- Mary Magdalene: I believe this is one of your personal favourites, and it does demonstrate my point rather well: if desire is suppressed for long enough, it will eventually be a force for evil.
- Abbot: The uncontrollable virginity of women has become as dangerous to the Church as uncontrollable sexuality. There are those who question all aspects of women and who see the female as the harbinger of the Devil, bewitching all men with her cunning.
- Abbess: [seeing the Abbot's man Richard pursuing her servant girl] Is he bewitched, Father Henry?
- Abbot: Aye, he is... and I dread the day when the honest affection between a man and a woman could be seen as the work of the Devil.
- Mother Superior: Surely you wouldn't argue, Magdalene, that all man's desires should be submitted to at will? That in effect there should be no restraint? That moral forebearance no longer has a part in our relationships? That the most base of emotions should now be the pinnacle of our aspirations?