Downton Abbey 5×1

Daisy Robinson: 34 years! If I were to marry this year, what would life be like in 1958?

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh, dear. Oh, why the lamentation? You don't have to see him.
Isobel Crawley: Well, you make it sound so easy.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends - that's the real test.
Isobel Crawley: But I do like him. I think he's very nice. It's just, he wants something from me that I cannot give.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: He just wants what all men want.
Isobel Crawley: Oh, don't be ridiculous!
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I was referring to companionship. As I hope you were.

Mr. Carson: This sounds very like the kind of boys' talk I do not allow. If you can both tear yourselves away from your smutty deliberations, I need you both upstairs.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Spratt... Offer Dr Clarkson some cake. Then you may go. Thank you.
Dr. Clarkson: I'm afraid serving me is a bit beneath his dignity.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Even Spratt cannot always live for pleasure.

Mr. Carson: I'm not comfortable being placed ahead of His Lordship. You should have seen his face, Mrs Hughes. He felt very let down.
Mrs. Hughes: It's the Committee's choice, and they've chosen you.
Mr. Carson: And the country's chosen a Labour government, so people don't always get it right.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I thought you might be amused by how friendly he and Mrs Crawley have become.
Dr. Clarkson: What Mrs Crawley chooses to do with her private life is her own affair.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh, dear. I've annoyed you.
Dr. Clarkson: No, no, no, I'm not annoyed... although I am surprised to learn that she entertains notions of passing her time at drawing-room receptions and taking carriage rides in the park.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Well, no-one takes carriage rides in the park any more. That's quite gone.
Dr. Clarkson: I wouldn't know.

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: It doesn't really bother you they want Carson, does it?
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: They'd be lucky to get him. Even so, it makes you think. Would a village delegation have arrived in my grandfather's day to ask his butler to head an appeal?
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: We're not living in your grandfather's day.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: No, we are not.

Lady Mary Crawley: I think you, Tom and I make a pretty good team. By the way, I've been looking into crop rotation and grain sales--
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: And not every father hears that from his daughter.

Lady Mary Crawley: The older I get, the more I feel we do these things very oddly. Even now we must decide whether to share our lives with someone without ever spending any real time with them. Let alone... you know. Of course, these days, some women do. I was talking to Lady Cunard's daughter last week, and she was so graphic, I almost fainted. But then, what could be more important? To make sure that that side of things is right... before we tie ourselves to someone for ever?
Anna Bates: I'm afraid I'm too old-fashioned for you, m'lady.

Isobel Crawley: Can't Tom have a friend of his own?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh, of course. But it's time he decided whether he is fish, flesh, fowl or good red herring.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Now, if you can all put your swords away, perhaps we can finish our dinner in a civilised manner.
Isobel Crawley: But I admire it, when young people stand up for their principles.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Principles are like prayers. Noble, of course, but awkward at a party.

Mrs. Hughes: And have you told him that?
Mr. Carson: He doesn't need to know everything, Mrs Hughes. Nobody has to know everything.

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