- Lily Bart: I have tried. I have tried hard. But life is difficult and I am a useless person. And now I am on the rubbish heap.
- Mrs. Peniston: Only someone without family could make such a vulgar remark.
- Lily Bart: Aunt Julia, you *are* my family.
- Sim Rosedale: [Proposing to Lily] I know you're not in love with me. You're not even fond of me. Yet.
- Lily Bart: I am very much flattered by your offer. But I should be selfish and ungrateful if the reason for accepting your generosity - financial.
- Sim Rosedale: Miss Bart, I generally get what I want in life. I've attained a certain social position and I have the means to maintain it. Now all I want is the woman - the right woman to share both with me. Now I know you have a fondness for luxury and amusement and to not have to settle for it. I can provide the style and the means of settling.
- Lily Bart: They do fetch such fabulous prices, don't they?
- Lawrence Selden: Only the very rich can afford to buy them.
- Lily Bart: And you know that I am not rich. But life is very expensive.
- [Lawrence lights Lily's cigarette with his own cigarette, Lily breathes deep, exhales smoke onto Lawrence's face]
- Lily Bart: Do you mind not being rich enough? And having to work? Do you mind that?
- Lawrence Selden: Well, the work itself is not so bad. I'm rather fond of the law.
- Lily Bart: But do you mind enough to have to marry to get out of it?
- Lawrence Selden: God forbid.
- Lily Bart: Ah, you see, there is the difference. A girl must, and a man if he chooses.
- Lily Bart: I have been about too long. People are getting tired of me. They are beginning to say that I ought to marry.
- Lawrence Selden: Isn't marriage your vocation. Isn't it what you're all brought up for?
- Lily Bart: I suppose so.
- Lawrence Selden: So why not take the plunge and have it over?
- Lily Bart: I thought that I could manage my own life. But I have been foolish, Grace. Foolish to the point of being compromised.
- [to Grace at the opera house]
- Mrs. Peniston: Thank you for telling me, Grace. But I must say this unwelcome information has completely ruined the Mozart for me.
- Lily Bart: Oh, how delicious to have a place like this all to oneself.
- Lawrence Selden: Even women have been known to enjoy the privileges of a flat.
- Lily Bart: Governesses, yes. But not poor, marriageable girls.
- Lily Bart: Dear Mr Selden, it is stupid of you to be disingenuous. And it isn't like you to be stupid.
- Lily Bart: You must suppose me a dull kind of person if you think I never yield to an impulse.
- Lawrence Selden: But I don't suppose that. Your genius lies in converting impulses into intentions.
- Lily Bart: My genius? My genius would appear to be my ability to do the wrong thing at the right time.
- Lawrence Selden: Or vice versa.
- Mrs. Peniston: To grow richer, when at a time when most people's investments are shrinking strikes me as being in very bad taste.
- Grace: But society still uses such men if only obliquely.
- Lily Bart: If obliquity were a vice, we should all be tainted.
- Lawrence Selden: How is life at Richfield?
- Grace: Quiet. Aunt Peniston sees very little company.
- Lawrence Selden: I'm sure your being there gave her much pleasure.
- Grace: Yes, I am as reliable as roast mutton.
- Lily Bart: There are men who dislike me - and others who are afraid of me. They think I want to marry them. But I don't think that you dislike me. And you can't possibly think that I want to marry you.
- Lawrence Selden: No, I absolve you from that.
- Lily Bart: Oh, if I could only do over my aunt's drawing room I know I should be a better woman.
- Lawrence Selden: Is it so very bad?
- Lily Bart: That shows how seldom you come there. Why don't you come oftener?
- Lawrence Selden: When I do come, it's not to look at Mrs Peniston's furniture.
- Lily Bart: Nonsense. You don't come at all. And yet we get on so well when we meet.
- Lawrence Selden: Cream or lemon?
- Lily Bart: Lemon.
- Bertha Dorset: I wish the men would always stay away. It's really much nicer without them. Oh, you don't count, George. One never talks to one's husband.
- Judy Trenor: But, wives never like their husbands talking to other women.
- Bertha Dorset: Only if the women in question are slightly too eligible - or divorced.
- George Dorset: Wives may do as they wish. Husbands are expected to be like money - influential, but silent.
- Augustus 'Gus' Trenor: If divorcees were more acceptable, I might be tempted.
- Judy Trenor: Gus!
- Judy Trenor: She *is* dangerous. And you are not nasty. And for always getting what she wants in the long run, commend me to a nasty woman.
- Lily Bart: I thought you were so fond of Bertha.
- Judy Trenor: Oh, I am. It's much safer to be fond of dangerous people.
- Judy Trenor: Did you know his father made a fortune out of inventing a device which excludes fresh air from hotels?
- Bertha Dorset: I came across this morning from Mount Kisco in the motor car. I had to kick up my heels at Garrisons for an hour without even a cigarette.
- Lawrence Selden: You will marry someone very rich.
- Lily Bart: What a miserable future you foresee for me.
- Lawrence Selden: Haven't you seen it for yourself?
- Lily Bart: Of course. But it seems so much darker when you show it to me.
- Lawrence Selden: Waiting for me, I hope.
- Lily Bart: Waiting to see if you would come.
- Lawrence Selden: Weren't you sure that I would?
- Lily Bart: If I waited long enough. But I only had a limited time to give to the experience.
- Mrs. Peniston: Jennings, we will take tea in the upstairs sitting room. Lily, you can read me the obituaries.
- Lily Bart: Oh, Aunt Julia, Grace does it so much better than me. She can make even the most insignificant death seem interesting.
- Lawrence Selden: They met six weeks ago at Bertha Dorset's and have been devoted ever since. The engagement is to be announced next week. They say it will be *just* the nicest marriage possible. One dull fortune marrying another.
- Lily Bart: Why do we never see each other?
- Lawrence Selden: I have my law practice, and - you're always surrounded by admirers.
- Mrs. Peniston: Thank you for telling me, Grace. But, I must say, this unwelcome information has completely ruined the Mozart for me.
- Lily Bart: How dare you compromise me in this way!
- Augustus 'Gus' Trenor: Don't take that high tone with me. I've been patient enough. After all, the man who pays for the dinner is generally allowed a seat at the table.
- Lily Bart: I don't know what you mean.
- Mrs. Peniston: Does he mean to divorce then marry her?
- Grace: No, it's - it's a flirtation, nothing more.
- Mrs. Peniston: A flirtation? With a married man? Such things were never heard of in my day.
- Mrs. Peniston: [scornfully] It's true, then. You play cards for money. Do you play on Sundays?
- Lily Bart: You are hard on me, Aunt Julia. I have never really cared for cards and one hates to be thought of as priggish and one *drifts* into doing what others do.
- George Dorset: You would not have cared for the denouement.
- Lily Bart: The denouement? Isn't that too big a word for a small incident?
- Lily Bart: Well? What happened? What will happen?
- Lawrence Selden: Nothing, as yet. And nothing in the future, I think.
- Lily Bart: You're sure?
- Lawrence Selden: I'm not sure, but I'm a good deal surer.
- Mrs. Peniston: I shall certainly not do anything that gives the impression that I countenance your behavior.
- Lily Bart: Aunt Julia, I will be disgraced!
- Mrs. Peniston: I consider that you *are* disgraced, Lily.
- Mrs. Carry Fisher: A clever woman would know just when to play her cards right, but Lily's never been very clever in that way.
- Lily Bart: I saw nothing. I know nothing.
- George Dorset: Just say what you know and the way will be clear for us both.
- Lily Bart: I know nothing.
- George Dorset: You're sacrificing both of us.
- Lily Bart: I know nothing. Absolutely nothing.
- Mrs. Carry Fisher: What do you say to putting a few things in a trunk and spending the summer with me and the Gormers?
- Lily Bart: To take me out of my friends' way, you mean?
- Mrs. Carry Fisher: To keep you out of their sight till they realize how much they miss you. Besides, The Gormers have taken a tremendous fancy to you. Oh, I know they're not quite your set, they're kind of a social Coney Island, but anyone is welcome who makes noise and doesn't put on airs.
- Lily Bart: Yes. I shall come.
- Mrs. Carry Fisher: Lily, you must marry - as soon as you can.
- Lily Bart: Do you mean to recommend me to a good man's love?
- Mrs. Carry Fisher: No, I don't think either of my candidates would answer to that description.
- Lily Bart: Either? There are actually two?
- Mrs. Carry Fisher: Well, perhaps I ought to say one and a half.
- Lily Bart: Other things being equal, I think I should prefer half a husband.
- Lily Bart: Soon everybody will be leaving - for Newport and Bar Harbor and Long Island. And me to a hotel in broiling New York.