Downton Abbey 6×4

Baxter: You don't know what you're asking.
Joseph Molesley: "All that's needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."

Joseph Molesley: "The Carsons..." Are we gonna have to call her "Mrs Carson"?

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: What sort of Talbot is he?
Lady Shackleton: Shrewsbury. But he's nowhere near the earldom. About 40 strong men would have to drop dead.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Well, nothing is impossible. Without it, what are his prospects?
Lady Shackleton: Adequate, but not overwhelming.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Honestly, listen to yourselves.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Lady Shackleton is quite right. Mary needs more than a handsome smile and a hand on the gear stick.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: I'm surprised you know what a gear stick is.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I know more than you think.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Really, Robert? You paint me as such a schemer.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: No-one has sharper eyes than a loving son.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: You read that somewhere.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Why do you never think I can make anything up?

Lady Shackleton: I expect there's a good deal to be said on both sides.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Don't be so feeble!
Lady Shackleton: How can I present myself as an expert when I don't know the facts?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: It's never stopped me!

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: Don't hide behind Lady Shackleton, Mama. You're quite capable of landing your own punches. The question is which system is more likely to deliver modern treatment to the local population?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: That is not the point.
Lady Rosamund Painswick: I should have thought that was exactly the point.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: You've muddled your priorities!
Lady Rosamund Painswick: I suppose cousin Isobel is entitled to put up an argument.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Of course she is, she's just not entitled to win it.

Dr Ryder: We got there in time. I've put in the stitch I spoke of and as they say in medical novels, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Lady Rosamund Painswick: Is it really so important to keep the Crawleys in command, Mama?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: That is my sole motive, is it?
Lady Rosamund Painswick: Isn't it?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: No. No, it is not. For years, I've watched governments take control of our lives. And their argument is always the same -- fewer costs, greater efficiency. But the result is the same, too -- less control by the people, more control by the state. Until the individual's own wishes count for nothing. That is what I consider my duty to resist.
Isobel Crawley: By wielding your unelected power?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: You see, the point of a so-called 'great family' is to protect our freedoms. That is why the barons made King John sign the Magna Carta.
Lady Rosamund Painswick: I do see that your argument was more honourable than I'd appreciated. But, Mama, we're not living in 1215. And the strengths of great families like ours is going, that's just fact.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Your great-grandchildren won't thank you when the state is all-powerful because we didn't fight.
Lady Rosamund Painswick: Well, I won't have any, so I can live with that.

Lady Mary Crawley: We ought to go down. I could hear them shouting from my bedroom.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I haven't been into the kitchens for at least 20 years.
Isobel Crawley: Have you got your passport?

Lady Edith Crawley: Well, I'd like to be a sort of co-editor, but no man will put up with that so I'm going to try and find a woman.
Isobel Crawley: A woman editor? I applaud you.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Of course you do. Presumably we may now look forward to women field marshals and a woman pope!

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: "Mrs Carson..." It's like Jane Eyre asking to be called Mrs Rochester. I'll never get used to it.
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: None of us will.

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