Downton Abbey 6×6

Anna Bates: And if you'd the chance to see the private rooms of the King and Queen, would you pay?
John Bates: But what would it tell me? They sleep in a bed, they eat at a table. So do I.
Thomas Barrow: I always wonder whether someone else is having a better time than I am.
Mr. Carson: But that's what's so dangerous. You think they must be having a better time. Then you want them not to have a better time. The next thing you know, there's a guillotine in Trafalgar Square.
Mrs. Hughes: Ever the optimist.

Mr. Carson: How are you at making coffee?
Mrs. Hughes: I can make coffee. It's not very hard.
Mr. Carson: That's where you're wrong. There's quite an art to it. Uh, you might like to have a word with Mrs Patmore.
Mrs. Hughes: Of course. If you'd like me to.
Mr. Carson: And I want to start bringing things a little more up to standard. I wonder if we could have the hall boy to do some polishing.
Mrs. Hughes: I don't see why not.
Mr. Carson: And you might ask one of the maids about making the bed.
Mrs. Hughes: Isn't that good enough, either?
Mr. Carson: It's not bad. I didn't mean that. But I do like those sharp corners.
Mrs. Hughes: Well. I'm glad it's not bad.

Thomas Barrow: But I am the first!
Mr. Carson: But you are the under butler, a post that is fragrant with memories of a lost world. No-one is sorrier to say it than I am, but you are not a creature of today.
Thomas Barrow: And you are?
Mr. Carson: I don't believe that a house like Downton could be run without a butler. In that sense, yes, I am.
Mr. Carson: Is everything ready for tonight?
Mrs. Hughes: I think so. You're not expecting a banquet, are you?
Mr. Carson: I'm expecting a delicious dinner prepared by the fair hands of my beautiful wife.
Mrs. Hughes: There's a threat in there somewhere...

Lady Mary Crawley: Carson, can you sort it out?
Mr. Carson: Of course, m'lady. I understand it's only the ground floor.
Lady Mary Crawley: And not too much of that. They'll start in the small library, then through the big library, into the painted room, the drawing room, the smoking room, the great hall, in and out of the dining room and back outside.
Bertie Pelham: Rope off across the staircases and the back wing. Who are the guides?
Tom Branson: Do we need guides? Can't they just have a look and leave it at that?
Bertie Pelham: I don't think so. Not if you want them to go away happy, and leave behind what's not theirs.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: If only Mr Chamberlain had spoken...
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: He was never going to say a word. The truth is, Mama, officialdom doesn't care what we think any more. Our influence is finished.
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: He seems nice, and he's certainly organised. ...
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: But what are his prospects? An agent stuck up in Northumberland managing someone else's estate?
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: What are Edith's prospects?
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Oh, I don't know. With her magazine, I think she could develop into one of the interesting women of the day.
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: Ten years ago, that very idea would have filled you with horror.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: I've changed, you've changed, the world's changed.

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Do be logical.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I am sick and tired of logic! If I could choose between principle and logic, I'd take principle every time!

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Just tell Cora I do not wish to see her face until I'm used to having a traitor in the family!

Mrs. Hughes: My, my. You're blazing a trail now. Have you found anyone to hit with that yet?
Mr. Carson: If I had my way, I'd hit the lot of them.

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