind, especially when I tore your skirt. I promise, my aunts are good for the money.
Peggy Scott: I imagine they are if they live on East 61st Street.

Bertha Russell: If you’re going to do a thing, you might as well do it properly.

Kowalski: We’ve finished the gilding in the ballroom, Mrs. Russell.
Bertha Russell: No, you think you have finished the gilding, Mr. Kowalski, but nothing is finished till I decide.

George Russell: What about your old friends? You never see them now.
Bertha Russell: I don’t want my old friends. I want new friends.

Agnes van Rhijn: It seems we owe you a considerable debt, Miss Scott. I gather you would like to stay here?
Peggy Scott: I don’t want to be a nuisance.
Marian Brook: I forced Miss Scott into the cab to get her out of the storm.
Ada Brook: The wind gusts alone could blow you all the way to Fifth Avenue.
Marian Brook: So she can stay, Aunt Agnes?
Agnes van Rhijn: We can’t have Miss Scott blown into oblivion.

Agnes van Rhijn: I suppose you only recently learned that your father had let you down.
Marian Brook: Please don’t speak ill of Daddy.
Agnes van Rhijn: I will say what I like in my own house.
Marian Brook: Not to me.

Marian Brook: I thought I might find a job. Would that be out of the question?
Agnes van Rhijn: Only if you wish to live with me.

Agnes van Rhijn: Now, you need to know we only receive the old people in this house, not the new. Never the new.
Marian Brook: What’s the difference?
Agnes van Rhijn: The old have been in charge since before the revolution. They ruled justly until the new people invaded.
Ada Brook: It’s not quite as simple as that.
Agnes van Rhijn: Yes, it is.
Marian Brook: Well, I’m new. I’ve only just arrived.

Agnes van Rhijn: [to Marian] You belong to old New York, my dear, and don’t let anyone tell you different. You are my niece, and you belong to old New York.

Armstrong: [referring to Peggy] She’ll disrupt things. I told Mrs. Bauer, but she wouldn’t listen.
Bannister: Maybe we need a bit of disruption.

Bertha Russell: It’s beginning. I knew it would. Persistence is the key to everything. Patience and persistence.
George Russell: Useful qualities, I agree.

George Russell: I’m seeing John Thorburn that day.
Bertha Russell: Who’s he?
George Russell: A man who owns a railroad and thinks he can get the better of me.
Bertha Russell: He’ll find out.

Caroline Astor: Handsome young men who talk are always useful. That’s what my mother says.
Oscar van Rhijn: And a girl should always listen to her mother.

Dorothy Scott: [to Peggy] You just remember, we are all held fast, frozen in time until you finally allow us to move forward.

Anne Morris: How brave not to go with the same old builders everyone else uses.
Bertha Russell: I don’t think we should be afraid of new things, or new people.

Aurora Fane: [referring Bertha] Let’s face it, Aunt Ada. We need money, and you know how much those women give when they want to get in.
Ada Brook: There’s a price for that, Aurora, and it’s no good thinking you won’t have to pay it.

Thorburn: I don’t understand you, sir. You want to throw money away just so you can ruin me?
George Russell: That’s not how I would put it.

Thorburn: I turned down your offer because I thought you’d come back with more. It’s called negotiation.
George Russell: Not in my book, Mr. Thorburn. You refused my bid, and now I will build a new line alongside yours.
Thorburn: Which would wipe me out.

Thorburn: You b****rd.
George Russell: I may be a b****d, Mr. Thorburn. But you are a fool. And of the two, I think I know which I prefer.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to Agnes] She wrote that a cousin has come to live with them while I’ve been away, Miss Marian Brook. So that is something to look forward to. A dumpy spinster with a face like a cabbage and a figure to match.

George Russell: They want our money, Bertha.
Bertha Russell: It’s a good cause.
George Russell: I’m sure. And I’m glad if you’d like to donate, but please don’t deceive yourself that their interest in us is something more.
Bertha Russell: George, we have to start somewhere.

Jack Treacher: [referring to Agnes] Oh, she’ll have to give in one day.
Bannister: Why?
Jack Treacher: Well, because they own the future, men like Mr. Russell. And Mrs. Van Rhijn will have to come to terms with it sooner or later, stands to reason.
Jack Treacher: What will you do if she doesn’t?
Bannister: Me?
Jack Treacher: Nothing, I guess.

Turner: [referring to Bertha’s party guests] If they come, it will only be out of curiosity to see the house.
Monsieur Baudin: What makes you say that?
Watson: The master is successful, isn’t he? People want to know you when you’re a success. It’s when you fail they turn their backs.
Church: You sound rather bitter, Mr. Watson.
Watson: Oh, just stating the fact.

Watson: I’ve nothing to hide.
Monsieur Baudin: Well, if that is true, you must be a very unusual person.

Marian Brook: [after Larry saves the dog, Pumpkin, from being runover] Good heavens, that was brave.
Larry Russell: Anyone would have done the same.
Marian Brook: I doubt it, or there’d be bodies up and down Fifth Avenue.

Larry Russell: Are you a Van Rhijn?
Marian Brook: Almost. Mrs. Van Rhijn is my aunt. I’m Marian Brook.
Larry Russell: Oscar van Rhijn’s cousin?
Marian Brook: Yes.
Larry Russell: Oh, you’re not as he described you.

Ada Brook: [referring to Bertha’s invitation] It’s an invitation.
Agnes van Rhijn: Addressed to us?
Ada Brook: They were bound to entertain soon. They can’t have built that great house to sit by the fire and read.
Agnes van Rhijn: Well, let them entertain their own sort. Heaven knows there are plenty to choose from.

George Russell: [referring to Bertha] Whatever her faults, she has imagination, and taste, and nerve.
Stanford White: She will need all three in New York.

Oscar van Rhijn: I presume I’m expected to keep the house running indefinitely.
Agnes van Rhijn: I shouldn’t worry about Marian. She’ll be gone long before I am.
Oscar van Rhijn: What makes you so sure?

Marian Brook: Mr. Van Rhijn, I was beginning to think you were only a dream.
Oscar van Rhijn: Should we kiss? We are cousins.
Marian Brook: Let’s shake hands for now.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to the Russells] Are you going to their soirée?
Agnes van Rhijn: Of course not. Don’t say such things.
Oscar van Rhijn: Mama, you are incorrigible.
Agnes van Rhijn: I take that as the highest praise.

Turner: [referring to Bertha] You know as well as I do she isn’t one of them. I used to work for Mrs. Griswold on 50th. That’s why Madam hired me, to teach her the ways of the old people. But Mrs. Griswold wouldn’t have come near this house.
Mrs. Bruce: Then she was a very stupid woman.
Turner: The mistress is not a player in the great game, whatever she says.

Watson: If she was so wonderful, why did you leave? Or were you fired?
Turner: She died, Mr. Watson, of a heart attack, just as she was changing for Mrs. Astor’s ball. It was very hard on Mr. Griswold.
Watson: Because he was left all alone.
Turner: Because he wanted to go to the ball.

George Russell: So, are you ready for your trial by hospitality?
Bertha Russell: Well, if I’m not ready now, I never will be.
George Russell: What was it your mother used to say? “You are the only one of my children who is worthy of my dreams?”
Bertha Russell: Much good did those dreams do her. She had nothing while she lived and nothing when she died.
George Russell: You loved her. That wasn’t nothing.

George Russell: I wish you’d invited some of the old crowd. The house will be full of strangers.
Bertha Russell: We’re headed in a different direction now, George. We’re joining a different club.
George Russell: Even if they don’t want us to be members?
Bertha Russell: Why shouldn’t we be members? I’m tired of letting all those dull and stupid women dictate the way we live our lives. Why, you’ve done more for this city in ten years than their families have achieved in centuries.

George Russell: Things are changing, Bertha.
Bertha Russell: They can’t change fast enough for me.
George Russell: And you’ve come a long way. Even I can see that.
Bertha Russell: I don’t want to come a long way. I want to go all the way.
George Russell: I’d just like you to be happy. And I know my loving you is not enough.
Bertha Russell: It’s almost enough.

Ada Brook: [referring to Marian] Well, I like her strong views. I like her energy. Don’t worry, Agnes, she’s clever. She’ll learn the rules.
Agnes van Rhijn: Will she? Revolutions are launched by clever people with strong views and excess energy.

Marian Brook: [referring to the lack of guests at the Russells party] I guess I’m a bit early.
Larry Russell: I don’t think so. You see, Miss Brook, my father’s dollars do not always have the desired effect. Usually, but not always.
Marian Brook: You don’t seem to mind much.
Larry Russell: I don’t. These things should happen naturally. Unlike my dear mother, I’m not a big believer in forcing change.
Marian Brook: Then I suspect she and I have more in common than we do.

Larry Russell: How are you enjoying living with your aunts?
Marian Brook: They’ve taken me in, so I should be grateful, but we seem to disagree on so many topics that I’m sure we’ll come to blows in the end.
Larry Russell: Perhaps they’ll educate you, you’ll educate them, and you’ll meet somewhere in the middle.

Gladys Russell: I hope we can meet again.
Marian Brook: I’m sure we will.
Larry Russell: Let the three of us be friends in spite of everything. Contra mundum.

Bertha Russell: [referring to the Van Rhijns] But why must I be the enemy?
Stanford White: Well, that’s easy. They have been in charge since the Mayflower landed, and now it’s your turn, because you are the future. And if you are the future, then they must be the past. That’s what frightens them.

Marian Brook: I cannot promise to live within Aunt Agnes’s confines.
Ada Brook: I understand. I only ask that you never break your own moral code, for that is the soundest guide any of us can have.
Marian Brook: How wise, Aunt Ada.
Ada Brook: Please don’t sound quite so surprised.

Monsieur Baudin: [referring to his food being sent to charity] Cooking for paupers, that’s not what I’m used to.
Watson: I dare say you’re not used to making supper for guests who never turn up.
Turner: [referring to Bertha] The evening was a folly. This house is a folly. She’s built a palace to entertain the sort of people who will never come here.
Mrs. Bruce: Don’t count her out so quickly.
Watson: I agree. She knows what she wants. Why shouldn’t she try to get it?

Turner: It’s nothing to me if she fails or succeeds.
Church: Isn’t it, Miss Turner? You seem to take it personally.
Turner: Failure’s catchable, Mr. Church. It rubs off if you’re not careful.
Watson: And what about Mr. Russell? Is he a failure too?

Marian Brook: I’m not like you. I don’t have any burning talent yearning to be free. I just want to be busy, to be needed, to be in a hurry.
Peggy Scott: You know they’d never allow it, except for charity.
Marian Brook: Then I’ll work at my charities and wait to see what comes. After all, we’ve made it to this city.
Peggy Scott: That’s right. You’re a New Yorker now. We both are. Aand for a New Yorker, anything is possible.

George Russell: [to Bertha, after her failed party] This is harder than you thought it would be. I know that. But I hope you won’t give up.

Bertha Russell: I’ll never give up! And I promise you this. I’ll make them sorry one day.
George Russell: I’m glad to hear it, my dear. Defeat is not your color.

Bridget: Mr. Oscar’s good looking, isn’t he? I saw him when he left.
Armstrong: Mr. Oscar’s interested in one thing only, and you haven’t got it.
Bridget: What’s that?
Armstrong: Money.

Jack Treacher: [referring to Oscar] I wonder if they’ll try to set him up with Miss Marian.
Armstrong: He wants an heiress, the richest he can find. And Miss Marian hasn’t a penny to her name.
Bannister: If you’ve finished demolishing the characters of every member of this family, John and I will serve luncheon.

Agnes van Rhijn: Has Mr. Raikes arrived in the city?
Marian Brook: He should be here by now.
Agnes van Rhijn: Then ask him for tea tomorrow.
Marian Brook: You don’t have to.
Agnes van Rhijn: Ada says he waived his fee.
Marian Brook: He did.
Agnes van Rhijn: Then you will give him tea. You cannot be indebted to these people.

Patrick Morris: I’m not sure its ever successful, trying to mix different types.

Anne Morris: [referring to the Russells] And when Mrs. Astor hears we’ve gone to their house, what then?
Patrick Morris: Mrs. Astor knows how the world works.

Ada Brook: [referring to Marian] Or perhaps Oscar might take a shine to her himself.
Agnes van Rhijn: Take a shine?
Ada Brook: I only meant she’s…
Agnes van Rhijn: They are first cousins. And she hasn’t a cent. So I’d be grateful if you would keep your servants hall slang to yourself.
Ada Brook: Money isn’t everything, Agnes.
Agnes van Rhijn: You say that to me, after the sacrifice I made to save your skin?
Ada Brook: To save both our skins, Agnes.

Mrs. Bruce: I never knew a world like this existed.
Monsieur Baudin: Well, I envy you.
Mrs. Bruce: Really? If you offered most people the choice between a top chef, and a spinster housekeeper, I know which they’d take.
Monsieur Baudin: It doesn’t mean they’d be right.

Patrick Morris: I wonder, will you include Mrs. Russell among your stall holders?
Aurora Fane: Apparently not.
Marian Brook: We still want her check though. We just mean to insult her first.
Patrick Morris: Her husband won’t take kindly to the snub.

Anne Morris: Money isn’t everything.
Marian Brook: It is when you haven’t got it.

Turner: I’m afraid women are an expensive hobby, sir. Especially pretty ones.
George Russell: I’m afraid they are.

Marian Brook: I wish I understood what brings you to New York.
Tom Raikes: Simple. I want to be here.
Marian Brook: And that’s enough of a reason?
Tom Raikes: Of course it is. It’s always a reason when you want something enough. When I see what I really want, I take it if I can.
Marian Brook: I suspect that’s something you should try to control if you don’t intend to spend time in a police cell.

Tom Raikes: [to Marian] Nothing is a nuisance if it gives me the chance to see you again.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to bringing Larry to tea] What can have possessed you?
Ada Brook: He’s a very handsome young man.
Oscar van Rhijn: You know we met in Newport. So when I saw him at Ogden’s luncheon, it seemed the obvious thing to do. And I think we should know the Russell family. I would go further and say I think it is mad that we don’t.
Agnes van Rhijn: You mean you want to know their daughter.

Agnes van Rhijn: While I am struggling, trying to hold back the tide of vulgarians that threatens to engulf us. I feel like King Canute.
Oscar van Rhijn: Your policies make as much sense as his did.
Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Bertha] Now the mother will try to use it to push in here, you’ll see.

Agnes van Rhijn: New York is a collection of villages, my dear. We know the people who live in our own village.
Marian Brook: But not the ones who don’t.
Oscar van Rhijn: The Russells live in your village, Mama. I could throw a stone from here and break their windows.
Agnes van Rhijn: Don’t tease me.
Oscar van Rhijn: I’m not. I’m stating facts.
Agnes van Rhijn: I’m not concerned with facts. Not if they interfere with my beliefs.
Oscar van Rhijn: I give you prejudice in a nut shell.

Agnes van Rhijn: Oh, stop talking to yourself and ring the bell. I’m going up to change.
Oscar van Rhijn: I doubt it, Mama. I’d say you’ll come down again without having changed at all.

Anne Morris: [as they arrive for dinner at the Russells] So this is what Dido felt when she was about to throw herself onto the flaming pyre.
Patrick Morris: Chin up.
Anne Morris: It’ll be so awkward.
Patrick Morris: If it is, it won’t be the first awkward dinner we’ve sat through.

Anne Morris: I’m afraid New York can be quite challenging at first.
Bertha Russell: Can it? We haven’t found it so. Have we, George?
George Russell: There is no challenge you are not equal to, my dear.

Peggy Scott: I do know you’ve taken a chance on me, Mrs. Van Rhijn. And I appreciate it.
Agnes van Rhijn: Life has taught me one thing, Miss Scott. If you don’t want to be disappointed, only help those who help themselves.

George Russell: Congratulations, my dear. An excellent dinner, brilliantly orchestrated. I think you’ve caught me the fish I was after.
Bertha Russell: I’m glad.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Marian] Ada, she hasn’t a penny. And I can’t leave her any of the Van Rhijn money, which should and will go to Oscar.
Ada Brook: What will happen to me?
Agnes van Rhijn: Oh. Don’t worry about that. I will outlive you.

Agnes van Rhijn: Marian has no income, and her birth, thanks to her mother, is not impeccable. In short, without a decent marriage, she will be lost.
Ada Brook: [referring to Raikes] But he’s a lawyer.
Agnes van Rhijn: Oh, if you ask me, he’s a shyster, with neither background nor fortune. It’s obvious. He sees her as a ticket out of Doylestown.
Ada Brook: But if they like each other. Marrying for money is not always a guarantee of happiness, Agnes.
Agnes van Rhijn: I don’t wish her to marry for money. Only to marry for security, support, and, God willing, affection. Would you deny her that?
Ada Brook: Of course not.

Peggy Scott: I don’t believe in secrets.
Marian Brook: Really?
Peggy Scott: I don’t believe in them because they never work. Everything always comes out in the end.
Marian Brook: You should know. You keep secrets better than most.

Marian Brook: How strange these rules are. Why shouldn’t you go out to dinner with your brother and a friend? What could be more normal?
Gladys Russell: Not to my mother.

Ada Brook: [referring to Oscar] I told him I would prefer to pay Mrs. Bauer’s debt myself.
Marian Brook: I’m relieved. But can you manage it?
Ada Brook: I’m not quite penniless, thank you. Whatever Agnes likes to imply.

Marian Brook: [referring to Oscar] I would have felt very guilty selling Gladys Russell to him. She deserves better than a fortune hunter. Or shouldn’t I say that?
Ada Brook: You can say it to me.

Ada Brook: Have you heard back from Mr. Raikes?
Marian Brook: Not yet.
Ada Brook: Please. Be kind to your Aunt Agnes when you do.
Marian Brook: Will she be kind to me?
Ada Brook: All we both want is your happiness. You may disagree with us. But that is all we want. Please remember it.

Marian Brook: And, Aunt Ada. I love you. I mean it.
Ada Brook: You wouldn’t say it if you did not.

Marian Brook: Good morning, Mrs. Chamberlain.
Sylvia Chamberlain: You are both polite and brave, Miss Brook, since I’m quite sure Mrs. Van Rhijn has warned you against me.
Marian Brook: You’re clever to know who I am.
Sylvia Chamberlain: I know a lot of what goes on in this city.

Sylvia Chamberlain: [to Marian] I wish you would come and call on me, but I suppose that is out of the question. I must leave you, as I think you are about to pay for this exchange.

Agnes van Rhijn: Mrs. Chamberlain has things, terrible things, in her past, which render her unsuitable as an acquaintance for any well brought up young lady.
Marian Brook: My father would be flattered.
Agnes van Rhijn: Marian, I’m serious. Mrs. Chamberlain’s money is tainted.
Marian Brook: If you were living in one room, with neither heat nor water, I’m sure you would not find it so.

Agnes van Rhijn: [as they see the Russells] Oh, first Mrs. Chamberlain, and now them. Why don’t we just go outside and roam in the gutter? It will save time.
Ada Brook: Remember, Agnes, charity is the order of the day.

Bertha Russell: How do you know my daughter, sir?
Oscar van Rhijn: Well, I don’t. Not really. But I want to. Very much.
Bertha Russell: We cannot always have what we want.

Anne Morris: [as George is buying out the charity stalls] It won’t help you, you know. This sort of stunt does not impress the people you want to win over.
Bertha Russell: Mrs. Morris, this sort of stunt impresses everyone.

Aurora Fane: [as George is buying out the stalls] I’m sure your father means well, but I’m afraid his generosity will close the bazaar before it’s really begun.
Marian Brook: I don’t think he means well at all.
Larry Russell: No?
Marian Brook: No. And I don’t blame him one little bit.

Mrs. Astor: [after George closes down the bazaar] Goodbye, my dear.
Anne Morris: You’re not going.
Mrs. Astor: There’s nothing to stay for. The lion has roared.

Agnes van Rhijn: [as everyone is leaving the charity bazaar] Seems to me the ship is sinking. Let us follow the example of rats.
Ada Brook: I don’t know how nice that is, Agnes.

George Russell: I’d say they learned their lesson.
Bertha Russell: I think neither Mrs. Morris nor Mrs. Fane will ever forget this one.

Caroline Astor: [referring to George] What was he like?
Mrs. Astor: Well, yesterday I would have said he was nobody. But today? I’m obliged to concede that he is someone to be reckoned with.
Caroline Astor: And befriended?
Mrs. Astor: Oh, no. Not yet, at any rate. But we will hear of him again.

Patrick Morris: There’s no need to talk as if I were your chauffeur.
George Russell: When I’ve finished, you’ll wish you were my chauffeur.

Patrick Morris: I’ve come to your office, at your request to show goodwill, Mr. Russell. I will not stay and be insulted. But I agree. It is time you knew public opinion has moved away from your position.
George Russell: In other words, you all bought shares on margin, passed the law, and made a fat profit. Now I imagine you’ve sold them short. And you mean to cancel your own law, betting that the value will plummet. Then you’ll buy them again when they hit rock bottom, and in the process double or triple your ill-gotten gains.

George Russell: I didn’t see this coming. I admit it. I thought you were honorable men. Not too honorable to miss the chance of a fat buck, of course. But not greedy, dirty thieves.
Patrick Morris: Mr. Russell.
George Russell: I thought I was the one who might throw a curveball. And now look. You’ve caught me out.

Anne Morris: Mr. Morris tells me Mr. Russell has insulted him disgracefully.
Marian Brook: What? Why?
Anne Morris: Why? Because he is not a gentleman, my dear. As I keep telling you.
Marian Brook: There may be another side to it.
Aurora Fane: You are too reasonable to live.

Bertha Russell: But how will they make money when the stock falls?
George Russell: Trust me, they will. And when they have fallen, they’ll buy them again, repass the law, make a third fortune, and steal my company. I blame myself. My guard was down.

George Russell: [referring to their fortune] All this may be lost.
Bertha Russell: You’ve made it once. You can make it again if you have to.
George Russell: There are moments, my dear, when you are quite marvelous.
Bertha Russell: Useless, each without the other.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Eckhard] I wonder what he wants now.
Marian Brook: He’s lonely. He’s just arrived in the city, and he hopes to find some old friends.
Agnes van Rhijn: So all this time, he’s dreamed of seeing Ada again?
Ada Brook: There’s no need to be unkind.
Marian Brook: Maybe he has dreamed of seeing Aunt Ada. What’s wrong with that?

Oscar van Rhijn: Oh, I’m dining with Larry Russell.
Agnes van Rhijn: Where?
Oscar van Rhijn: At his parents house, of course.
Agnes van Rhijn: When you say those words, you stab me in the side.
Oscar van Rhijn: Then it’s lucky you have the skin of a rhinoceros.

Agnes van Rhijn: He is not fit to be one of your circle. He is not a suitable companion, that is all.
Marian Brook: All? It seems like a great deal to me. I do not wish to marry Mr. Raikes.
Agnes van Rhijn: Then we have no quarrel.
Marian Brook: But I don’t accept that he’s not fit to keep me company. Certainly, he has behaved like a gentleman to me from our first meeting. I think I should be lucky to be in his company.

George Russell: Gladys must make friends, Bertha.
Bertha Russell: Mr. Baldwin is not what we want.
George Russell: How do you know?
Bertha Russell: Because he’s not what I want.

Bertha Russell: Do you think Mr. Van Rhijn is interested in Gladys too?
George Russell: What makes you say that?
Bertha Russell: Instinct.
George Russell: I think he may be, but I question his motives. Gladys will be a very rich young woman.
Bertha Russell: And if anyone plans to marry her for money, he’ll need much more to offer than Oscar van Rhijn.

George Russell: What I am planning may take a great many dollars, my dear. But if I am successful, it will be worth it.
Bertha Russell: I told you before. We’ve made one fortune together. And if needs be, we’ll make and spend another.
George Russell: May I stay with you tonight?
Bertha Russell: You have only to ask.

Oscar van Rhijn: I think I’ve met the girl I’m going to marry. We always knew we were going to have to marry in the end.
John Adams: Did we? I suppose we did.
Oscar van Rhijn: What’s the alternative, to live in the shadows? No, thank you.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to marrying Gladys] John, there are plenty of men who have had to make exactly the same decision. They can’t all be wretched.
John Adams: And what about us?
Oscar van Rhijn: Why should it make any difference?
John Adams: Oh, I see.
Oscar van Rhijn: Unless I take to it like a duck to water. You never know. I’m only teasing.

George Russell: I feel as well as Washington looking down at the redoubts outside Yorktown. He knew a great battle was coming.
Mabel Ainsley: A great battle he would win.
George Russell: He can’t have known that. But he knew it was a battle he could win.

Marian Brook: Of course we can’t meet in a hotel. For coffee, or anything else.
Tom Raikes: You don’t seem to me to be a person governed by petty rules.
Marian Brook: Not governed, I hope. But I must live in the same world as everyone else.

Charles Fane: [referring to the stock] Russell must be behind it. Buying them as they come on the market.
Patrick Morris: That’s what everyone’s saying. But how much money would one man risk? How much money has one man got?
Charles Fane: And there you have it. Even George Russell himself can only hold up the crash for a day or two.
Patrick Morris: You’re sure?

Charles Fane: How deeply are you in?
Patrick Morris: So deep, I cannot see the sky. I bet all I have. So I won’t just lose the money. I’ll lose everything I own.
Charles Fane: Without the law, the company is ludicrously overpriced. Delaying the fall will consume his fortune.
Patrick Morris: I hope to God you’re right.
Charles Fane: I must be right.

Bridget: [referring to Peggy] I’ve never known anyone who’s had something published in the paper.
Armstrong: Why should you care? You don’t read.

Aurora Fane: There’s always fundraising. But in this instance, we may have to take on the politicians too.
Ada Brook: Goodness, what will your Aunt Agnes say about such a thing?
Mrs. Astor: Mrs. Van Rhijn will know that sometimes a fight can’t be avoided.
Marian Brook: Brava. I’ll make a sash for her to wear. “Life, Liberty, and the Red Cross forever.”
Ada Brook: Of course you’re joking, but you make me tremble.
Cornelius Eckhard: I know better. Miss Ada Brook would never tremble. She’d always fight for any cause she believed in.

Anne Morris: They met at Delmonico’s last week and decided that since they weren’t allowed boxes at the Academy, they were going to build their own house.
Aurora Fane: Do we know of whom this group of malcontents consists?
Anne Morris: The usual. JP Morgan, of course. The Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts. Every opportunist in New York.
Mrs. Astor: My lips are sealed.
Aurora Fane: No wonder they couldn’t get a box at the Academy.

Marian Brook: But what is the point of shutting out these men, and their families, when they could probably build an opera house that’s twenty times better than the one we have now?
Aurora Fane: Really, Marian? I can see we’re going to have to take you in hand.
Marian Brook: But surely…
Ada Brook: That’s enough, dear. Time to let other people speak.

Mrs. Bruce: I may be imagining it, but I think Mr. Watson has a soft spot for you.
Turner: Then he’s wasting his time. I’ve got bigger plans than a broken down old valet.
Mrs. Bruce: That seems rather cruel.
Turner: Life can be cruel, Mrs. Bruce. But I mean to get the better of it.

Aurora Fane: Why couldn’t you see it coming?
Charles Fane: Because it’s always worked before.
Aurora Fane: Then why isn’t it working this time?
Charles Fane: Russell has more money than God.

Charles Fane: We tried to make a fool of him. He won’t find that easy to forgive.
Aurora Fane: You should get changed.
Charles Fane: If he keeps going, I’ll lose everything I own.
Aurora Fane: We! We will lose everything we own.

Patrick Morris: You saw the fun he had destroying your bazaar. Well, now he has the chance to destroy your family.
Anne Morris: It can’t be as bad as that.
Patrick Morris: You have to go to Mrs. Russell. Ask her forgiveness. Call, grovel, kiss her feet. Do what you have to do to get her to stop him.
Anne Morris: Patrick, you can’t ask that of me.
Patrick Morris: I’m not asking you! I’m telling you! Or you’ll have no position, no house, and no one left to boss around!

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to George] They think he’ll be wiped out in a matter of days.
John Adams: And the girl is not perfect enough to survive her father’s ruin.
Oscar van Rhijn: I can’t marry without money. I must have more money.
John Adams: You’ll find another one.
Oscar van Rhijn: Maybe. But that’s not the point. She was perfect.

Anne Morris: [referring to George] I want you to ask him to show a little pity. To show mercy.
Bertha Russell: Forgive me, but this is in payment for what?
Anne Morris: I don’t understand.
Bertha Russell: You come into my house, you make this strange request, and I’m trying to establish why. Do you feel I owe a debt of gratitude? Have you granted me a favor that merits a return?
Anne Morris: No.
Bertha Russell: No. Mrs. Morris, I hesitate to teach the basics, but life is like a bank account. You cannot write a check without first making a deposit.

Mr. Carlton: [referring to buying Peggy’s stories and keeping her race a secret] There are at least two white men sitting at a bar around the corner drinking away their sorrows because I turned them down. They’d kill to be in your position.
Peggy Scott: But they’d never be in my position.

Peggy Scott: [referring to turning down Carlton’s offer] Did I make a mistake? I could have my stories published in a newspaper right now.
Marian Brook: But you’d never be able to claim them. And no, you did not make a mistake. It was a disgraceful thing for him to ask.

Marian Brook: [to Peggy] Somewhere there’s an open door. And you’re going to walk through it.

Tom Raikes: Can I come to 61st Street yet?
Marian Brook: Not quite.
Tom Raikes: Is your aunt still being unreasonable?
Marian Brook: Who said she was ever reasonable?

Tom Raikes: And if it’s devotion you need to be sure of, then I can say, hand on heart, there is no man living who cares more for you than I. Let me spend what remains to me of life in the sole cause of making you happy.
Marian Brook: Mr. Raikes, we’ve only met a handful of times.
Tom Raikes: You see, for me, I knew at once. When you came to my office for help that time. I could have asked you then, but now I’ll keep on asking until you say no.
Marian Brook: What if I say yes?
Tom Raikes: Then I’ll stop.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] He proposed! I’m quite breathless.
Peggy Scott: What did you answer?
Marian Brook: Nothing. Nothing of any purpose.
Peggy Scott: You didn’t tell him no?
Marian Brook: I didn’t tell him anything.
Peggy Scott: But you didn’t tell him no.

Cornelius Eckhard: Your sister is a fine woman.
Agnes van Rhijn: Shall I tell you what I think, Mr. Eckhard? I think you heard from Mrs. Morris Ada was still unmarried. And you saw a way to mend your fences.
Cornelius Eckhard: Now, wait a minute.
Agnes van Rhijn: I may be wrong, of course. And your feelings may come from the heart.
Cornelius Eckhard: They do. I’ve seen her in my mind’s eye so many times over the years.
Agnes van Rhijn: Still, I believe I should tell you, my sister has little money of her own. And in the joyful event of her marrying, she would be obliged to move out and take care of herself. I’m too old to live with a man.

Agnes van Rhijn: [to Eckhard] Just so you understand that marrying Ada would bring neither income, nor a place to live. You see, you never knew why my father turned you down all those years ago. You thought it was your lack of prospects. But you’d been heard boasting in a bar that you were about to marry a meal ticket. You were wrong about that too.

Ada Brook: [after Eckhard leaves abruptly] What a very strange thing. I don’t remember him as rude.
Agnes van Rhijn: Oh, I think he’s just a very busy man. Never mind.

Charles Fane: You’ve made your point, Mr. Russell. We’ve taken you for a fool, when it is we who are the fools.
George Russell: I won’t fight you on that one.
Patrick Morris: If you want me to kneel, I’ll kneel. If you want me to beg, I am begging now. We’ve already lost enough to make us poor. But if it goes on for much longer, there are some among us facing ruin. Please, end it!

George Russell: I won’t say I feel no pity, because I do. But you have not only tried to get the better of me. You and Mrs. Morris have snubbed and belittled my wife. How could I allow that to go unpunished? I don’t suggest that you men committed every crime that I’m avenging here. But to employ a modern phrase, I’m afraid you must face the music.

George Russell: They’ve offered to repass the law and let me build my station.
Bertha Russell: So I won’t have to scrub floors?
George Russell: Doesn’t look like it.

Bertha Russell: Is it finished, then?
George Russell: Not quite but almost. It’ll be a long time before the aldermen try to get the better of me again. But I think I’ve punished them enough.
Bertha Russell: That sounds very forbearing of you.
George Russell: I like to do the right thing. If I don’t lose any money by it.
[we then see Morris commit suicide by shooting himself in the head]

Armstrong: What people should do and what they do do aren’t always the same.

T. Thomas Fortune: Have you ever thought about writing anything political, Miss Scott?
Peggy Scott: I have.
George Parker: Don’t ask her if she’s a Republican.
Peggy Scott: Well, why should I align myself with either party when I don’t have the right to vote?

Agnes van Rhijn: If they’d found the dog, why not send a footman to return it? No, if you ask me, they kidnapped it so Mrs. Russell could deliver it in person. I said this would happen, when Oscar brought her son to tea. She wants to force us to receive her. Mark my words, any minute now, Mrs. Russell will arrive with the dog tucked underneath her arm.

Agnes van Rhijn: I will not have that mutt turned into a link between these houses. Bannister, you go fetch it.
Bannister: Very good, ma’am.
Ada Brook: Pumpkin is not a mutt.
Marian Brook: You’ll know the Russells one day.
Agnes van Rhijn: Over my dead body.

Agnes van Rhijn: [after Peggy tells Marian about her story being published] May I know this wonderful news?
Marian Brook: You’ll be thrilled.
Agnes van Rhijn: I haven’t been thrilled since 1865.

Marian Brook: [referring to Peggy’s story] What’s it about?
Peggy Scott: A young colored woman living on the Upper East Side.
Agnes van Rhijn: It’s about you, in other words.
Peggy Scott: All writers write about themselves, at least at the start.

Peggy Scott: But Mr. Fortune wants my next article to be more political.
Agnes van Rhijn: Just make sure that if you do, I never find out.

Bannister: [referring to the glasses laid at the Russells dinner table] We set them in a square, the English way, and not in a line. I wonder they don’t find themselves drinking their neighbor’s wine. But, of course, there’s no right or wrong about these things. They’re simply a matter of taste.
Church: And Mrs. Van Rhijn’s taste is not the same as Mrs. Russell’s.
Bannister: So it would appear.

Agnes van Rhijn: You’ll squeeze that dog to death.
Ada Brook: Oh, I just want to cuddle him, and cuddle him, and never let him go.
Agnes van Rhijn: I should watch out. He’ll take off again. I would.
Ada Brook: Don’t say so.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to the carved box] Marian, I cannot have an object in the house if I’m not allowed to know its provenance.
Marian Brook: Well, I won’t tell you who sent it, and so I will return it.
Ada Brook: That is reasonable, surely.
Agnes van Rhijn: It seems the very opposite of reasonable to me.

Agnes van Rhijn: Marian, you would never entertain advances from someone whom I might not consider suitable?
Marian Brook: Entertain advances? That sounds like a dance step in the gavotte.
Agnes van Rhijn: must have your word.
Marian Brook: Aunt Agnes, I cannot make vague promises about unforeseeable circumstances in an unknown future.

Ada Brook: [referring to Marian] We know she’s a kind person, Agnes. And I do not believe she would ever do anything self-destructive.
Agnes van Rhijn: Self-destructive? You’ve been reading those German books again. I’ve warned you before, just stick to Louisa May Alcott.

Larry Russell: There was a time when you would’ve run a red carpet to the edge of the sidewalk if you thought Mrs. Charles Fane might pay you a visit.
Bertha Russell: I’m stronger now than I was.

Church: I did not know there were such differences between English customs and American.
Monsieur Baudin: So what? You’re American. Mr. and Mrs. Russell are American.
Church: Yes, but does Mrs. Astor follow the English way, or the American?
Turner: She won’t be coming to dine.
Church: Still, perhaps I should find out.
Monsieur Baudin: Well, all I know is, whatever implement she may pick up to eat with, the food in this house is cooked by a French chef, and nothing can top that.

Ada Brook: [after finding out Mrs. Chamberlain sent the carved box] Oh, dear. This is very bad.
Marian Brook: You understand why I wouldn’t tell.
Ada Brook: If Agnes knew, we should none of us have any sleep for a month.
Marian Brook: Also, she’d think we were friends, which we are not, really. Although, I do like her.
Ada Brook: That in itself makes me shudder.

Ada Brook: Why would you not promise Aunt Agnes to marry someone suitable?
Marian Brook: Dearest Aunt Ada, how could I, when someone who is suitable to me may not be suitable to her?
Ada Brook: But surely you intend to marry a gentleman?
Marian Brook: I will marry a gentle man. Is that enough?
Ada Brook: For me, maybe, but not for Agnes.

Marian Brook: [after finding out that Ada came close to marriage] Do you think you should have married him anyway? Do you think you would have been happier?
Ada Brook: That’s rather a cruel question.
Marian Brook: I didn’t mean it to be.
Ada Brook: You think me a weaker person than Agnes, and maybe I am. But even I know that marrying beneath oneself is no guarantee of happiness.
Marian Brook: I am aware of that.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] I wish she hadn’t taken against him. I’d hate for us to fall out.
Ada Brook: Just don’t plunge in without thinking. I will try to be your friend, whatever comes. But it’ll be simpler if you can find your beloved among Mr. McAllister’s four hundred.

Marian Brook: [referring to the paintings] Did you inherit a collection? Or did Mr. Chamberlain?
Sylvia Chamberlain: Oh, no. We’re what your aunt would call “new people”. But my husband had something better than birth.
Marian Brook: What was that?
Sylvia Chamberlain: Luck. Right from the start.

Bertha Russell: I’m to lunch with McAllister, but not with Mrs. Astor?
Aurora Fane: I’m afraid she always wants a list of her fellow guests, and seldom agrees to sit at a table with strangers.
Bertha Russell: Especially strangers like me.
Aurora Fane: That’s not true. She does let new people in. She has to, or they’ll forge an alternative society, and keep her, and the old crowd out.
Bertha Russell: Won’t they anyway?
Aurora Fane: Probably, but not in her time.

George Russell: Is it time to approach Morgan?
Richard Clay: If you dine with JP Morgan, you should use a long spoon.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to the Russells] They’ve dropped me. I blame Patrick Morris.
Ada Brook: Poor man.
Oscar van Rhijn: He told me that Russell was finished. Everyone thought so, and I believed them.
Ada Brook: So it was you who dropped them, not the other way around. Now I’m on their side.

Ada Brook: [referring to Mrs. Chamberlain and her late husband] She had the taste, the looks, and the brains. He had the money.
Marian Brook: Rather sharp for you, Aunt Ada.

Marian Brook: What precisely has she done wrong?
Oscar van Rhijn: She lived in sin for years with old Chamberlain until his long-suffering wife finally died. Then he brought her to New York, and they pretended they’d only just met.

Marian Brook: [referring to Mrs. Chamberlain’s son being born out of wedlock] Aunt Ada, is this true?
Ada Brook: People think it’s true.
Agnes van Rhijn: What do people think is true?
Oscar van Rhijn: That they’re opening the East River Bridge next year.
Agnes van Rhijn: And about time too.

Marian Brook: As a matter of fact, I’m thinking of paying someone a surprise visit. She may need cheering up.
Agnes van Rhijn: So should I if I lived in Brooklyn.

Turner: I believe you need a woman who will help you to become the finest, and the best man that you can be.
George Russell: I’ve already got one.

Turner: If you’ll let me, I can make a sanctuary for you, a temple to your greatness.
George Russell: My greatness? The flaw in your argument is that I love my wife. I have no desire for a mistress, no wish for another helpmeet, no need for any sanctuary beyond this house.

Arthur Scott: I am at war with this crab.
Dorothy Scott: I think you should surrender.
Arthur Scott: You think this is bad, you never ate with my Uncle William. Oh, boy. He could make you lose your whole appetite. He’d take a fork full of eggs, then dip that same fork into the jelly. I was always picking little bits of egg out of my jelly.
Dorothy Scott: Are you trying to ruin our luncheon?
Arthur Scott: He ruined my breakfast for years.

Arthur Scott: Dorothy, our responsibility is to raise a child with a sense of right and wrong. I cannot put that aside to play Happy Families.
Dorothy Scott: No. And it’s not a game we are very well equipped for, is it?

Peggy Scott: What are you doing here? And the shoes, what was that? Because we’re colored, we must be poor? I loaned you train fare!
Marian Brook: I made a stupid assumption.
Peggy Scott: And you just showed up at my parents home.
Marian Brook: What’s so wrong about that? My aunt lets you live at her house.
Peggy Scott: Lets me? I work there.

Peggy Scott: You don’t know anything, about me, about my life, about my situation. I live in a different country from the one you know!
Marian Brook: Look, I’m sorry.
Peggy Scott: Don’t be sorry! Just stop thinking you’re really my friend.

Tom Raikes: [after Marian sees him at the opera house] What would you say to me if your aunts didn’t exist?
Marian Brook: You’re the second person to ask me that.
Tom Raikes: Who was the first?
Marian Brook: Peggy Scott.
Tom Raikes: Then I salute her.
Marian Brook: But we must try to win them over. If we don’t, then all this will be lost to you. You do understand?
Tom Raikes: I hope it doesn’t come to that, I admit. But if it does, I don’t care. Not if I have you.

Bertha Russell: Quite a man about town.
Marian Brook: And he’s done it in record time.
Bertha Russell: Who is he?
Marian Brook: Thomas Raikes. An old friend from Pennsylvania.
Bertha Russell: He seems very at home in New York.
Marian Brook: I know. It’s quite astonishing really. When he first got here, he knew nobody, and now he’s in a box at the Academy.
Aurora Fane: You see, Mrs. Russell? It can be done.

Bertha Russell: Does he have money, your Mr. Raikes?
Marian Brook: I don’t think so. Not what you would call money.
Bertha Russell: Pity, when he’s enjoying himself so much. He may find it hard to keep up without it.

Aurora Fane: [referring to the music as Marian looks over to Raikes] What’s the matter, Marian? Don’t you like the sound of it?
Marian Brook: I like it very much. As long as there’s a happy ending.

Aurora Fane: [referring to Agnes] She’s been so generous to Miss Scott. Do you find it surprising?
Marian Brook: I think she admires people who help themselves.
Aurora Fane: Even if they’re colored?
Marian Brook: It doesn’t seem to matter to her.
Aurora Fane: Well, good for Aunt Agnes.

Aurora Fane: [referring to McAllister] He is Cerberus, snarling and growling to protect his Mystic Rose, as he likes to call her.
Marian Brook: Is Mrs. Astor aware of all this?
Aurora Fane: She is when it suits her. She uses him to filter the new arrivals.
Marian Brook: So Mr. McAllister’s opinion is important?
Aurora Fane: Is any of it important?

Marian Brook: [referring to McAllister] Don’t we approve of him either?
Ada Brook: He spends his life puffing people up or putting them down.
Agnes van Rhijn: Mrs. Astor needs her lieutenants.
Marian Brook: Do you like Mrs. Astor?
Agnes van Rhijn: That’s like saying, “Do you like rain?” She is a fact of life that we must live with.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Bertha] Really, that woman has the resilience of a cockroach.
Marian Brook: Dear me, should we send John to carry out some pest control?
Agnes van Rhijn: If only we could.

Mrs. Bruce: You really think you could be a proper lady’s maid?
Adelheid: I know I could. I copy every detail of Miss Turner’s work. I’ve studied her like a novice in a convent.
Mrs. Bruce: Miss Turner is no nun, I assure you.

Bertha Russell: We are getting there. Don’t you see? All the things we promised ourselves when we first married.
George Russell: Things you promised yourself.
Bertha Russell: The point is, we’re finally getting to where we belong.
George Russell: I always felt I was where I belonged, because I had you.
Bertha Russell: You mean you needed me to steer us in the right direction.

Peggy Scott: Does Mr. Raikes enjoy it, playing around in high society?
Marian Brook: He seems to. More than he expected, I’d say. But when you’re a handsome, young man, all you need is a decent tailcoat, and you’re invited everywhere.
Peggy Scott: What about when he settles down? If he’s got used to that way of life, won’t it be hard to give it up?
Marian Brook: He wasn’t used to it before, and nor was I. We’re both from Doylestown, where life wasn’t about whose guest list you’re on.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] I don’t want Aunt Agnes to take against him before they get to know each other.
Ada Brook: She’s taken against him already, as you are aware. So you’re too late to head that off at the pass.
Marian Brook: But you haven’t. Have you?
Ada Brook: He’s not what we’ve planned. I can’t deceive you there.
Marian Brook: “The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley.” Robbie Burns.
Ada Brook: “Love makes fools of all of us.” William Thackeray.

Marian Brook: How are you getting on?
Tom Raikes: In what way?
Marian Brook: The conquest of New York.
Tom Raikes: It’s not the conquest that interests me.

Ward McAllister: Please forgive me if I’m late, but we were arguing over the wine for tonight.
Marian Brook: Whom were you arguing with?
Ward McAllister: My butler, Perryman, who thinks he knows everything. It’s different for me. I do know everything.

Ward McAllister: I hope I’m sitting near you, Mrs. Russell. I want to hear all about your husband’s railroad empire.
Bertha Russell: Then I guess you’ll have to speak to Mr. Russell.
Ward McAllister: Oh, but I don’t want the facts, only the gossip.

Ward McAllister: Shall I tell you what I think, Mrs. Russell? I think you have a very good chef. French, of course.
Bertha Russell: Of course.
Ward McAllister: And a fine palace of a house. But I don’t believe your guest list is quite what you would like it to be.
Bertha Russell: Mr. McAllister, you see through me as if I were glass.
Ward McAllister: We can mend that.
Bertha Russell: You and Mrs. Astor?
Ward McAllister: Me and the people I will introduce you to.
Bertha Russell: I’d love to think you would be my protector.
Ward McAllister: For now. But fairly soon, I’d say you’ll be protecting me.

Marian Brook: Mrs. Russell and Mr. McAllister seem to be getting on well.
Charles Fane: Why wouldn’t they, when they are more or less the same person?

Turner: It was a pity you backed off when Mr. Russell had that trouble with the city alderman.
Oscar van Rhijn: I thought he’d be too busy to bother with me.
Turner: You mean you weren’t sure he’d survive the scandal.

Agnes van Rhijn: You’re a determined young woman, aren’t you, Miss Scott?
Peggy Scott: Is that wrong?
Agnes van Rhijn: Not at all. You’ll meet obstacles in your way. You’re a colored woman, to name two of them. You need determination to get anywhere. Miss Marian is determined too, but she can be reckless. That is why I’m counting on you.
Peggy Scott: I’ve been reckless in the past.
Agnes van Rhijn: Then you’ll know what I mean.
Peggy Scott: I will not spy on her, Mrs. Van Rhijn.
Agnes van Rhijn: I’m not asking you to spy. Just make sure she’s safe.

Anne Morris: The murderer’s wife is trying to buy herself a place in society, and you’re happy to take her money. But aren’t you ashamed?
Aurora Fane: Do you think you’re honoring Patrick by behaving like a child in his memory?
Anne Morris: You have been defiled.
Bertha Russell: Do you mean my presence has defiled Mrs. Fane?

Aurora Fane: Anne, you are a fool. You should never pick a fight before you know the facts.
Anne Morris: I know the facts. My husband is dead. That’s a fact. My house is sold. My money is gone. And now you’ll turn your back on me, like all the others, just to keep in with this potato digger’s daughter. You’ll deny it, but you will.

Anne Morris: [referring to Bertha] She has blood on her hands, but she shrieks at the sight of it.
Aurora Fane: Why do you say these things?
Anne Morris: Because I won’t let her beat me.
Aurora Fane: She has already beaten you.
Anne Morris: We’ll see.
Aurora Fane: I hope for your sake that we won’t.

Clara Barton: Before you think me a simpleton, I’m well aware that Mrs. Russell is using the charity ladder to climb into the ballrooms of New York. I can still be grateful she chose my charity to be that ladder.
Tom Raikes: I agree.

Clara Barton: [referring to Mrs. Chamberlain] Could you interest her in my cause?
Marian Brook: I can try.
Aurora Fane: Aunt Agnes would never forgive me.
Marian Brook: Surely there’s more at stake here than Aunt Agnes’s smelling salts.
Clara Barton: I couldn’t put it better myself.

Marian Brook: [referring to Clara Barton] People think anyone who gives their life to charity must be a kind of holy fool, when she is anything but.
Tom Raikes: To get things done these days, you must know your way around.

Marian Brook: You do realize that a lot of all of this may come to an end one day?
Tom Raikes: What’s the matter? Don’t you think I’ll do well?
Marian Brook: I’m counting on it, but it may take some time.
Tom Raikes: We’d still be invited to parties.
Marian Brook: We?
Tom Raikes: Just supposing you were to throw your lot in with me.
Marian Brook: If I did, we couldn’t hope to live as they live, or anything like.

Marian Brook: Mr. Raikes, don’t tell me that is why you made the journey.
Tom Raikes: Not entirely.
Marian Brook: Not at all, surely?
Tom Raikes: A man can always hope.
Marian Brook: He cannot hope for that.

Marian Brook: [referring to Peggy catching Raikes kissing Marian] You cannot imagine the scene we have just played out.
Peggy Scott: I don’t have to. I watched it.
Marian Brook: On instruction from Aunt Agnes?
Peggy Scott: No, but I thought you might need some help. I know the signs.
Marian Brook: You’re cleverer than I am. I didn’t see it coming at all.
Peggy Scott: I have more experience than you.

Peggy Scott: You’ve met my father.
Marian Brook: And you’ve met my aunt.
Peggy Scott: I guess we should both remember that there will be no mention of your aunt, or my father in our wedding vows. When and if they happen.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] But about the kiss, should I be insulted?
Peggy Scott: Yes, if he thinks he can have you easily. No, if he just wants you as much as you want him.

John Adams: [referring to Turner] The vengeful lady’s maid, sounds like a character in a melodrama.
Oscar van Rhijn: Maybe. But I’ll tell you this, if she suspects the Russells don’t want me for their daughter, she’ll do everything in her power to promote my cause.
John Adams: So it will be money well spent.

Marian Brook: Surely you believe women will vote eventually.
Agnes van Rhijn: I believe in small and incremental change, not running around with a banner and a gun.

Peggy Scott: [referring to Clara Barton] She stops charity from feeling patronizing.
Marian Brook: Like people who give out old shoes? You have to remember, I never met a woman like you before I came to New York.
Peggy Scott: You mean colored?
Marian Brook: No. More that you and Clara Barton are your own people. The women I knew in Doylestown just accepted the role of wife and mother, but you make your own path.

Marian Brook: But I know what it’s like to have your family taken from you. Whatever your quarrel, one day your father will be gone, and you don’t want the burden of regret that you never made it up when you could.
Peggy Scott: I don’t think it would be heavier than what I’m carrying now.

Archie Baldwin: [after George’s ultimatum to stop seeing Gladys] This is why you brought me here?
George Russell: I am sorry to say so, but it is.
Archie Baldwin: What if I refuse?
George Russell: If you refuse, which you are, of course, fully entitled to do, then I will make sure that you never work in the financial sector of our economy again.
Archie Baldwin: But that’s what I do.
George Russell: Not if you turn down my offer. But be assured that I will honor it. I meant it when I said you’d be rich.

Larry Russell: [after Baldwin leaves abruptly] What have you done?
Bertha Russell: What makes you think we’ve done anything?
Larry Russell: I know you.
Gladys Russell: You haven’t spoiled things, Father?
George Russell: Not for Mr. Baldwin. You may be sure of that, my dear.

Bertha Russell: I promise you this, I’ll never ask anything of you that is not for your benefit in the end.
Gladys Russell: You want more for me than I want for myself.
Bertha Russell: That is my job. I’m your mother. I want the whole world for you, and I’ll get it any way I can.

George Russell: [referring to the news that their train was derailed] It could bring us down. A bad crash could destroy the company and us.
Bertha Russell: Then make sure you survive it.

Anne Morris: [as Bertha is voted on the board at the Red Cross meeting] So money is the deciding factor here? Yet again. What a sad and vulgar world we live in.
Clara Barton: We’re not arranging a debutant ball, Mrs. Morris. We’re raising money to bring help to people in dire need all over this country.
Anne Morris: And because I cannot give as much as Mrs. Russell, I am to be jettisoned while she is enthroned?
Bertha Russell: How thrilling you make it sound.

Aurora Fane: [referring to Marian contacting Mrs. Chamberlain] I was rather hoping that would be forgotten after Mrs. Russell’s generous gift.
Clara Barton: No opportunity to raise funds may be forgotten. And surely no one decent could doubt Miss Brook’s motives.
Aurora Fane: Maybe not. But there are plenty of people in New York who are not decent at all.

Peggy Scott: Mrs. Russell is winning the battle.
Marian Brook: The battle, maybe, but not the war. Not yet.

Marian Brook: [after the cab refuses to take Peggy] Aren’t some fights worth having?
Peggy Scott: Not if it’s going to make me late for my meeting.
Marian Brook: I don’t understand.
Peggy Scott: You’ve just discovered injustice. I’ve lived with it my whole life. If I spent every day fighting with bigots, I’d never get anything done.

Bertha Russell: [referring to Anne] She’s angry, and she blames George. So naturally, she hates me.
Aurora Fane: You’re very philosophical.
Bertha Russell: I’ve had worse to deal with.
Aurora Fane: Of course you have.

Aurora Fane: Mr. McAllister has written to me. He said you have made him curious to see your “palace on the Avenue”.
Bertha Russell: Ward McAllister wants me to entertain him in my own home?
Aurora Fane: He does.
Bertha Russell: Well, I wonder if he’s told Mrs. Astor.
Aurora Fane: I think he will.

Aurora Fane: [referring to inviting for luncheon] But the service must be English. He uses it to frighten newcomers.
Bertha Russell: Well, it’s worked with me.
Aurora Fane: You’ll manage. But be sure to make it a success. He won’t give you a second chance.

Mrs. Bruce: Are you aware that Mrs. Van Rhijn’s butler across the road is English? And I believe Mrs. Van Rhijn follows English traditions.
Bertha Russell: Wouldn’t she just? But what are you suggesting?
Mrs. Bruce: Rather than put Church to the test, why not let Mr. Bannister solve any problems before they arise? Of course, we’d have to get Mr. Church to agree.
Bertha Russell: I’ll leave that to you. But don’t give him a choice.

Dorothy Scott: [referring to Arthur] He doesn’t wish to encourage you to pursue a career that he thinks is bound to fail.
Peggy Scott: He’s wrong.

George Russell: All of the axles on the engine were substandard. Someone in my organization used old and damage axles on the engine, stealing my money as he did so, and killing five men in the process.
Bertha Russell: We must try and control the damage.
George Russell: The company’s taken a bit of a dent, but we seem to be climbing back.
Bertha Russell: No, I meant the damage to us. You and me.

Bertha Russell: [referring to McAllister coming to luncheon] What do you think of that?
George Russell: Well, if you’re asking, I think the fact that five men are dead, and a member of my staff has blood on his hands, is a little more important than whether or not the great Ward McAllister comes here for luncheon.
Bertha Russell: It matters, George. I’ve worked for this, and it matters to me even if it doesn’t to you.
George Russell: Well, you’re right there. I don’t give a rat’s a** where Mr. McAllister breaks his bread.

Bertha Russell: If you go soft on me now, George, we could lose everything we’ve worked for.
George Russell: Whom am I going soft about? The dead in the train wreck, or your only daughter?
Bertha Russell: Just please don’t be soft.
George Russell: No one could accuse you of that.

Gladys Russell: [referring to Baldwin] You’re one of the most successful men in the country. With real estate, and steel, and copper, and coal, and oil, and railroads that are the envy of the world, and you can’t stand up to your wife? I suppose you bought him off. And if he took it, he wasn’t worthy of me. That’s what Mother will say.
George Russell: Don’t be too hard on the boy. I made it tough for him to refuse.

George Russell: Your mother believes that you have more to come than marriage to a banker in Manhattan.
Gladys Russell: What’s wrong with that?
George Russell: Nothing. But it’s not special.
Gladys Russell: Father, I’m not special. Why can’t she see it? I’m ordinary. I’m just an ordinary person who wants an ordinary life.
George Russell: No, my darling. You are not in the least ordinary. On that point, your mother and I are as one.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to the Russells] These people. You shut the door, they come in the window. You shut the window, they come down the chimney. They never give up.
Marian Brook: But isn’t that a good thing?
Agnes van Rhijn: Why is she entertaining at all? Shouldn’t she be in mourning?
Ada Brook: She wasn’t driving the train, Agnes.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Bertha] So, she has ensnared Mr. McAllister and dragged him to her lair?
Marian Brook: I think he’s just coming to luncheon.
Agnes van Rhijn: She hopes to trap the queen bee. Now she’s caught the drone. But Lina Astor would never set foot in that house if they laid a trail of gold from the sidewalk, and nor would I.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Raikes] He’s an adventurer. I suppose he’s worming his way into every ballroom in the city?
Marian Brook: It’s true, people invite him, but that’s because he’s pleasant and popular. Everyone likes him.
Agnes van Rhijn: Everyone except me. Be warned, my dear. He won’t need you much longer if he keeps this up. Any minute now, he’ll see his chance and move on to more glittering prizes.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] You don’t know him, Aunt Agnes.
Agnes van Rhijn: I know his type. And I am never wrong.
Marian Brook: You’re wrong this time.
Ada Brook: [as Marian leaves] Marian didn’t mean that.
Agnes van Rhijn: Yes, she did. You mark my words. It will come back to haunt her.

Caroline Astor: The fact is, I have a very difficult mother.
Gladys Russell: Well, I know what that’s like.
Caroline Astor: Your mother could not possibly be as difficult as mine.
Gladys Russell: No? My mother keeps me under house arrest. I’m allowed no friends. God forbid I should speak to a man.

Church: [after Bertha’s hired Bannister to serve at the luncheon] I do not quite understand how I am to present this to the staff.
Bertha Russell: Why not tell them the truth, Church? There are some situations where it really can be helpful.

Larry Russell: [referring to becoming an architect] I want to train properly and build up a practice.
Marian Brook: I applaud your enthusiasm, and I envy your freedom.
Larry Russell: My freedom may require work.

Sylvia Chamberlain: I suppose they want money from me.
Marian Brook: Mrs. Russell gave a large sum, and now she has a seat on the board.
Sylvia Chamberlain: You are pure, my dear. But there will be no seat on the board for me, or every other seat would be empty. Still, they were clever to send you.
Marian Brook: I was the only one who knew you.
Sylvia Chamberlain: You were the only one who would admit it.

Sylvia Chamberlain: I was with the husband of another woman while she was still alive. I broke the rules.
Marian Brook: I’m on the brink of breaking them myself. My aunt’s rules, anyway.
Sylvia Chamberlain: Tell me.
Marian Brook: There’s a man. Respectable, hardworking. A successful attorney, in fact. But my aunts believe him to be an unworthy adventurer who’s using me to get ahead.
Sylvia Chamberlain: And you disagree?
Marian Brook: He doesn’t need me to get into society. He’s already there. And I have no money. So why would he pursue me if it wasn’t true?

Sylvia Chamberlain: I don’t regret my choice, not for a moment, because I knew a great love. But without it, my path would have been a stony one.
Marian Brook: How can I know if it is a great love if I’m not allowed to see him for more than a minute?

Marian Brook: [after Mrs. Chambarlain offers to have Raikes meet Marian at her house] Why would you do that for me?
Sylvia Chamberlain: Because you are the first woman in New York who has shown me any respect since my Augustus died. Things were different when he was alive, as you can imagine. But when he was buried, so was my life in this town.

Agnes van Rhijn: What sort of family business? Do you have any family here?
Bannister: No, but there are some matters that require legal advice.
Agnes van Rhijn: And why must it be at lunchtime? Won’t the lawyer want to eat some luncheon? Or is he a fasting monk?

Agnes van Rhijn: Bannister is throwing us over to see a lawyer who fasts at lunchtime.
Ada Brook: But how interesting. Is he a Muslim, and is it Ramadan?

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Bannister] What would we say if a surgeon suddenly flung down his scalpel and went off to see a fasting lawyer?
Ada Brook: I’m sure he has a reason.
Agnes van Rhijn: Benedict Arnold had a reason when he tried to sell West Point to the British.

Marian Brook: What’s Bannister done?
Ada Brook: I’m not certain. He seems to have got involved with some sort of religious lawyer who thinks we’re wrong to eat luncheon. But I may be a bit muddled.

Armstrong: Miss Scott has written an article, and they say it’s widely talked of. I’m just concerned they might trace her back to this house.
Agnes van Rhijn: I hope this concern has nothing to do with your prejudice against Miss Scott.
Armstrong: Prejudice, ma’am?
Agnes van Rhijn: Please learn to control it.
Armstrong: Why do you say that, ma’am?
Agnes van Rhijn: I will say more. If you continue to try to make trouble for Miss Scott, I will be angry. You are warned.

Monsieur Baudin: Why is chilled vichyssoise English?
Bannister: Trust me. It is.
Monsieur Baudin: The Eton mess looks as it sounds. A mess made by schoolboys.
Bannister: Good.

Ward McAllister: An English butler. That’s a good start. I’m only sorry I’m underdressed.
Bannister: Sir?
Ward McAllister: I feel I should be in court livery with a periwig and red heels.

Ward McAllister: What surroundings, Mrs. Russell. We could be at Tsarskoye Selo.
Aurora Fane: Yes. Catherine the Great would feel quite at home here.
George Russell: In so many ways.

Ward McAllister: You admire the empress?
Bertha Russell: Do you?
Ward McAllister: Of course. She reminds me of Mrs. Astor.

Ward McAllister: [referring to Bertha’s luncheon presents] You have outdone yourself.
George Russell: Indeed, you have.
Bertha Russell: It’s not too much?
Ward McAllister: My dear Mrs. Russell. Nothing is ever too much for me.

Agnes van Rhijn: You are the butler now, John. Not Bannister. Who throws us over on a whim to please an itinerant monk.

Agnes van Rhijn: [after finding out about Bannister helping at the Russells] This is too much!
Ada Brook: Agnes? Don’t do anything you’ll regret.

Agnes van Rhijn: [as she enters the Russells luncheon] Bannister. Do my eyes deceive me?
Bannister: Well, you see…
Aurora Fane: Aunt Agnes, what a surprise. Mrs. Russell never said you were coming.
Marian Brook: She’s just looked in to pay her compliments to Mr. McAllister, haven’t you, Aunt Agnes?
Ward McAllister: Mrs. Van Rhijn.
Aurora Fane: I think you know everyone. You remember Mr. Raikes?
Agnes van Rhijn: How could I forget him?

Agnes van Rhijn: I mustn’t interrupt your party.
Bertha Russell: It’s so kind of you to look in when I know how busy you are.
Agnes van Rhijn: I should go. Marian was right. I must have misread the clock.
George Russell: Next time, I hope we can persuade you to stay.
Agnes van Rhijn: Heads have rolled for less.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to George] Has he done anything wrong?
Turner: How should I know? I’m only telling you that he’s vulnerable.
Oscar van Rhijn: And when you’re vulnerable, you appreciate support.

Turner: [as Oscar pays her for her information] But I don’t do it for the money.
Oscar van Rhijn: I’m well aware of that. You want your revenge for some reason. But I don’t need to know why.

Marian Brook: I felt sorry for Aunt Agnes. Sorry for her, and ashamed of myself.
Peggy Scott: You’d done nothing wrong.
Marian Brook: If you’d seen her there. Alone and surrounded like Custer at Little Big Horn, facing the annihilation of everything she believes.
Peggy Scott: Why not help her to find a place for herself in the new world?
Marian Brook: Easier said than done.

Agnes van Rhijn: I allowed myself to act on impulse today, Armstrong. Something I never do. To act on impulse is to make oneself a hostage to ridicule.

George Russell: [referring to the note] That’s from Clay. He says they found the man responsible for the axles. His name is Dixon. He’s the head of the team that built the engine. Of course he would be.
Bertha Russell: Good.
George Russell: He’s told them I gave the order.
Bertha Russell: That’s ridiculous.
George Russell: The police say he has proof. Written proof.

Marian Brook: You must give your father time. He loves you. He won’t want to fall out.
Larry Russell: When my father loves, Miss Brook, there is a price to be paid. I cannot deviate from his ambitions. Mother, me, Gladys, we must all keep to the steps he has laid down.
Marian Brook: You have one life, Mr. Russell. If you take the wrong path, you will pay the price for many years.

Turner: Why the fuss about Mr. Edison? We’ve known about electricity for a hundred years. And there have been electric storms for centuries.
Church: But Mr. Edison has tamed it, Miss Turner. He has mastered it. He knows how to make it, how to store it, how to use it for our benefit.
Monsieur Baudin: I think it’s exciting.
Watson: Is it? When electricity comes, half our jobs go up in smoke. Cooking, cleaning, it’ll all be done with electricity before you know it.

Gladys Russell: So your mother doesn’t trust Mr. Wilson’s motives?
Caroline Astor: To put it mildly.
Gladys Russell: But you do?
Caroline Astor: To put it mildly.

Mr. Brand: Mr. Russell should be ready for the worst.
George Russell: Believe me, Mr. Russell is always ready for the worst.

Agnes van Rhijn: Oscar has disgraced himself.
Ada Brook: With Mrs. Russell’s maid.
Marian Brook: How democratic.
Agnes van Rhijn: It is no laughing matter. Really. On top of Bannister’s betrayal, it is too much.

Ada Brook: [referring to Oscar] He said they were friendly acquaintances and that was all.
Marian Brook: Well, I suppose…
Agnes van Rhijn: As if my son would number a lady’s maid among his friends. Even Ada thought that was nonsense, and she barely knows how babies are born.
Ada Brook: Agnes, your anger is making you indelicate.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Turner] I want her sacked. I want her out on her ear by tomorrow night.
Marian Brook: Then you must write to Mrs. Russell.
Agnes van Rhijn: What would I say? My mother always told me never to write anything I wouldn’t want printed on the letters page of a popular journal.

Agnes van Rhijn: You will go and see Mrs. Russell. After all, you know her. I do not.
Marian Brook: But it isn’t my quarrel.
Agnes van Rhijn: Your family’s honor is in danger. Certainly it is your quarrel.
Marian Brook: What right have I to ask a woman to fire her own servant? It’s an impossible task.
Agnes van Rhijn: Marian. I may be didactic, but I do not often give orders. This is a direct order. Will you defy me? Is that what we have come to?

Bertha Russell: Well, haven’t they already found the man to blame?
George Russell: That depends. Some people may think the man to blame is your husband.
Bertha Russell: Don’t joke about this, George.
George Russell: I’m not joking.
Bertha Russell: We can’t afford a scandal. Not when I’m so near.

George Russell: My dear, I don’t make the rules. I will do everything within my power to defend myself. What more can I say?
Bertha Russell: But I’ve already settled a date with Mr. McAllister.
George Russell: Well, God forbid I should be a disappointment for Mr. McAllister.
Bertha Russell: If you think this is funny…
George Russell: I don’t think it in the least funny that I’m facing the possibility of prison, and my wife is more concerned with the date of a ball!

T. Thomas Fortune: Well, Mr. Edison is not solely responsible.
Peggy Scott: Who else was involved?
T. Thomas Fortune: Namely, Lewis Latimer, a colored inventor. He created a better carbon filament. That’s the thing in the bulb that helps keep the lights on, so to speak.
Peggy Scott: Well, I’m sure that Mr. Edison will give Mr. Latimer his due credit at the ceremony.
T. Thomas Fortune: I admire your wit, Miss Scott.

Bertha Russell: [after Marian reveals that Agnes wants Turner fired] Is every woman who touches a man’s sleeve in the middle of an improper affair?
Marian Brook: My aunt believes that is generally the case when the couple are of a very different rank.
Bertha Russell: I will speak to her, but I cannot guarantee anything. Suppose it was her brother, or even a cousin.
Marian Brook: We know the man, and he is not her brother. But I told my aunt I would need more evidence to convince you.

Watson: [referring to Bertha] So she got Mr. McAllister after all.
Turner: The luncheon she gave him has worked wonders. Or do you not care to be reminded of that, Mr. Church?
Church: I do not care for insolence, Miss Turner, from you or anyone else.
Turner: Mr. Bannister made such a success of it.
Church: Get back in your cave.

Tom Raikes: [after Marian tells him about meeting at Mrs. Charmberlain’s] Now I’m encouraged.
Marian Brook: Why?
Tom Raikes: Because if you’re prepared to call on Mrs. Chamberlain, it means you’re not afraid to take risks.

Bertha Russell: How can anyone believe you’d make direct contact with some minor little cog like Dixon? It’s absurd.
George Russell: I do write notes to people in every department. They can prove that. And remember, I’m a rich man, which means I’m a villain. Certainly in a jury’s eyes, if it ever gets that far.

Bertha Russell: We’ll face this together, George. We’ll tell them how it’s going to be.
George Russell: If it helps you to believe we’re in control of things.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to Agnes] She won’t be persuaded of the truth, so I’ve had to agree to the lie. Was it you who told her?
Marian Brook: No. I didn’t know. But I wouldn’t have, even if I did.
Oscar van Rhijn: Really? Well, what will be, will be.

Marian Brook: I’m sorry about all the upset. I know it’s the last thing your mother would want.
Oscar van Rhijn: Oh, yes. My mother wants me to have everything. Except a life.

Ada Brook: [referring to Bannister] When are you going to forgive him?
Agnes van Rhijn: When he has earned my forgiveness.

Agnes van Rhijn: Mrs. Russell has fired her maid.
Marian Brook: I’m amazed. She didn’t give a hint of it when I was with her.
Ada Brook: You must have been more eloquent than you realized.
Marian Brook: Will you write to her?
Agnes van Rhijn: Of course I won’t write to her. She might write back.
Ada Brook: You must acknowledge the letter. She’s done what you asked.

Agnes van Rhijn: [to Peggy] Please thank Mrs. Russell for this note, but without a trace of warmth.

Turner: Did you have me sacked?
George Russell: No. And I got you a good reference.
Turner: So I should be grateful?
George Russell: That’s up to you.

Turner: You see, you missed something in me. I was offering you a woman who would devote her life to your success, your health, and your happiness. Could Mrs. Russell say the same? I’d have loved you to the exclusion of everything else. Well, I’ll say good night. Perhaps we’ll meet again.
George Russell: I doubt it.

Tom Raikes: [as they meet at Mrs. Chamberlain’s house] What would your Aunt Agnes make of that?
Marian Brook: What would she make of my being in this house at all?
Tom Raikes: Well, I confess, it feels very daring.

Marian Brook: It’s odd how some people are forgiven their past misdemeanors, while others, like Mrs. Chamberlain, must pay for them forever.
Tom Raikes: The trick is to find your way into the first group.
Marian Brook: Certainly, you’ve found your way around New York. I envy you.
Tom Raikes: Never mind that now.
Marian Brook: What should I mind?
Tom Raikes: That I love you. That my love for you is the best part of me by far.

Marian Brook: You’re a good man, Tom. Think of your kindness to me when I was a stranger in desperate straits.
Tom Raikes: Isn’t it time we took control of our own lives? We’re young, Marian. We love each other. What more do we need to know?

Tom Raikes: There are so many distractions in New York. So many sideshows. It must be easy for people to drift down the wrong path, even when they know the right one.
Marian Brook: Why do you say that?
Tom Raikes: I just want us to be strong enough, to take hold of our future now, when we have the chance.

Oscar van Rhijn: [referring to Bertha] She gave you no warning?
Turner: Nothing. Out of the blue. I was helping her to change for dinner when she said it. “I think it’s time for us to part.” I had my hands on her neck at the time. I wanted to tighten my grip and squeeze the life out of her.
Oscar van Rhijn: I wish you had. It would have made things simpler for us both.

Oscar van Rhijn: Why does it matter so much to you?
Turner: Because the she-wolf is planning something big for Miss Gladys, and it would warm my heart to see her high hopes shattered.
Oscar van Rhijn: Not much of a compliment for me.

Jack Treacher: [as Bannister finds out who betrayed him] What will you do about it?
Bannister: I’m not sure. I’ll have to think about that. They say revenge is a dish best served cold.

Sylvia Chamberlain: [to Marian and Raikes] When you’re young, it feels a small thing to turn your back on society. But as the years go on, it can be a lonely place out there. Make sure you are very much in love, as I was, or there may come a day when the road you’ve taken does not seem worth it.

Tom Raikes: But our love will be enough. I know it.
Marian Brook: You sound as if you’re trying to convince yourself.
Tom Raikes: I am convinced.
Marian Brook: The fact remains, I don’t want a quarrel, and I don’t want a scandal. Not if we can avoid it.

Tom Raikes: Do you love me, Marian? As much as I love you? That’s what I need to know.
Marian Brook: What do you think?
Tom Raikes: Marry me. Marry me now.
[they kiss]

Ada Brook: If they did marry, you wouldn’t really cut them, would you?
Agnes van Rhijn: Don’t you want me to?
Ada Brook: No. Not at all.
Agnes van Rhijn: I’d like them to think I would.
Ada Brook: It wouldn’t make much difference to Marian. She doesn’t care whether Mrs. Astor receives her.
Agnes van Rhijn: Maybe not, but he does. She may think he can give it all up without a pang, but I know better.

Ada Brook: [referring to Raikes] Isn’t it just possible you may have misjudged him?
Agnes van Rhijn: It is just possible an earthquake may destroy New York, but it is not likely.

Larry Russell: Father, you’re a genius. You made a fortune that will go down in legend. I doubt there are a dozen men as successful as you in this country. I doubt there are a hundred in the world.
George Russell: You are very kind.
Larry Russell: What chance do you think I have of equaling that if I follow in your footsteps? I must always be the disappointing son of a great man. The poor second act. The failure. But if I take another path entirely, like architecture, I have the chance to make a mark of my own.

Oscar van Rhijn: It won’t help with Gladys, if she hears of it, but it may play well when people learn Turner was sent away because she and I were lovers.
John Adams: A smokescreen to hide your true nature?
Oscar van Rhijn: Don’t talk like that. I hate to be defined.
John Adams: And it doesn’t matter that she was a lady’s maid?
Oscar van Rhijn: Don’t be such a snob. The ladies might take exception, but their husbands won’t.

John Adams: Did you plan this when you first took up with Miss Turner?
Oscar van Rhijn: No. But I’m a great believer in turning every chance encounter to my own advantage.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] I was pleased to hear how far he’s come since he arrived, and I thought you would be too.
Agnes van Rhijn: Has he come so very far?
Marian Brook: Well, he’s friendly with the Rikers now, and the Rockwells. And last week, he dined with Mrs. Randolph.
Agnes van Rhijn: Do all his friends have names beginning with R?
Marian Brook: I know you think he only mixes with the new people.
Agnes van Rhijn: Like Mrs. Russell. Another R.

Agnes van Rhijn: Aurora has developed a certain social promiscuity recently.
Ada Brook: But you’re fond of Aurora.
Agnes van Rhijn: I’m fond of you. It doesn’t mean you are without fault.
Marian Brook: You are not being fair, Aunt Agnes.
Agnes van Rhijn: If you are saying I am not blinded by his looks, and so-called charm, then you would be right.

George Russell: I like your spirit.
Bertha Russell: We won’t be defeated, George.

Ada Brook: Taming electricity is probably the most important innovation of our lifetime.
Agnes van Rhijn: And is that something to celebrate?
Marian Brook: I think so. I wish I was there. To see Park Row illuminated?
Agnes van Rhijn: But with what sort of people? Ruffians, thieves, and worse.
Marian Brook: Mrs. Russell’s taking a party.
Agnes van Rhijn: I rest my case.

Cissie Bingham: [as she’s being offered champagne] I shouldn’t, but I will.
Ward McAllister: That ought to be my motto.

Bertha Russell: Must everything in life present a challenge?
Ward McAllister: Everything worth having.

Thomas Edison: This is the age of achievement, Mr. Russell. An age when anything is possible.
George Russell: I like that, and I will remember it.

Ward McAllister: This is a turning point in history, Mrs. Russell. But are we headed in the right direction?
Bertha Russell: We don’t have a choice in the matter, Mr. McAllister. We must go where history takes us.

Ada Brook: Mrs. Astor has finished renovating Beechwood, so she’ll be spending her summers there from now on.
Agnes van Rhijn: How do you know?
Ada Brook: I do read the papers, Agnes. I don’t live at the bottom of an oubliette.
Agnes van Rhijn: You just talk as if you do.

Agnes van Rhijn: All our staff seem to have pressing engagements outside this house.
Marian Brook: Servants must have a life, Aunt Agnes.
Agnes van Rhijn: Why?

Aurora Fane: I worry about your Mr. Raikes.
Marian Brook: He isn’t my Mr. Raikes, exactly.
Aurora Fane: Well, if he isn’t, then I’m glad. He seems to be everywhere these days. You know, we were in the same party when Edison turned on his lights.
Marian Brook: He told me.
Aurora Fane: I just worry for you.
Marian Brook: Please don’t.

Marian Brook: [after revealing that she’s to elope with Raikes] I’m surrounded by doubters. Aunt Agnes, Aurora Fane. The only way to silence them is just to get married, and have done with it.
Peggy Scott: You can’t leave everything up in the air indefinitely. At least that’s a decision.

George Russell: [referring to Bertha] If this case goes forward to trial, then all her plans will crumble to dust. No one will come to the ball. We’ll be outcasts. It doesn’t worry me, but it would worry her.
Richard Clay: I doubt Mrs. Russell would be sunk for long.
George Russell: She’d be flattered you have such faith in her.

Marian Brook: Miss Scott thinks that Armstrong has read one of her letters.
Ada Brook: She’s sly enough, that’s for sure.
Peggy Scott: I’ll say good evening.
Marian Brook: That was fighting talk, Aunt Ada.
Ada Brook: I don’t like Armstrong. And I never have.

Marian Brook: You’re right about one thing. Aunt Agnes is never going to change. I hate to make her unhappy, truly. But she won’t change.
Tom Raikes: Not until after the wedding, at any rate. She’ll come round when we’re married. But not before.

Tom Raikes: It’s time to take matters into our own hands.
Marian Brook: And elope?
Tom Raikes: People have before now.
Marian Brook: But if we elope, won’t I ruin your reputation? Won’t I be an anchor around your neck?
Tom Raikes: A very nice anchor around a very willing neck. Please, Marian. I know this is right. Just as I know we’ll regret delaying when we could have made it happen.

Marian Brook: But what about your story is so terrible?
Peggy Scott: Alright. You’ve waited long enough. I told you a man called Elias Finn changed my life.
Marian Brook: Yes.
Peggy Scott: I didn’t tell you that I was his wife. And the mother of our child.
Marian Brook: What? You have a child?
Peggy Scott: I had a child. A son. In fact, I nearly died in childbirth. But when I finally came round, he was already dead.

Marian Brook: Are you still married?
Peggy Scott: No. My father bullied Elias into signing a paper saying he’d been married before. Then he got a judge to declare our marriage void.
Marian Brook: Why would he do that? Did he really prefer you to be an unwed mother?
Peggy Scott: Maybe he wasn’t thinking straight.

Peggy Scott: I was told to forget it ever happened. To forget my own child.
Marian Brook: How could you?
Peggy Scott: I tried. For a year or more. But in the end, that’s why I went back, to find the midwife. I needed to know more about my boy. I was told she moved to Doylestown, but I couldn’t find her there. So I went to the railway station. And I met a young lady who lost her ticket. And now I’ve shocked that same young lady out of her senses.
Marian Brook: I’m not shocked. I’m sad. Much more than sad.

Marian Brook: I wish you’d said this sooner. There’s only one thing to be done. You’re going to tell Aunt Agnes.
Peggy Scott: What? When?
Marian Brook: Tonight. We don’t know if Armstrong has said anything yet. But either way, she has to hear it from you.
Peggy Scott: So I suppose this is goodbye.
Marian Brook: We’ll see.

Mamie Fish: Nobody talks about anything else but enjoying themselves.
Bertha Russell: Isn’t that what we’re here for?
Mamie Fish: Not me.
Ward McAllister: Dear Mrs. Fish, you’re so contrary.

George Russell: [after he’s exonerated] Strikes me as the element of chance. A woman goes to buy gloves, and disaster is averted. What if she’d chosen a different store?
Lewis: You don’t need us to tell you the importance of luck.

George Russell: [after it’s revealed Ainsley’s married to Dixon] I believe you should go to jail, Miss Ainsley. But whether a jury agrees with me or not, I will tell you what I’ve decided would be best for you, as a plan.
Mabel Ainsley: Anything you want to ask of me.
George Russell: Good. I will keep abreast of your movements. And whenever you apply for a job above the rank of the most menial servant, I will inform your superiors of your history and make it impossible for them to employ you. You may scrub floors to earn your bread, but nothing more.
Mabel Ainsley: You don’t mean that.
George Russell: I think you know that I do.

Mamie Fish: [referring to Bertha] So tell me, Mr. McAllister. Have you persuaded her to buy a place here? Or better still, to build one?
Ward McAllister: I can only show Mrs. Russell the options. I would not claim to have persuaded her to do anything.
Mamie Fish: She’s tenacious. I’ll give her that.

Aurora Fane: [referring to Mrs. Fish’s comment] Smile and take it as a compliment.
Bertha Russell: It is a compliment, if you knew the number of times she’s pretended I didn’t exist. And now here I am at her table because I’m tenacious, just as she said.
Aurora Fane: And because you amuse her more than she thought you would.

John Adams: The trick is just to nod and say that you agree. And then everyone thinks you’re as clever as clever can be.
Gladys Russell: I think you are as clever as clever can be. But, like all gentlemen, you try to hide it. Why is that?
John Adams: Because life’s quite serious enough without any help from me.

Mrs. Astor: [referring to Bertha] She has come from nothing. And her husband is no better.
Caroline Astor: You called him a force to be reckoned with.
Mrs. Astor: Well, it does not mean that I am obliged to sit in his wife’s drawing room.
Caroline Astor: I think you’re being unkind.
Mrs. Astor: My dear, to be a leader means sometimes one must be unkind. It is not a role for the faint-hearted.

Agnes van Rhijn: [to Peggy] Of course, there is much in your story that Armstrong did not glean. She said you bore an illegitimate child whom you then abandoned.
Armstrong: That’s not exactly…
Agnes van Rhijn: I find now that you are a married mother whose child died. I’ve lost children. I know what that is.

Ada Brook: [after Peggy decides to leave] Wouldn’t it have been better to lose Armstrong?
Agnes van Rhijn: And have me train a new maid, in all my ways, at my time of life? Maybe Miss Scott will change her mind.
Marian Brook: She won’t. But perhaps she’s right. Perhaps the time has come for a new chapter. For all of us.
Ada Brook: How final you make that sound.

Agnes van Rhijn: Really, Miss Ada’s right. It ought to be Armstrong who goes. Seems very feeble on my part.
Peggy Scott: I couldn’t let you do that. It would be too disruptive. I’ll be just fine.
Agnes van Rhijn: I hope we can end on good terms.
Peggy Scott: Of course. I remain very grateful for the time you’ve let me spend in this house.
Agnes van Rhijn: You’re an impressive young woman. Not everyone will support your ambitions, to say the least of it. But you are strong enough to manage that.
Peggy Scott: Thank you. I’ll try to be.
Agnes van Rhijn: And now you’d better go if you are to catch the last ferry.
Peggy Scott: Goodbye, Mrs. Van Rhijn.
Agnes van Rhijn: Goodbye, Miss Scott. And may God bless you.

Bertha Russell: Do you know what the Astors paid for Beechwood?
Ward McAllister: Not far short of two hundred thousand dollars.
Aurora Fane: I don’t think Mrs. Astor would be happy to know you’ve told us that.
Bertha Russell: I wish I could have seen it.
Gladys Russell: Why?
Bertha Russell: Well, apart from anything else, I’d like to know what you can expect for two hundred thousand.

Dorothy Scott: There’s a lot in your future, if you’ll only get out and make it happen. I just know it.
Peggy Scott: You remind me of Mrs. Van Rhijn.
Dorothy Scott: Well, if that’s true, then I respect her for it.

Dorothy Scott: But what will you do?
Peggy Scott: Stay here, if you’ll let me. And continue with my work at The Globe.
Dorothy Scott: We may have a problem with your father.
Peggy Scott: I can always move out again.
Dorothy Scott: No need for fighting talk just yet.
Peggy Scott: I’ll say nothing unless he’s looking for a fight. But if he is, then I’ll give him one.
Dorothy Scott: Perhaps. But right now, could you put down your sword, and have some coffee?

Ward McAllister: [as he’s showing Bertha Mrs. Astor’s Newport house] And the year before last, it was bought by William Backhouse Astor. Although, of course, it was really for his wife. He’s never off his yacht.
Aurora Fane: And she’s never on it.

Mr. Hefty: [referring to Mrs. Astor] She’s here. She’s come early.
Ward McAllister: Oh, good Lord. Shall we go out the back?
Mr. Hefty: No. She knows you’re in the house. She would have seen your carriage.
Ward McAllister: Get rid of Mrs. Russell.
[after which Bertha is quickly taken out and thrown out the kitchen backdoor]

George Russell: It’s flattering that the great Julius Cuyper should come with his begging bowl.
Richard Clay: Is he so very great?
George Russell: His wife is. They say even Mrs. Astor treats her with care.
Richard Clay: I don’t know about such things.
George Russell: If you lived with Mrs. Russell, you would.

Marian Brook: [referring to Raikes] I know Aunt Agnes doesn’t like him.
Ada Brook: She will like him even less, if you’re planning some sort of escapade.
Marian Brook: She’ll come to like him when she decides to get to know him.
Ada Brook: Not if you force her hand.

Ada Brook: Marian, if you want to marry this man, then come out with it. Sit through the argument. Hold to your faith. And if he’s right for you, eventually it will come to pass.
Marian Brook: I haven’t got time for eventually.

Ada Brook: You will break Agnes’s heart.
Marian Brook: You know that’s not true. It’s her pride we’re dealing with here, not her heart.
Ada Brook: I can’t help blaming Mr. Raikes.
Marian Brook: Don’t. We both wanted to wait until we had Aunt Agnes’s blessing.
Ada Brook: But he hasn’t waited, has he, dear?

Agnes van Rhijn: [to Marian] Isn’t Henry James a little dense for a young lady?

Bertha Russell: [referring to Baudin] Well, I’m sorry, George, but we cannot have a chef from Kansas. We’d be a laughingstock.
George Russell: But if the food’s the same…
Bertha Russell: You don’t know the women of New York. They’re all looking for something about us to ridicule. And when they hear that we were taken in, we’d be providing it on a plate, literally.

Adelheid: If you’re not Monsieur Baudin, why are you still talking like him?
Monsieur Baudin: Because this is who I have been for years. And now it’s hard to break the habit.
Church: If your name is Josh Borden, and you come from Wichita, I think you’ve got to try.

George Russell: How is the ball going?
Bertha Russell: Acceptances from people I don’t want. And a lot of Aurora’s friends, whom I want a little. Silence from the people I want a lot.

George Russell: What about Mr. McAllister?
Bertha Russell: He won’t decide till he hears which way his mystic rose will jump.
George Russell: Surely she won’t come now you’ve uninvited her daughter. It’s too late anyway. The ball is tomorrow.
Bertha Russell: We’ll see.

Oscar van Rhijn: You’re sorry she’s gone, Mama. Why don’t you admit it?
Agnes van Rhijn: My secretary has handed in her notice. What more is there to say?
Oscar van Rhijn: That you’re sad about it.
Agnes van Rhijn: Very well. I’m sad. She was a great help to me. Now are you satisfied?

Caroline Astor: [referring to Bertha] The trouble is, you assume she’s weaker than you.
Mrs. Astor: She is weaker than I am in this instance.
Caroline Astor: We’ll see.

George Russell: If there are still no answers from the great folk, you’d better think of some last-minute replacements if we’re not to look absurd waltzing around an empty ballroom.
Bertha Russell: Don’t worry. Aurora’s been busy. The ballroom won’t be empty.
George Russell: But we’ll be without the great princes you were tilting at.
Bertha Russell: Don’t speak too soon.

George Russell: I wish I knew the cards you think you have up your sleeve.
Bertha Russell: I’m taking a chance, George, I know that. But who ever achieved great things without taking a chance?
George Russell: True enough.

Larry Russell: [after Marian asks him to deliver her letters to the house] I just hope it doesn’t betoken some desperate action on your part.
Marian Brook: Some action, yes. But not desperate.

Larry Russell: [referring to Marian] She’s quite convincing when she makes a decision. It was she who said I should tell you about my plans to be an architect.
George Russell: Should I be glad of that?
Larry Russell: I think you will be, in the end. This is a great city, in a great country, at a great time in our history. I want to be part of it, Father.

George Russell: An invitation to a ball my wife is giving this evening, for you and Mrs. Cuyper. I look forward to seeing you there.
Julius Cuyper: Alas, with no warning, I’m now sure our diaries will allow it.
George Russell: I’ve not made myself clear. I will see you there if you want the loan.

Julius Cuyper: You are not a gentleman, sir.
George Russell: That’s a subject for another time.
Julius Cuyper: Very well. I will attend. But I cannot promise that my wife will.
George Russell: The loan hinges on her presence.
Julius Cuyper: But suppose she is engaged tonight?
George Russell: I am sure, when you explain the situation, she will find that she can join us after all.

Mrs. Astor: Mrs. Russell, I’m afraid there’s been a misunderstanding. When you were good enough to pay a call on me, I had promised myself to a friend who urgently wished to speak to me alone. There is no reason here for us to fall out.
Bertha Russell: Forgive me, but if that were the case, you could have called on me another day. Or written a note to explain why I was turned away, while others were admitted.
Mrs. Astor: Not others. Another was admitted.

Mrs. Astor: Well, I have paid a call now.
Bertha Russell: You have dropped by at a time when no one else was likely to be here.

Bertha Russell: People know of the snub. So, to undo the hurt, you must attend the ball tonight, and you must let people know you will be here. You will need to move quickly.
Mrs. Astor: I don’t have time to do that.
Bertha Russell: Oh, I think you do. And I have one more request. I want you to make sure that my neighbors, Mrs. Van Rhijn and her sister, will attend.
Mrs. Astor: Why bother with them?
Bertha Russell: I’m tired of being cut on my own doorstep. Make them come.

Mrs. Astor: Well, at least we know where we stand.
Bertha Russell: Nothing would give me more pleasure than for you to change your mind.
Mrs. Astor: But you will not change yours?
Bertha Russell: No.

Mrs. Astor: But if I don’t maintain standards, what is the point of me?
Ward McAllister: Of course. But what we need to determine now is whether Mrs. Russell will support those standards, or undermine them.
Mrs. Astor: How can you ask?
Ward McAllister: You know I follow your lead to a slavish degree.
Mrs. Astor: But you want to go to the ball.
Ward McAllister: We cannot hope to keep out the new people entirely, or they’d form their own society that would exclude us. You know this.

Mrs. Astor: [referring to Larry and Gladys] And if it looks as if her children might make decent marriages, then I…
Ward McAllister: They’ll make decent marriages without our help. They’re good looking, and they smell of money, the sweetest scent I know. If I were you, I’d bring them in now and gain the credit.

Mrs. Astor: You mean that you don’t think that I can beat Mrs. Russell at my own game?
Ward McAllister: My dear mystic rose, I fear if you try, it might be at the cost of your own dignity.
Mrs. Astor: Which translated means, you want to go to her ball.

Agnes van Rhijn: She’s taken leave of her senses.
Ada Brook: Who?
Agnes van Rhijn: Lina Astor. Listen. “If you consider yourselves to be my friends, you will attend Mrs. Russell’s ball this evening.”
Ada Brook: Really?
Agnes van Rhijn: Don’t you dare sound cheerful.

Ada Brook: I am curious about that house.
Agnes van Rhijn: Really? You are glad to be ordered to march into hell, and to dance with the devil?
Ada Brook: I wonder sometimes if you don’t slightly overstate your arguments. We cannot be forced to dance.
Agnes van Rhijn: So are we to quarrel with Mrs. Astor, or Mrs. Russell? I do not wish to quarrel with Mrs. Astor, so we will obey her now, but reserve the right to quarrel with Mrs. Russell later.

Marian Brook: [after Raikes fails to show up for their elopement] Was it all pretend?
Tom Raikes: No. Of course not. I love you very much.
Marian Brook: But as New York smiled on you, you came to see that there were others who could offer you so much more than I could?

Marian Brook: I’ll tell you what the truth is. The more you pushed for our elopement, the more you felt your desire for it slipping away.
Tom Raikes: I suppose I thought that if I could only make it happen, then things would come right. But I began to suspect that if we did marry, we would have no armory for the battle that lay ahead.
Marian Brook: We’d have no money, you mean.

Tom Raikes: [to Marian] We know New York now, you and I. There’s a life to be lived here, and a good life. But two penniless strangers from out of town could not have hoped to live it.

Tom Raikes: Can we at least part as friends?
Marian Brook: Not quite. But not as enemies either. I don’t like bitterness.
Tom Raikes: You’re a marvelous person, Marian. Do you know that?
Marian Brook: I shall take it as my consolation prize.

Caroline Astor: Hefty said you wanted me.
Mrs. Astor: Only to witness my defeat. You have won.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Larry and Marian] I feel as if I’ve been watching a play in a foreign language.
Ada Brook: They’re young.
Agnes van Rhijn: Is that an observation or an excuse?
Ada Brook: Both.

Peggy Scott: [referring to Arthur] He stole my child. And all the time he was working, and sitting down to dinner with us, and living a lie.

Dorothy Scott: We won’t find the boy, and Arthur won’t help us.
Peggy Scott: Us? Have you come over to my side?
Dorothy Scott: I’ve always been on your side.
Peggy Scott: My baby is alive, Mama. My baby is alive, and I want him back.

George Russell: [as the ball is about to begin] Let the tournament begin.

Agnes van Rhijn: [referring to Bertha] How can she have gotten round Lina? I never believed in black magic, but I’m having my doubts.
Marian Brook: Did Mrs. Astor explain why she wanted you to come?
Agnes van Rhijn: She didn’t explain it, she ordered it. As simple as that.
Marian Brook: I suppose you don’t have to go just because she said so.
Agnes van Rhijn: Never overestimate your own power, my dear. It’s always a mistake.

Jack Treacher: So Mrs. Russell won the battle after all.
Bridget: I’m not so sure it’s over yet.
Jack Treacher: You wish you’d been invited?
Bridget: I suppose. What about you?
Jack Treacher: Maybe we will be one day. After all, this is America.

Church: Mr. and Mrs. Julius Cuyper.
Bertha Russell: How did you manage that?
George Russell: I just asked them nicely.

Aurora Fane: Aunt Agnes, Aunt Ada. What are you doing here?
Agnes van Rhijn: You may well ask. Lina Astor wrote saying it was a test of friendship.
Ada Brook: But now that we’re here, there are so many familiar faces.
Agnes van Rhijn: No doubt they’ve all had their hands held in the flame.

Oscar van Rhijn: Mama? You are the last woman on Earth I thought I’d see tonight.
Agnes van Rhijn: And you’re the last man on Earth I’d allow to criticize me.

Gladys Russell: People are going through to the ballroom.
Bertha Russell: They won’t start dancing until I say.
George Russell: What are you waiting for?
Church: Mrs. William Backhouse Astor, and Miss Caroline Astor.
Bertha Russell: That.

Bertha Russell: Mrs. Astor, how good of you to come.
Mrs. Astor: How kind you are to receive me, Mrs. Russell.

Mrs. Astor: Didn’t it ever worry you that I might decide to destroy you after this evening? Because I could, if I chose.
Bertha Russell: I don’t doubt it, but you won’t.
Mrs. Astor: Oh. Why not?
Bertha Russell: Because we’re too alike.
Mrs. Astor: We’re what?
Bertha Russell: It’s true. And I will be a good friend to you if you’ll let me.

Gladys Russell: I’m out now, Mr. Van Rhijn. And I’ve had enough of being told what to do.

Marian Brook: [after Raikes arrives at the ball] Had you decided to break your word? Did you know when we met in the park?
Tom Raikes: No. And I meant it when I said I love you.
Marian Brook: I believe you. But love is not always enough.

George Russell: Do you think Mrs. Astor will accept your hand at friendship?
Bertha Russell: No one would believe it, but who knows?
George Russell: Well, that’s all for tomorrow. Tonight you’re the belle of the ball.

Arthur Scott: Do you think it wasn’t hard for me?
Dorothy Scott: You should be ashamed of yourself.
Arthur Scott: Why? Because I freed our daughter and our grandson from a life of shame? Everything I done was done for Peggy and the boy.
Peggy Scott: I don’t want to be free of my own child!
Arthur Scott: Then ruin yourself if you must. But you’ll do it without any help from me.

Marian Brook: I shouldn’t have told you.
Larry Russell: Of course you should. How do you feel? About Mr. Raikes?
Marian Brook: I’m not sure. Rather numb, really.
Larry Russell: Numb is good. Just look after yourself when it wears off.

George Russell: [after Baudin is rehired to save the ball] I’m a man of simple principles. I reward loyalty. I punish traitors.
Bertha Russell: Well, they’ll laugh when they know we have a chef from Kansas.
George Russell: Let them.

George Russell: Thank you, Borden, for stepping in at the last minute, and saving the show.
Monsieur Baudin: I was glad to do it.
George Russell: And we hope you will stay on?
Monsieur Baudin: But is Mrs. Russell content to have a chef from Wichita, Kansas?
Bertha Russell: Couldn’t we just call it the Middle West?

Ada Brook: Will you ever explain what happened?
Marian Brook: Someday maybe, but not now. It hurts too much.
Ada Brook: Then get into bed and sleep half the day away, if you wish. This is your home, Marian. You’re very welcome here. And things will get better. You’ll see. You still have most of New York to explore, and all the people in the city to choose from. So good night, my dear. Or should I say good morning?