- Margaret Schlegel: Will you forgive her as you yourself have been forgiven... you have had a mistress; I forgave you. My sister has a lover, you drive her from the house. Why can you not be honest for once in your life? Why can't you say what Helen has done, I have done!
- Margaret Schlegel: Unlike the Greek, England has no true mythology. All we have are witches and fairies.
- Henry Wilcox: [to Helen] Don't take up a sentimental attitude toward the poor. See that she doesn't, Margaret. The poor are the poor. One is sorry for them, but there it is.
- Aunt Juley: All the Schlegels are exceptional. They are, of course, British to the backbone. But their father *was* German and that is why they care for literature and art.
- Helen Schlegel: Did you see the dawn?
- Leonard Bast: Yes. It suddenly got light.
- Helen Schlegel: And was it wonderful?
- Leonard Bast: No.
- [girls giggle]
- Ruth Wilcox: My idea has always been that if we could bring the mothers of the various nations together, then there would be no more war.
- Margaret Schlegel: I deny it's madness.
- Henry Wilcox: But you said yourself...
- Margaret Schlegel: It's madness when I say it, but not when you say it.
- Helen Schlegel: [Leonard storms out after the Schlegel sisters try to warn him about his job] What was all that about?
- Leonard Bast: I knew I shouldn't have come back. It was all right last time, but things like that always get spoiled.
- Helen Schlegel: Things do, but people don't! Don't you understand? We really did want to warn you about the Porphyrion. We were worried about you!
- Leonard Bast: Why should you worry about me?
- Helen Schlegel: Because we *like* you! That's why! You noodle.
- Leonard Bast: [now awkward and ashamed] There's no cause to call a person names.
- Helen Schlegel: Oh yes there is, when a person is being tremendously *stupid*.
- [last lines]
- Margaret Schlegel: What did Dolly mean about Howards End?
- Henry Wilcox: Mmmm? My poor Ruth, during her last days, scribbled your name on a piece of paper. Knowing her not to be herself, I set it aside. Didn't do wrong, did I?
- Dolly Wilcox: [on Ruth's handwritten bequest of her house to Margaret] It's only in pencil! Pencil never counts.
- Henry Wilcox: Yes, we know it is not legally binding, Dolly. We are aware of that. Of course, my dear, we consider you as one of the family. But it will be better if you don't interfere with what you don't understand.
- Tibby Schlegel: We all know to what *extremes* Helen goes. We've all suffered under her temperament.
- Margaret Schlegel: But, this is different. This is not temperament, but a kind of madness - as if she were mad.
- Margaret Schlegel: Henry, look at me. You were that woman's lover?
- Henry Wilcox: Since you put it with your usual delicacy, yes I was.
- Margaret Schlegel: When?
- [no answer]
- Margaret Schlegel: When, please?
- Henry Wilcox: [angry] Ten years ago!
- [calmer]
- Henry Wilcox: I'm sorry. Ten years ago.
- Margaret Schlegel: Henry, dear... it's not going to trouble us.
- [first lines]
- Margaret Schlegel: [reading letter] Dearest Meg, I'm having a glorious time. I like them all. They are the very happiest, jolliest family that you can imagine. The fun of it is that they think me a noodle, and say so - at least, Mr. Wilcox does. Oh Meg, should we ever learn to talk less.
- [laughing]
- Ruth Wilcox: We never discuss at Howard's End, except, perhaps, sport.
- Margaret Schlegel: But you should. Discussion keeps a house alive.
- Ruth Wilcox: You will laugh at my old-fashioned ideas.
- Margaret Schlegel: I will not.
- Ruth Wilcox: I sometimes think - it would be wiser to leave action and discussion to men.
- Margaret Schlegel: But, then where would we be with the suffrage?
- Ruth Wilcox: I am only too thankful not to have the vote myself.
- Margaret Schlegel: Shall we go up for coffee?
- Aunt Juley: If I were a man, Mr. Wilcox, for that last remark i'd box your ears. You're not fit to sit in the same room as my niece.
- Charles Wilcox: All I know is she spread the news and he hasn't.
- Aunt Juley: Or to clean her boots.
- Aunt Juley: Oh, dear. Obviously, someone must go down to this Howard's house to make inquiries.
- Margaret Schlegel: Howard's End.
- Aunt Juley: Margaret, inquiries are necessary. What do we know about these Wilcoxes? Are they our sort? Are they likely people?
- Margaret Schlegel: But Aunt Juley, what does it matter? Helen's in love! That's all I need to know.
- Paul Wilcox: About last night.
- Helen Schlegel: Nothing happened.
- Paul Wilcox: I'm afraid I lost my head.
- Helen Schlegel: Yes, we both did. Must've been the moonlight, except there was no moon. Well, that's quite all right.
- Paul Wilcox: Do you mind?
- Helen Schlegel: No.
- Paul Wilcox: You see, I've no money of my own and I still have to make my way in Nigeria. It's beastly out there for a white woman, with the climate and the natives and all that. I say, I do think you're a ripping girl.
- Music and Meaning Lecturer: It will, I think, be generally admitted that Beethoven's fifth symphony is the most sublime noise ever to have penetrated the ear of man. But what does it mean? You can hardly fail to recognize in this music - a *mighty* drama. The struggle of a hero beset by perils, riding to magnificent victory and ultimate triumph - as described in the development section of the first movement. But, I what I want to draw your attention to now is the third movement. We no longer hear - the hero, but a goblin.
- Man Asking a Question: Why a goblin?
- Music and Meaning Lecturer: I beg your pardon?
- Man Asking a Question: Why a goblin?
- Music and Meaning Lecturer: It's obvious. The goblin signifies the spirit of negation.
- Man Asking a Question: But why specifically a goblin?
- Music and Meaning Lecturer: Panic and emptiness. That is what a goblin signifies.
- Jacky Bast: Margaret Schlegel. And who is - Margaret Schlegel?
- Leonard Bast: Just a lady I met.
- Jacky Bast: Oh, a lady. La-di-da.
- Leonard Bast: Come off it, Jacky. She's 100 years old.
- Jacky Bast: Says you. So that's where you had your tea. Nice cucumber sandwiches cut ever so thin.
- Margaret Schlegel: It's no use beating about the bush, what happened in the summer was - unfortunate.
- Helen Schlegel: What did you think of the lecture? I don't agree about the goblins. Do you? But I do about the heroes and shipwreck. You see, I'd always imagined a trail of elephants dancing at that point. But, he obviously didn't.
- Margaret Schlegel: They belong to types that can fall in love but can't live together. I'm afraid that in 9 cases out of 10, nature pulls one way and human nature the other. I do rattle on. I'm afraid I shall tire you out in no time.
- Helen Schlegel: Let's see. Is yours a hooky or a knobbly? Mine's a knobbly. At least, I think it is.
- Margaret Schlegel: Why didn't you make that young man welcome, Tibby? You must do the host a little, you know. You could've coaxed him into stopping, instead of letting him be swamped by screaming women.
- Ruth Wilcox: You're so clever, and yet so good.
- Margaret Schlegel: No. It's very kind of you, but I'm neither, I'm afraid.
- Ruth Wilcox: You've been very good to me. You've kept me from brooding. I'm too apt to brood.
- Margaret Schlegel: About what?
- Ruth Wilcox: I really don't know. I think about my house a great deal. You've never seen Howard's End. I want to show it to you.
- Ruth Wilcox: Howard's End was almost pulled down once. It would've killed me. It's my house. It was left to me by my brother who died in India. I love it so. I even resisted when Henry, my husband, wanted to make changes to improve the property. He knew best, of course. We even have a garage, to the west of the house, just beyond the chestnut tree, in the paddock, where the pony used to be.
- Annie: [to Margaret] There's a woman to see you, ma'am.
- Tibby Schlegel: A woman and not a lady, Annie?
- Annie: She won't give her name.
- Margaret Schlegel: Now, this is the scientific approach to Christmas shopping: A list.
- Ruth Wilcox: A list? What a good idea.
- Ruth Wilcox: There's a chestnut tree at Howard's End - that has pig's teeth stuck into the trunk about four feet from the ground. Yes, the teeth of a pig. The country people put them there *long* ago and they think that if they chew a piece of the bark - it will cure the toothache.
- Margaret Schlegel: I love folklore, the old superstitions. Isn't it curious, though, that unlike Greece, England has no true mythology? All we have are witches and fairies.
- Ruth Wilcox: Will you come with me to Howards End?
- Charles Wilcox: My dear father, consult an expert if you wish, but I don't admit it is my mother's handwriting.
- Dolly Wilcox: You just said it was.
- Charles Wilcox: Never mind if I did.
- Helen Schlegel: So what do you think is the most important thing in the world then?
- Margaret Schlegel: Well, I suppose - it is whatever matters to you most.
- Helen Schlegel: Like love, for instance?
- Margaret Schlegel: Yes. Like love, for instance, or Oxford, if you're Tibby.
- Margaret Schlegel: Ask her to come up.
- Tibby Schlegel: She says she won't come up.
- Margaret Schlegel: Then we shall have to go down.
- Leonard Bast: I've been reading "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel."
- Helen Schlegel: Yes, I remember this. There's that chapter where Richard walks all night.
- Leonard Bast: In a forest by moonlight.
- Helen Schlegel: Yes, and Margaret, what-what-what's that wonderful...
- Margaret Schlegel: Oh, I know. I know exactly what you mean. Um...
- Helen Schlegel, Margaret Schlegel: "The forest drooped glimmeringly."
- Charles Wilcox: We're in a bad hole and must make the best of it. But, I'll keep my eye on those Schlegels. And if I find them putting on airs, with artistic beastliness, I intend to put my foot down. Yes. Firmly.
- Henry Wilcox: You're too kind. You behave too well to people and then they impose on you. I know the world and that type of man.
- Margaret Schlegel: Oh, but he is not a type, Mr. Wilcox. No. I think he is a quite unusual young man. And he has something in him. I don't know what it is except that he wants something better than he's got. Yes. He has a sort of romantic ambition.
- Margaret Schlegel: Whatever shall I do? You see, the modern ownership of movables is reducing us again to a nomadic horde. We are reverting to a civilization of luggage, Mr. Wilcox.