Six-year-old Brett is trying to get her sister Ashton to leave a green hering's egg alone:
BRETT: Ashton, put that back! That isn't yours!
ASHTON: It is now.
BRETT: Please! You can't take another bird's baby.
ASHTON: I'm sorry, Brett. You're right. You found it. You put it back.............If I can't have it, nobody can!
Madeline accidenatlly-on-purpose drops her handkerchief as she and Orry ride to Resolute:
MADELINE: Oops. I've dropped something. That was very clumsy of me.
ORRY: Yes, it was.
George jumps to the aid of Orry during his fight with some immigrants who hate southerners:
ORRY: Thanks. Orry Main
GEORGE: George Hazard. Glad to know you.
ORRY: Not as glad as I am to know you.
GEORGE: Pennsylvania. Lehigh Station.
ORRY: South Carolina. On my way to West Point.
GEORGE: So am I.
ORRY: I had no idea that this trip would be so eventful.
Geroge and Orry are trying to find their barricks at West Point as another officer approaches them:
GEORGE: He looks helpful. Excuse me, sir. My friends and I are pleabes.
OFFICER: No, sir! You are not!
GEROGE: Sir?
OFFICER: You are things, sir. To become pleabes you must first survive the entrance examination. Until then you are lower than pleabes. You are the lowest of the low. You are things, sir. Remember that.
Bent is asking his drill team which part of the U.S. they think is superior during his first appearance:
BENT: And you, sir, how do you feel about the south as compared with your section of the country, sir. The east I believe. Which do you think is superior, sir?
GEORGE: Why the east, sir!
BENT: What did you say?
GEORGE: I said the east, sir. Nothing but dirt farmers down south. Present company excepted, sir, as always.
Orry meets George's abolitionist sister Virgilia:
VIRGILIA: George tells us you're a southerner.
ORRY: Yes, from South Carolina.
VIRGILIA: Do you keep slaves?
ORRY: My family does, yes.
VIRGILIA: Are you evil, Mr. Main?
STANLEY: Oh no, not again.
MAUDE: Virgilia!
Dr. Flynn devises a plan to free Constance of her dancing partner so she can dance with George:
DR. FLYNN: Why don't you follow me, lieutennent. And be prepaired to move fast. (He runs into Major Lafferty and spills his drink on him) Oof! Sorry, I didn't see you. It's a terrible waste of whisky, isn't it?
Orry is at George and Constance's wedding:
MAUDE: I um have, well, that is we have something we'd like to ask you. It's an invitation really. For you and all your family to join us here at Belvedere next summer for a nice, long visit. Our lake is really very lovely that time of year.
ORRY: That sounds wonderful, mam. On behalf of all the Mains I accept with pleasure.
VIRGILIA: Oh, mother, we need to notify the architect. So we can set up slave quarters in the back.
MAUDE: Oh, Virgilia! I'm so sorry.
GEORGE: Now, Mother, we all know that the best thing to do when Virgilia gets like this is to ignore her.
Orry has just agreed to be Charles's second in a duel between him and Whitney Smith. Charles says he can handle it without any training:
ORRY: But you can't. This is not just another one of your country brawls, Charles. This is a duel, theoretically between gentlemen. It will be fought with rules, strict rules. Now you are a Main, Charles. You hear me? You are a Main. Now I can't have you dying on me and sullying the family name.
CHARLES: Well, if there's one reason on earth I wouldn't want to get my brains blown out, that's it.
Virgilia sends the Mains a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Brett is horrified by the things written in it:
BRETT: George and Constance and Billy, they know that we're not like that, don't they?
ORRY: Of course they do, Brett, they understand.
BRETT: But Orry, you didn't understand.
ORRY: What?
BRETT: When Virgilia helped Grady leave.
ORRY: Go home, Brett.
Brett and Ashton are at Billy and Charles's West Point graduation:
BRETT: Isn't he handsome?
ASHTON: They all are.
BRETT: I meant Billy.
ASHTON: I know who you meant. Although I don't understand what you see in that boy when there are so many men available.
BRETT: Billy is the man for me.
ASHTON: Well, I guess you'll just have to settle for whomever comes around, not being blessed with the same adventurous spirit as myself.
BRETT: And I'm sure you bethrothed just adores that side of your nature.
ASHTON: James Huntoon? That sod.
BRETT: Ashton!
ASHTON: There's only one thing about him I find attractive. He has a brilliant future in politics, and politics my dear sister is where the power is.
BRETT: But you do love him, don't you?
ASHTON: Don't be ridiculous! I couldn't possibly love just one man. Think how disappointed the rest of them would be.
Orry and Brett are visiting the Hazards while Virgilia is back home as well:
ISABEL: I'm warning you, just this once, keep your dreadful opinions to yourself.
VIRGILIA: Get out of my way!
STANLEY: You'll only upset them!
GEORGE: Virgilia, what a surprise.
VIRGILIA: Hello, Brett. Hello, Orry.
ORRY: Virgilia.
BRETT: I hadn't heard you were visiting.
VIRGILIA: It's no wonder. I'm the best kept secret in this family. Did you know that George tried lock me away in the attic, but I managed to escape because I found this teeny tiny window and I crawled out.
Ashton is choosing her clothes:
ASHTON: I declair! I wish I could go out just like this.
BRETT: (Looks astonished)
ASHTON: Oh, little sister, you act as if people were born with clothes on.
Grady dies during the Harper's Ferry incident, and Virgilia begins to go a little nuts:
VIRGILIA: You think he's dead, don't you? He's not dead, he's free.
Orry breaks a wine glass, and Brett comes rushing in the room to see what happened:
ORRY: What do you want?
BRETT: I thought the house was falling down.
ORRY: Just give it time, Brett. A house divided cannot stand..............and neither can I.
George says good-bye to Orry at the train station during the final scene:
ORRY: George, can you see anything we could have done to stop all this?
GEORGE: No, I think we had a chance somewhere along the line and we missed it.
ORRY: Or threw it away.