The Narrator: Carriages waited at the curb for the entire performance. It was widely known in New York, but never acknowledged, that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.
Ellen Olenska: How can we be happy behind the backs of people who trust us?
Ellen Olenska: Is New York such a labyrinth? I thought it was all straight up and down like Fifth Avenue. All the cross streets numbered and big honest labels on everything.
Newland Archer: Everything is labeled, but everybody is not.
Ellen Olenska: Then I must count on you for warnings too.
Ted Archer: What will I tell her?
Newland Archer: Don't you always have something to say?
Ellen Olenska: Do you think her lover will send her a box of yellow roses tomorrow morning?
Mrs. Mingott: I gave up arguing with young people 50 years ago.
Ted Archer: Annie made me swear to do three things in Paris: get her the score of the latest Debussy songs, go to the Grand Guignol, and see Madam Olenska.
Ellen Olenska: I knew you'd come.
Newland Archer: That shows you wanted me to.
Newland Archer: What could you possibly gain that could make up for the scandal?
Ellen Olenska: My freedom.
The Narrator: As for the madness with Madame Olenska, Archer trained himself to remember it as the last of his discarded experiments. She remained in his memory simply as the most plaintive and poignant of a line of ghosts.
Ted Archer: The Atlantic is calling us.
Newland Archer: All the older women like and admire you. They want to help.
Ellen Olenska: I know. I know, as long as they don't hear anything unpleasant. Does no one here want to know - want to know the truth, Mr. Archer? The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only asks you to pretend.
Newland: Honest? Isn't that why you always admire Julius Beaufort? He was more honest than the rest of us, wasn't he, we've got no character, no color, no variety. I wonder why you just don't go back to Europe.
Ellen: I believe that's because of you.
Ellen: Newland. You couldn't be happy if it meant being cruel. If we act any other way I'll be making you act against what I love in you most. And I can't go back to that way of thinking. Don't you see? I can't love you unless I give you up.
Newland: You gave me my first glimpse of a real life. Then you asked me to go on with the false one. No one can endure that.
Ellen: I'm enduring it.
