The Best Laura Carmichael Quotes

Lady: [re Isobel] I suppose she is entitled to put up an argument.
Violet: Of course she is. She's just not allowed to *win* it.

Tom: Are you looking forward to going home?
Lady: Why, in particularly?
Tom: Aren't you missing Marigold?
Lady: Aren't you missing Sybbie? Isn't Mary missing George?
Tom: Not quite as much.
Lady: What are you trying to say?
Tom: Not a lot, really, but these will be my last months at Downton, and you have always been my ally. I'd like to feel we were honest with each other. You see, where I grew up, there were quite a few Marigolds.
Lady: I'm not sure I understand you.
Tom: I think you do. My cousin, Nuala, had a child that was brought up as her sister. No one talked of it, naturally, but we all knew.
Lady: I told Papa you'd guessed.
Tom: So they're both in on it?
Lady: They are now.
Tom: And Mary, does she know?
Lady: No, she's completely uninterested in me, which should keep me safe. Please, keep it to yourself. Not for my sake so much as for hers.
Tom: You may not believe it, but I'm a signed-up member of this family now.
[He places his hand affectionately on her shoulder and gives a gentle squeeze]

Robert: [Edith is considering writing for a newspaper] Mama, talk to her. Talk to all of them. Say something sensible.
Isobel: Yes, let's hear how a woman's place is in the home.
Violet: I do think a woman's place is eventually in the home, but I see no harm in her having some fun before she gets there.
Lady: Oh Granny! Thank you!
Isobel: [to Violet] Have you changed your pills?
Robert: [chuckles]
Violet: And another thing. I mean, Edith isn't getting any younger. Perhaps she isn't cut out for domestic life.
Lady: [sighs]

Lady: [commenting about the Duke, whom Mary was hoping to marry] So he slipped the hook.
Lady: At least I'm not fishing with no bait.

Lady: The men are putting on a concert.
Isobel: Can I help?
Cora: Edith has it under control.
Lady: I do if Mary's willing.
Lady: [Reluctantly] Oh, all right. One song and that's your lot.

Isobel: Who is that man? I hope he's not complaining.
Lady: Oh no. That's Captain Smiley. He hasn't an unkind bone in his body.

Lady: [to Sybil] Why don't I drive you?
Violet: [sarcstically] She's taking enough chance with her life as it is.
Lady: Oh Granny...
Violet: What is this driving mania?

Cora: What on earth's that about?
Lady: Don't worry. Major Holmes can be a little waspish but he wouldn't want to get us into trouble.
Cora: How do you know so much about a pack of strangers?
Lady: They're not strangers to me.

Lady: Edith, you can manage for a day without us, can't you?
Lady: I can manage without you for as long as you want.

Bertie: Would you send me to bed happy?
Lady: Sounds like an indecent proposal.

Robert: [to Edith as she enters the room] Did you get hold of him?
Lady: Yes, he's coming down tomorrow on the first leg of his trip to Tangiers. I've asked him here.
Cora: Good.
Tom: How is he?
Lady: [sighing] Sad, he loved his cousin. And it was all so quick. The trouble is, they've already buried him, and Bertie's not quite sure what to do.
Isobel: Well, that's ordinary in hot countries, it won't mean any disrespect.
Lady: No, but should they leave him there?
Lady: Surely the decision is down to the new marquess, not to Bertie.
Lady: [hesitantly] Well, that's the thing. He is the new marquess... Bertie.
Robert: [Mary looks dumbfounded] Bertie Pelham is now the Marquess of Hexham?
Lady: Yes.
Lady: Nonsense, he's having you on. He'd have told you if he was the heir.
Lady: He did tell me, but his cousin was in his thirties, and they all knew the girl he was going to marry.
Lady: But that's absurd. If Bertie's a marquess, then Edith...
Robert: [interrupting joyfully] Edith would outrank us all, yes, that's right!
Cora: [Everyone smiles, thrilled with the news] Was he a close relation?
Lady: Second cousin, once removed. Nobody thought it was possible he would ever inherit, least of all Bertie.
Isobel: Well, he seemed like a nice young man to me.
Lady: [beaming] And getting nicer by the minute!
Tom: With a real love of Brancaster.
Robert: Golly gumdrops! What a turn up!
Cora: [Sees the door opening, smiling widely] That's dinner, if we're not too distracted to eat!
Tom: [All move toward the door except for Mary, who still appears thunderstruck; teasing] So we'll all bow and curtsey to Edith. You'll enjoy that, Mary.
Lady: [bitterly] Hardly. And if Bertie really is Lord Hexham, which I still don't believe, he won't want to marry her now.
Cora: [sarcastically] Careful, or people will think you're jealous, dear. We don't want that.

Matthew: [referring to his obvious interest in Mary] Will she stay at the hunt the whole day?
Lady: [disappointed that Matthew is not interested in her but her sister] Oh, you know Mary. She likes to be in at the kill.

Lady: Papa? Is something the matter?
Robert: No, nothing's the matter, and that's what I want to make clear.
Lady: I don't understand. What's this about?
Robert: Marigold.
Lady: I see. And what do you want to say about Marigold.
Robert: I think you know what I want to say, what I want you to say.
Lady: I can't give her up.
Robert: Of course not. Have you told Tom?
Lady: No, but he might have guessed.
Robert: So now everyone knows.
Lady: Everyone except Mary.
[Robert nods]
Lady: I want your forgiveness, Papa. Am I allowed to say that still?
Robert: It's not the way I'd have had things, I won't lie to you about that. But this is what's happened. I believe Michael Gregson was an honourable man.
Lady: Oh, he was, Papa; he really was. He would have married me as soon as he could. I know that.
Robert: I think so too. So now we must do the best for his child, for his sake, as well as yours.
Lady: That's so lovely of you!
Robert: But I think we should keep it in the family. Even in 1924, there are plenty of people who might be unpleasant.
Lady: But... do you forgive me, Papa?
Robert: Oh, my darling. I'm sure I need your forgiveness quite as much as you need mine. Now, go to bed
[He kisses her forehead]
Robert: and sleep well.

Robert: I just think it's a bit hasty.
Lady: Hasty? I think I've been about as hasty as a glacier.

Violet: I worry about you. That sort of thing is so horrid.
Lady: Being jilted at the altar, yes, it is horrid.

Lady: [to Branson as she is leaving Downton] You're a fine man, Tom. You mustn't let them flatten that out of you.

Violet: Thank you, my dear. That's very kind. How much do I owe you?
Lady: A guinea.
Violet: A guinea? For a bottle of scent? Did he have a mask and a gun?

Lady: I said I could drive the tractor.
Violet,: Edith! You are a *lady*, not Toad of Toad Hall!

Lady: It's my grandmother who invited him
Bertie: How impressive!
Lady: She is rather

Lady: [Referring to an unwelcome guest] We can't make a scene.
Lady: I sometimes feel we should make more scenes about things that really matter to us.
Anthony: It wouldn't be very English.
Lady: No, but I envy it... all those Latins screaming, and shouting, and hurling themselves into graves. I bet they feel much better afterwards.
Lady: I wonder. I think once you've let it out, it must be hard to get it back in.

Anna: [trying to comfort] What would you like me to get you?
Lady: [despairing] A different life.

Lady: [walks into Edith's bedroom to find her packing] Going away?
Lady: Do you care?
Lady: Look, I wasn't to kow you hadn't told him. It never occurred to me...
Lady: Just shut up! I don't know what's happened. Tom has made you feel bad, or Papa. Or maybe it's just the same old Mary who wants her cake and hate me too.
Lady: I never meant to...
Lady: Yes, you did! Who do you think you're talking to? Mama? Your maid? I know you! I know you to be a nasty, jealous, scheming bitch!
Lady: [angrily] Now listen, you pathetic...
Lady: You're a bitch! And not content with ruining your own life, you're determined to ruin mine!
Lady: [angrily] I have not ruined my life. And if Bertie's put off by that, then...
Lady: Don't demean yourself by trying to justify your venom. Just go.
[scoffs when Mary doesn't leave]
Lady: And you're wrong, you know, as you so often are. Henry's perfect for you. You're just too stupid and stuck up to see it! Still, at least he's got away from you, which is something to give thanks for, I suppose.

Lady: How tiny the Glens make one feel...
Violet: [swatting flies] That is the thing about nature, there's so *much* of it.

Lady: Ethel, have you nothing to do?
Major: I was keeping her talking. You mustn't blame her.
Lady: [Firmly] I don't.

Lady: Come here and sit here, and we can talk. I'm not going to eat you.
Lady: But you are going to chew me up.

Lady: [to Edith] Trust me. You have a talent that none of the rest of us have. Just find out what it is and use it. It's doing nothing that's the enemy

Lady: Did I read somewhere that your friend Lord Gillingham is engaged to be married?
Lady: Yes, to Miss Lane Fox.
Lady: I hope you don't mind... I should so hate for you to be unhappy.
Lady: I'm not unhappy, I'm just not quite ready to be happy.

Lady: I always forget how much I enjoy London.
Tom: You should go up more often, take an interest in your publishing. You should get involved in the running of the business. You're clever, and a good writer; they're lucky to have you.
Lady: Mary always talks like she's the only one who'll miss you when you go, but you know I will, too.
Tom: And I'll miss you.

Robert,: [He sees Edith reading a letter] Good news?
Lady: Oh, it's just a friend. He's going to be in London and he wants to meet up.
Robert,: He?
Lady: It's nothing like that; it's Bertie Pelham, the agent from Brancaster Castle.
Robert,: I remember him, he shot with us.
Lady: And he helped get the magazine out during my night of terror.

[Violet has just had a very catty conversation with Martha Levinson, Cora's mother]
Lady: There you are. I see you've said hello to Grandmama.
Violet: She is like a homing pigeon. She finds our underbelly every time... Dreadful woman!

Violet: What do you mean, you wrote to a newspaper? No lady writes to a newspaper!
Lady: What about Lady Sarah Wilson? She's the daughter of a duke, and she worked as a war journalist
Violet: Well, she's a Churchill. The Churchills are different

Lady: Poor darling!. She had to walk for miles. I don't think I'd have got down however lame the horse.
Lady: No, I don't believe you would.

Violet,: Don't worry - your turn will come.
Lady: Will it? Or am I just to be the maiden aunt? Isn't this what they do? Arrange presents for their prettier relations?
Violet,: Don't be defeatist dear, it's very middle class.

Lady: Aren't you being very snobbish?
Violet: We're being realistic, something your generation has such trouble with.

Tom: They turned everyone out of the castle - Lord and Lady John Guillamore, their sons, and all the servants, and then they set fire to it.
Lady: What a tragedy.
Violet: Well, rather yes and no, that house *was* hideous... of course that is no excuse.

Robert,: Edith has a date.
Lady: No I don't.
Lady: [Sneering] Of course not.
Lady: What do you mean, 'Of course not'?

[news of the sinking of the Titanic has just reached Downton Abbey]
Lady: I thought it was supposed to be unsinkable.
Robert: Every mountain is "unclimbable" until someone climbs it. So every ship is "unsinkable" until it sinks.

Cora: [reading from Evelyn Napier's letter in which he discusses the countess' invitation to stay at Downton the night before the hunt] Apparently he's bringing a friend with him, an attache at the Turkish Embassy, Mr. Kemal Pamuk. He's the son of one of the Sultan's ministers and he's here for the Albanian talks.
Lady: [Looking confused] What's that?
Lady: To create an independent Albania. Don't you read the papers?
Lady: I'm too busy living a life.

Robert,: When's your train?
Lady: Nine.
Lady: Is this another magazine crisis?
Lady: No, but I am interviewing possible editors.
Lady: Women?
Lady: Women.
Tom: Well I approve. Good luck with that.
Lady: But then who's the date with?
Lady: It's not a date; it's just a friend, as I keep saying.

Isobel: I'm grateful, but, you see... when your only child dies, you see, you're not a mother anymore... you're not really anything really and that's what I'm trying to get used to.
Lady: You're a grandmother, and I know you're going to be a wonderful one.

Lady: Is he worth it?
Lady: As opposed to your car mechanic?
Tom: I'm a car mechanic, thank you.