Downton Abbey 3×1

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: The family must never be a topic of conversation.
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: I'm afraid Sybil's already made the Crawleys a permanent topic.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: All the more reason. If we can show the county he can behave normally, they will soon lose interest in him. And I shall make sure he behaves normally but he strikes me as a very interesting addition to the family.
Isobel Crawley: Oh, here we go. And why should he be normal as you call it? I say he should come here and fight his corner. I like a man of strong beliefs.

Anna Bates: Just remember what my mother used to say. Never make an enemy by accident.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I'm so looking forward to seeing your mother again. When I'm with her I'm reminded of the virtues of the English.
Matthew Crawley: But isn't she American?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Exactly.

Matthew Crawley: I sometimes think it's time we lived in a simpler way.
Isobel Crawley: I agree. Much cattle, much care.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Always supposing we have the choice.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh, don't say that. It's our job to provide employment. An aristocrat with no servants is as much use to the county as a glass hammer!

Thomas Barrow: I'm sorry. I won't. And that's flat.
Mrs. Hughes: Then you'll have to do it, Mr Carson.
Mr. Carson: I'm not dressing a chauffeur.
Mrs. Hughes: He is not a chauffeur now. Anyway, you don't have to dress him, just see he's got everything he needs.
Mr. Carson: I'm not often as one with Mr Barrow, but no.
Mrs. Hughes: Then Alfred must do it.
Mr. Carson: Alfred? He wouldn't know what to do beyond collecting dirty shoes.
Mrs. Hughes: Well, he'll have to learn.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Is it an Irish tradition?
Tom Branson: What?
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: She means not changing.
Lady Sybil Crawley: Of course it isn't, Granny.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: It might have been. You don't change on the first night of a voyage...

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: Has some of my fortune been lost?
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Some... All. Almost all.
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: Oh, my dear. How terrible for you.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: It's not so good for you.
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: Don't worry about me. I'm an American. Have gun, will travel.

Matthew Crawley: You don't make it easy for them. Do you really think you can recruit cousin Robert for Sinn Fein?
Tom Branson: I don't know what gets into me. I can see them staring and I know they don't want me here.
Matthew Crawley: Well, don't include me. Or Mary.
Tom Branson: She wasn't too keen on the idea of a chauffeur for a brother-in-law.
Matthew Crawley: Forget that. She's a pragmatist. She could be a tough fighter, too. Let's hope she's not tested. Forget this and walk back. We're brothers-in-law with high-minded wives. We'd better stick together.

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: Tom has been the victim of a cruel prank which I know you'll all be kind enough to forget.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Forgive, perhaps. Forget? Never.

Tom Branson: That's very kind, ladies. But I don't approve of these costumes. I see them as the uniform of oppression and I should be uncomfortable wearing them.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Have you quite finished?
Tom Branson: I have.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Good. Please take off your coat. Molesley, do help him.

Martha Levinson: Do explain again how exactly you are related to all of us, Mr Crawley.
Matthew Crawley: Rather distantly, I'm afraid. My great-great-grandfather was a younger son of a third earl.
Martha Levinson: My. I'm going to have to write that down, so I can study it.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Look at our page in Burke's. You'll find Matthew there.
Martha Levinson: Good. Because I would so like to understand why he gets to inherit my late husband's money.
Matthew Crawley: I know. It's funny, isn't it?
Martha Levinson: Not everyone shares your sense of humour.

Martha Levinson: Has he gone home to change?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh, no, we won't see him again tonight. The groom never sees the bride the night before the wedding.
Martha Levinson: Nothing ever alters for you people, does it? Revolutions erupt and monarchies crash to the ground and the groom still cannot see the bride before the wedding.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: You Americans never understand the importance of tradition.
Martha Levinson: 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.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: She is like a homing pigeon. She finds our underbelly every time. Dreadful woman.

Lady Mary Crawley: That's the point. He puts himself above the rest of us. Don't you see?
Anna Bates: What I see is a good man, my lady. And they're not like buses. There won't be another one along in ten minutes' time.

Matthew Crawley: I would never be happy with anyone else as long as you walked the earth.

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