- Flossie Sampson: [Overly dramatic] When you've crossed as many times as I have you realize how unimportant a shipboard romance really is. It's just one of those ephemeral things.
- Timothy Dennis: Well, it's all in how you look at it. To me it's not one of those ... one of those whatchamacallit things.
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: [Teary] I wonder what that man's like?
- Timothy Dennis: What man?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Mom's husband. Our new father. Mr. ... Mr. ...
- Timothy Dennis: Carlton's the name and he's not our father. My mistake was to let our mother go to Europe alone. They're all looking for rich wives over there. Carlton got the jump on 'em all right.
- Timothy Dennis: But I don't want to go to school with a bunch of foreigners. I want to go to Notre Dame.
- Winifred Dennis Carlton: But you're not ready for college yet, Tim. You have to go to some prep school. Oh, if Roger gets you in, won't you at least give Eton a six-month trial? You'll love it, I know you will.
- Timothy Dennis: Six months? Oh. I'll be all out of training, mom.
- Winifred Dennis Carlton: Very well, dear.
- Timothy Dennis: All right, mom. But, look, after I get out of school, I go to back to America and to Notre Dame, huh?
- Winifred Dennis Carlton: Of course, Tim. That's where your father wanted you to go and so do I. Nobody wants to make an Englishman out of you.
- Timothy Dennis: I'd like to see 'em try.
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Tim?
- Timothy Dennis: Yeah?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Let's hate England.
- Timothy Dennis: Oh, England's all right for you. You're young. You've got nothing to lose. But with me, it's different. Getting deported just before the biggest game on our schedule. I'm sacrificing my life, that's all. There's nothing worth living for anymore. Nothing matters.
- Roger Carlton: Well, Tim, what do you think of Eton?
- Timothy Dennis: It looks kind of old to me.
- Roger Carlton: It is. 500 years.
- Timothy Dennis: Is it always this dead?
- Roger Carlton: [laughs] Dead? You know, Tim, I don't expect you to feel this for a while, but Eton has a sort of immortality ... maybe because it's watched over so many boys and helped them to become men. Men who have discovered new lands, new sciences, new literature. It means an awful a lot in its time. Wars and famine ... the threat of invasion by foreign tyrants. But it's still here doing its job for tomorrow. Somehow, I know it always will be. No, Eton's not dead. Very much alive. One day I hope you'll know what I mean.
- Timothy Dennis: Why, if you think I'm going to go to school with a bunch of Lord Fauntleroy's you've got another guess coming.
- Headmaster Justin: Well, well, whom have we here?
- Timothy Dennis: You sent for me, sir? Timothy Dennis
- Headmaster Justin: Hm? Oh! Why, yes. You would be our new American friend. Splended, splendid. I know your stepfather well. I trifle shaky on his Latin verbs but a fine athlete. Fine.
- Ronnie Kenvil: When a member of the library tells a lower boy to do something, it's done. You wouldn't understand that being an American.
- Timothy Dennis: Listen, fancy pants. Where I come from, a library is where you go to read books, not to get a messenger service. And nobody likes to get bossed around either.
- Ronnie Kenvil: I ought to have you beaten for your impudence.
- Timothy Dennis: You ought to have me what?
- Ronnie Kenvil: I said beaten. Now, go on. I'm letting you go this time. But remember. Any more of your cheek and I'll give you a few whacks you seem to need.
- Timothy Dennis: What do you mean? Like that?
- [He slaps Ronnie across the face]
- 'Inky' Weeld: Uh, would you care for some punch?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Rather.
- 'Inky' Weeld: I say, you've picked up a lot of things the way we say them. Would you teach me some American words?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Sure, but I like the way you say things. It's more polite sort of.
- 'Inky' Weeld: But it hasn't any, uh ... any, uh ...
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Oomph?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: That's it. That says it exactly. I'm exactly short on ... oomph.
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Widgeon.
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: Yes, miss.
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Widgeon, would you do something for me ... something terribly important? Honestly honest.
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: I can try, miss. What is it?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Make a hot dog. A real hot dog.
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: A hot dog, miss?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Yes, you know. A hot dog..
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: Yes, but how does one go about it, miss?
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: Well, you would put it on the stove and get the fire up good and hot.
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: I'm afraid it would make the creature most uncomfortable miss. In addition to this, it's impossible to raise the body temperature of a living animal without injury to it.
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: No, not that kind.
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: I can assure you, miss, the breed would make no difference. A spaniel ... or a collie ...
- Jane 'The Runt' Dennis: I mean an American hot dog. A sausage in a roll. A bun, that is.
- Widgeon - Carlton's Butler: [laughs] Oh, I see miss. Well, I have to see if I can try. I'll ask cook directly.
- Timothy Dennis: I ought to tell you that I was running away tonight when you found me.
- Roger Carlton: That doesn't sound like you, Tim. You're a fighter not a quitter.
- Timothy Dennis: I don't know who I'm supposed to fight.
- Roger Carlton: There's only one opponent, Tim. Yourself.
- Peter Carlton: You and every other lower boy will be assigned to an upper boy for whom you have to fetch and carry and unless you do what he tells you to, you will be beaten.
- Timothy Dennis: Of all the cockeyed customs. And I thought slavery was abolished over here.
- Ronnie Kenvil: I'm not going to let him get away with this.
- Peter Carlton: Yes, you are, Kenvil. This time.
- Peter Carlton: Oh, so he can be let off just because he's your brother, eh? What sort of captain of the house are you?
- Peter Carlton: He will be treated just like any other new boy. It's a fine situation when a member of the library fights with a lower boy and gets licked.
- Ronnie Kenvil: If you hadn't poked your nose in, I'd have killed him.
- Peter Carlton: [laughs] Or vice versa.
- Ronnie Kenvil: I refer, gentlemen, to a general beating of the lower boys.
- Timothy Dennis: All of the lower boys?
- Ronnie Kenvil: Precisely, and I feel even that inadequate punishment for this flaunting of ancient tradition.
- Timothy Dennis: But you can't beat them. You can't. It was my idea. I started the whole thing.
- Ronnie Kenvil: A ram who leads a flock of sheep over a precipice is little more to be censured than the sheep who blindly follow.