- Cabman John Gray: I am a small man, a humble man. Being poor I have had to do much that I did not want to do. But so long as the great Dr McFarlane comes to my whistle, that long am I a man. If I have not that then I have nothing. Then I am only a cabman and a grave robber. You'll never get rid of me, Toddy.
- Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane: Gray, I must be rid of you. You've become a cancer, a malignant evil cancer rotting my mind.
- Cabman John Gray: You've made a disease of me, eh, Toddy?
- Cabman John Gray: I'm a pretty bad fellow myself, but MacFarlane's the boy - Toddy McFarlane I call him. Toddy, order your friend another glass.
- [to Fettes]
- Cabman John Gray: Toddy hates me.
- Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane: Don't call me by that confounded name.
- Cabman John Gray: Hear him! Did you ever see the lads play knife?
- [thrusts a knife into a loaf of bread]
- Cabman John Gray: Toddy would like to do that all over my body.
- Donald Fettes: We medicals have a better way than that. When we dislike a friend of ours, we dissect him.
- Closing title: "It is through error that man tries and rises. It is through tragedy he learns. All the roads of learning begin in darkness and go out into the light." Hippocrates of Cos
- Cabman John Gray: There was a dog that bothered me during the last job. People are so concerned about dogs.
- Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane: What is Gray to me? He's a man from whom I buy what I need when I need it. The rest is forgotten.
- Meg Camden: You may deny him, Toddy, but you'll not rid yourself of him by saying the devil's dead.
- Joseph: I know you kill people to sell bodies.
- Cabman John Gray: You say you came here of your own account. No-one sent you, no-one knows you're here?
- Joseph: Give me money or I tell the police that you murder the subjects.
- Cabman John Gray: Well, Joseph, you shall have money, why should you not? I don't suppose the great Dr MacFarlane is over lavish with his pay?
- Joseph: No.
- Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane: If you've any regard for your neck, you'll leave now and stay away from my house, from my school, and from me.
- Cabman John Gray: Well, I've no wish for a rope cravat. I never like the small of hemp. So I'll bid you good night, Dr McFarlane.
- Mrs. Mary McBride: He'll not leave the grave - not since Wednesday last when we buried the lad.
- Donald Fettes: Your son, ma'am? He must have been a fine boy for the wee dog to love him so.
- Mrs. Mary McBride: A great kind lad he was - gentle with all things like Robbie. Now I can't get the dog to leave here. Perhaps it is for the best. I've not money enough to afford a grave watcher.
- Donald Fettes: Not much danger here, ma'am, I wouldn't think - right here in the heart of Edinburgh.
- Mrs. Mary McBride: They're uncommon bold, the grave robbers - and the daft doctors who drive them on.
- Cabman John Gray: You've no need to be anxious, Meg. MacFarlane has been drunk and away before. He'll be back in good time. Meanwhile, you have me to keep you company.
- Meg Camden: I call that no good fortune.
- Cabman John Gray: [laughs] There was a time, lass, a time when I used to bring the dashing young doctor to your door, but you weren't so uncommon cold to your old friend Gray.
- Donald Fettes: He taught me the mathematics of anatomy but he couldn't teach me the poetry of medicine.
- [first lines]
- [Donald sits on a tomb in a graveyard and offers a bit of his lunch to a dog sitting on a nearby grave]
- Donald Fettes: Here. Here's a bit of something for you.
- [the dog growls angrily]
- Donald Fettes: Now, now, laddie. I only wanted to be friendly.