- Ling Tan: [to Jade] Remember, my child, that the woman is the root and the man is the tree. The tree grows only as high as the root is strong.
- Ling Tan: How can you dig such a thing without help? The earth is stubborn.
- Ling Tan's Wife: Heaven gave me the thought. Heaven will provide the help. The shovel is there.
- Ling Tan's Wife: [referring to a Japanese officer] Why do you not defy him?
- Ling Tan: Alive I can hold my land. Dead I can only hold as much as I am buried in.
- Wu Lien: A woman should be soft, like the skin of a peach - not hard, like the stone, which does no one any good.
- Ling Tan: I have come to this. I will not grieve the day they tell me my third son is dead. He has become the sort of man I hate and fear most. Such men will not allow peace in the world. War springs from them as fire does from tinder, and it is their pleasure in life. Such men should die for the good of all.
- Lao Ta Tan - Eldest Son: [rhetorically] Do you not know that in a woman eagerness passes for weakness?
- Lao Er Tan - Middle Son: I do not have the words.
- Jade Tan: I am not very learned.
- Lao Er Tan - Middle Son: Is that why you do not often speak to me?
- Jade Tan: Two must speak for understanding.
- Japanese Official: [to restaurant waiter] Oh, no wine, hunh, and where are your women?
- [lasciviously]
- Japanese Official: There are other things than wine!
- Ling Tan: [referring to Jade's son] He has his eyes open. Make sure the one who teaches him has his eyes open.
- Third Cousin's Wife: [referring to Wu Lien and his family, who've grown rich on account of collaborating with the Japanese] See? Silk coats, and enemy soldiers to serve them. It is plain Wu Lien has gotten his fingers into the fat!
- Third Cousin's Wife: [turning to her husband to ask] Of what value is a rich relative unless you can put him to use?