- [talking about the death of Alcock]
- Howarth: That's that, and I hope to God nobody asks me to comment. The thing I find hardest to tolerate is hypocrisy, especially when it takes the form of a sentimental regard for the dead just because they *are* dead. To hear some people talk, you'd think dying was limited to the chosen few.
- David Powlett-Jones: [after a student criticizes the 1926 coal strike] When I was a young boy... much younger than any of you here, I went to school one morning, leaving behind a father and three brothers working on the early shift. That's 4am to midday. When I got home that evening, my father and two of my brothers were dead. Their bodies were never recovered. It was judged to be too expensive to be worth it.
- Boyer: [giving David the book "Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne"] Do you remember, sir, back in the fifth, you said that if we wanted to know what war was really like, we should read that? You said you'd lost your own copy at Ypres or somewhere.
- David Powlett-Jones: I wouldn't have expected anyone to remember that.
- Boyer: What you said about it then, sir, was that it helped you get through. No matter how bad things were at the front, those 18th century soldiers had it worse, and if Sergeant Bourgogne could get through his war, then, well, maybe you could get through yours.
- David Powlett-Jones: I said all that, did I?
- Boyer: I thought it might help, sir. Well, you know, now.
- David Powlett-Jones: This is my first go at teaching - teaching schoolboys, that is. Up till now, the only teaching I've done is trying to teach recruits to look after themselves and not get shot their first week out. There wasn't time to be patient, see, and I never had to learn to suffer fools gladly. That might take me a bit of time, Mr. Dobson. Until I do, maybe you'd better keep your head down, eh?
- Algy Herries: Ellie, my dear, he thought I was going to sack him.
- Ellie Herries: Oh, he'd never do that. You're Algy's bright idea. I'm afraid failure isn't a possible option for you.
- Christine Forster: Politics is full of people who can't cope with their own lives. I worry about that a lot.
- Dr. Farrington: You Welshmen are all the same - never satisfied unless you've got something to feel guilty about. Well, I'm afraid this won't fill the bill. Your job's safe and it appears that you've lost an enemy. You'll just have to reconcile yourself to being happy, poor fellow.
- Howarth: Some men can live the celibate life. I don't fancy you're one of them.
- David Powlett-Jones: What did *you* do about women all these years?
- Howarth: [pauses, smiles] Your appetite for sordid revelations never ceases to astonish me.
- David Powlett-Jones: [after learning Julia is moving to the U.S] Why did you wait 'til now to tell me?
- Julia Darbyshire: Well... at first I was nervous. And... then I realized I wanted to go to bed with you one last time. And you are such a gentleman, David, I... I knew you wouldn't let me if I told you.
- Christine Forster: Rowley was my moral tutor at Durham University. In this capacity, he introduced me to socialism... then to his bed... then married me, much to the disgust of his grand family. And he quarreled with me. Finally he left me. Nothing stuck except the socialism. See? No scars.
- Howarth: Anyone who doubts that a new dark age is coming upon us has only to spend a few hours with lower fourth. I despair, I despair. I am, as you all know, a pacifist by nature and conviction; but if a German soldier were attacking Pinkerton Minor, I'd be hard put to it not to come to his aid. The German soldier's, I mean.
- Algy Herries: I always like it when people say "with the greatest respect." It always means they're going to be rude.
- Cordwainer: A pencil becomes a pencil stub when it is too small to hold with the fingers. Take it back and sharpen it. My goodness, Foxson, if we were all as prodigal as you, this country would have no battleships.
- Briarley: [about Powlett-Jones] Look at him pounding away. Do you think he's got a screw loose?
- Boyer: Of course he has. Wouldn't be here otherwise. Mind you, he's his own special sort of loony.
- Briarley: Might be a spy.
- Boyer: What, reporting back to the Kaiser on Killer Carter and the Corps? No, he's just a pro-Hun loony. Pro-Jerry loony? Well, he should know.
- Dobson: I'll bet he won't last long.
- Boyer: No, more's the pity. Well, he's interesting, anyway.
- David Powlett-Jones: [to Alcock after he expels Hislop for holding a bet on Sports Day] Good God, man, if you expelled every boy who told a lie or made a bet you'd have no pupils left to pitch up and bully!
- Beth Marwood: [when Winterbourne has gone missing] Oh, yes, I can just see Carter. He'd have taken the whole cadet corps out onto the moor and marched them into a bog.