Robert Crawley
"I have given my life to Downton. I was born here, and I hope to die here. I claim no career beyond the nurture of this house and the estate."
"We all have different parts to play, Matthew, and we should all be allowed to play them."
"You see a million bricks that may crumble, a thousand gutters and pipes that may block and leak, and stone that will crack in the frost. I see my life's work."
"I want a good man for you, a brave man. Find a cowboy in the Middle West and bring him back to shake us up a bit."
"If you're turning American on me, then I'll go downstairs."
"No man is an island, Carson. Not even Thomas Barrow."
"A shy royal? Is that an oxymoron?"
Robert: "No maid, no valet, no nanny even!"
Bertie: "It's 1927, we're modern folk."
"We cannot know the truth. We should not judge."
Cora Crawley
"No one ever warns you about bringing up daughters. You think it's going to be like Little Women. Instead they're at each other's throats from dawn till dusk."
"I'm an American, I don't share your English hatred of comfort."
"You are being tested. And you know what they say, my darling, being tested only makes you stronger."
"Don't worry about me, I'm an American. Have gun, will travel."
"I don't want you to worry about where you will go and who will take care of you. You will stay here and we will."
Mary Crawley
"Sometimes I don't know whom I'm most in mourning for, Matthew or the person I used to be when I was with him."
"I'd rather be alone than with the wrong man."
"All alone with plenty of money and a house in Eton Square. I can't imagine anything better."
"I am not Miss, I am LADY Mary Crawley!"
"I'll do it. I don't mind lying."
"How many times am I to be ordered to marry the man sitting next to me at dinner?"
"This isn't fairyland. What did you think? You'd marry the chauffeur and we'd all come to tea?"
Edith Crawley
"Who do you think you're talking to?! Mama?! Your maid?! I know you! I know you to be a nasty, jealous, scheming bitch!"
Edith: "We won't change either, so you just need to take off your hat."
Violet: "You talk as if that were easy."
"Well, we're together, darling. And I know it's not ideal, but it's such an improvement on being apart that I think we should celebrate."
"And only us to sit in them. I suppose we'll get used to it."
Violet: "It will end in tears."
Edith: "Maybe, but they won't be Sybil's."
Violet Crawley
Isobel: "What should we call each other?"
Violet: "Well, we could always start with Mrs Crawley and Lady Grantham."
Matthew: "Don't worry. There are plenty of hours in the day. And, of course, I'll have the weekend."
Violet: "What is a 'weekend'?"
"We are allies, my dear, which can be a good deal more effective."
"It always happens. When you give these little people power it goes to their heads like strong drink!"
"Why does everyday involve a fight with an American?"
Violet: "Oh my dears. Is it really true? I can't believe it. Last night he looked so well. Of course it would happen to a foreigner. It's typical."
Mary: "Don't be ridiculous."
Violet: "I'm not being ridiculous. No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house – especially somebody they didn't even know."
Mary: "Sybil is entitled to her opinions."
Violet: "No. She isn't until she is married, then her husband will tell her what her opinions are."
"If she won't say yes when he might be poor, he won't want her when he will be rich."
"First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an H.G. Wells novel."
"I'm not a romantic... But even I concede that the heart does not exist solely for the purpose of pumping blood."
"I'm a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose."
"Don't be mysterious. It's the last resort of people with no secrets."
"At my age, one must ration one's excitement."
"You are quite wonderful the way you see room for improvement wherever you look. I never knew such reforming zeal."
"You're a woman with a brain and reasonable ability. Stop whining and find something to do."
"If reason fails, try force."
"I do think a woman's place is eventually in the home, but I see no harm in her having some fun before she gets there."
"Don't be defeatist, dear. It's very middle class."
"Sir Richard, life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous."
"1920. Is it to be believed? I feel as old as Methuselah."
Violet: "Will you have enough cliches to get you through the visit?"
Isobel: "If not, I'll come to you."
Isobel: "You're plotting something. I see a Machiavellian look in your eye."
Violet: "Machiavelli is frequently underrated. He had many qualities."
Isobel: "So did Caligula, not many of them charming."
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."
"Royal women are not meant to grin like Cheshire Cats."
Violet: "I'm always surprised when you praise me."
Isobel: "I'm surprised to hear that I have."
"What simpletons men are."
"Forgive, perhaps. Forget, never."
"'Lie' is so unmusical a word."
"Have we nothing in common?"
"Oh, well, that is an easy caveat to accept, because I'm never wrong."
"That is the thing about nature: there is so much of it."
"Edith, stop fascinating that young man and come make a four at bridge."
"The family must never be a topic of conversation."
"Nothing succeeds like excess."
"Let him go, let him go. You know he's right. Don't stop him doing the only sensible thing he's come up with in months."
"A woman of my age can face reality far better than most men."
Matthew Crawley
"War has a way of distinguishing between the things that matter and the things that don't."
"I have to take one thing for granted. That I will love you until the last breath leaves my body."
"Don't dislike him before you know him. That's the hallmark of our parents' generation, and I forbid it."
"I would never be happy with anyone else as long as you walked the Earth."
Lady Sybil Crawley
"It's the gloomy things that need our help. If everything in the garden is sunny, why meddle?"
"But nobody learns anything from a governess, apart from French and how to curtsey."
Tom Branson
"Real love means giving someone the power to hurt you."
Tom:"But you're meant to be together. I've known that as long as I've been at the house. And at first this kept you apart, then that kept you apart. But please don't risk it a third time. Because I'll tell you this. You won't be happy with anyone else while Lady Mary walks the earth."
Matthew: "Call her Mary, please."
Tom: "Never mind what I call her. I know what I'll call you if you let this chance slip through your fingers."
Charles Carson
"The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end, that's all there is."
"Hard work and diligence weigh more than beauty in the real world."
"Well, in my opinion, to misquote Dr. Johnson, if you're tired of style, you are tired of life."
"We shout and scream and wail and cry, but in the end we must all die."
"Life is short, death is sure."
Elsie Hughes
"If you want me, you can have me... warts and all."
"O, heavens, girl. You're building a fire, not inventing it."
Beryl Patmore
"What the eye doesn't see, the heart won't grieve over."
"A royal luncheon, a parade, and a dinner — I'm going to have to sit down."
"Nothing in life is sure."
"Oh dear. Have you swallowed a dictionary?"
"Daisy, what's happened to you? I said you could go for a drink of water, not a trip up the Nile."
Isobel Crawley
"Are you like everyone else in thinking that because she's a countess she has acquired universal knowledge by divine intervention?"
"I'd imagined them surrounded by nannies and governesses, being starched and ironed to spend an hour with you after tea."
Anna Bates
"I love you Mr. Bates. I know it's not ladylike to say it, but I'm not a lady and I don't pretend to be."
"What I see is a good man m'lady. And they're not like buses. There won't be another round in 10 minutes time."
"I'd rather have the right man, than the right wedding."
"Downton Abbey is the heart of this community. And you're keeping it beating."
John Bates
"You can change your life if you want. Sometimes you have to be hard on yourself... but you can change it completely. I know."
Martha Levinson
"Come war and peace, Downton still stands and the Crawleys are still in it."
Martha: "Oh dear, I'm afraid the war has made old women of us both."
Violet: "Oh I wouldn't say that, but then I always keep out of the sun. How did you find Downton on your return?"
Martha: "Much the same, really. Probably too much the same. But I don't want to cast a pall over all that and this."
Martha: "Hmm. Has he gone home to change?"
Violet: "Oh no. We won't see him again tonight. The groom never sees the bride the night before the wedding."
Martha: "Nothing ever alters for you people, does it? Revolutions erupt, and monarchies crash to the ground, and the groom cannot still see the bride before the wedding."
Violet: "You Americans never understand the importance of tradition."
Martha: "Yes, we do. We just don't give it power over us. History and tradition took Europe into a world war. Maybe you should think about letting go of its hand."
"I'm a modern. I don't hanker for those days before the war. And I don't really want to spend the rest of my life among people who think me loud and opinionated and common."
Hugh MacClare (Shrimpie)
"What I want is for her to know that family can be a loving thing…"
"Love is like riding or speaking French. If you don't learn it young, it's hard to get the trick of it later."
Richard Grey (Dickie)
"I state freely and proudly, Isobel, that I have fallen in love with you. And I want to spend what remains of my life in your company."
Richard Carlisle
"You make me sound rude and I hope I'm not that. I mean to learn how to do things properly, and you could help me a lot. But I'm not ashamed of being what they call a self-made man. I'm proud of it."
Sarah Bunting
"All I'm asking is for you to remember that you were the man who tempted her towards the park wall to run away to freedom. You can be that same man you were."
James Kent
"I want to travel the world, meet beautiful women, drink champagne."
Philip Villiers
"You know, my mother's always telling me, never put anything in writing. And now, thanks to you, I never will again."