- Agnes Van Rhijn: Who else will be there, the latest arrivals from Ellis Island?... That woman has the resilience of a cockroach
- Marian Brook: Miss Barton is much more of a reformer than I realized.
- Ada Brook: I do admire your Miss Barton.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Is there a fashionable cause she does not support?
- Marian Brook: Surely you believe women will vote eventually?
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Hmmm.. I believe in small, incremental change, not running around with a banner and a gun.
- Ward McAllister: Please forgive me if I'm late, but we were arguing over the wine for tonight.
- Aurora Fane: Whom were you arguing with?
- Ward McAllister: My butler, Perryman, who thinks he knows everything. It's different for me. I do know everything.
- Marian Brook: 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.
- 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.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: 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.
- Adelheid: 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.
- Marian Brook: Really, Aunt Agnes, anyone would think you were against charity.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Charity has two functions in our world, my dear. The first is to raise funds for the less fortunate, which is wholly good. The second is to provide a ladder for people to climb into society who do not belong there.
- Marian Brook: And that is wholly bad?
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Not wholly, perhaps, but it should give us pause.
- Marian Brook: Do you like Mrs. Astor?
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Hmm, that's like saying, 'Do you like rain?' She is a fact of life that we must live with.
- 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.
- Marian Brook: But when you're a handsome, young man, all you need is a decent tailcoat, and you're invited everywhere.
- Anne Morris: 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.
- 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.
- Dorothy Scott: Peggy belongs in Brooklyn. It's nice she has her job, but she will only live a half life here.
- Marian Brook: She likes the work.
- Dorothy Scott: But there is more to life than work, and Peggy cannot live your life.
- Marian Brook: I suppose not.
- Dorothy Scott: In Brooklyn, she could meet a suitable husband, have her own family, and walk through front doors instead of the back entrances.
- 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.
- Marian Brook: But about the kiss... Should I be insulted?
- Peggy Scott: Mm... yes, if he thinks he can have you easily. No, if he just wants you as much as you want him.
- Marian Brook: 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.
- George Russell: As I say, I've discussed you with Mr. Seligman and he is prepared to take you on as a broker, with excellent prospects. In a few years, you could be a rich man.
- Archie Baldwin: I don't know what to say. But you won't regret it, Mr. Russell. I promise... I will make sure Gladys...
- George Russell: There are conditions.
- Archie Baldwin: What are they, sir? Just tell me.
- George Russell: You may send a final letter, and after that, you will never communicate with my daughter again. You will not see her. And if you encounter each other socially, you will avoid any contact, providing you can do so without causing comment.
- Archie Baldwin: But I... I thought...
- George Russell: You were mistaken, Mr. Baldwin.
- Archie Baldwin: 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.
- 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.
- Aurora Fane: She's trying to find her feet in New York, and I'm afraid he's the gatekeeper she must pass to achieve it.
- Marian Brook: Is that his role?
- Aurora Fane: 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: Hmm. So Mr. McAllister's opinion is important?
- Aurora Fane: Is any of it important?