- Jack Robinson: The little lady Angela has perfect claim on me now.
- Elizabeth Robinson: So serious, at your age?
- Jack Robinson: With five million in the family stocking, my duck. Though it can't last long, thank heaven. I shall lie about my age and marry the little doll.
- Elizabeth Robinson: Jack!
- Jack Robinson: I mean it, mother. And if father doesn't interfere, I shall do it quicker than I can say Jack Robinson.
- William Robinson: I had a shilling a month when I was your age. And I had to work for that.
- Elizabeth Robinson: But there is no need for our sons to earn their living.
- William Robinson: Could they, I wonder, if they had to?
- Jack Robinson: What a fatiguing suggestion.
- Opening Narrator: When Europe went to war to stop the most ambitious man on earth, who in 1813 was Napoleon Bonaparte, London was a little world that needed housecleaning and airing out. A well-mannered, profligate world of ballrooms and gaming tables. Almost nobody cared for tomorrow, but tomorrow is many things in a man's life. Tomorrow is old age which can be nothing better than regret, and tomorrow is a man's family. There were those in 1813, who hopes for a cleaner, a better world than there's to raise their children. Such a man was William Robinson, a Swiss, maker of fine clocks and watches.
- William Robinson: [after raising the family flag on the island] This alter cloth, the symbol of peace and good will among men, shall be our flag. I claim this land for all those who wish to live in peace with their fellow men. May strife be unknown here and may happiness reign always.
- Elizabeth Robinson: Why do you look like that? Don't you want us to be rescued?
- William Robinson: I only want one thing of life. Your happiness and that those boys may grow up into wisdom and strength.
- Elizabeth Robinson: My happiness. Yes. And what can the boys learn in this barbaric spot?
- William Robinson: They can learn to be men. Instead of idles. Which they've come to learn already. They have shown courage in the last few days. You know, for the first time in my life, I am proud of my sons.
- Elizabeth Robinson: William, I believe you'd deliberately keep us on this island.
- William Robinson: We have been saved by a miracle. Perhaps it's by His will that we are here.
- Elizabeth Robinson: William, I loved you deeply once.
- William Robinson: Once?
- Elizabeth Robinson: You were so gentle and understanding. But when we left Switzerland and came to England you changed.
- William Robinson: Elizabeth, are you telling me the love for me is gone.
- Elizabeth Robinson: Well, what can you expect? Oh, William, you can't have wanted my love very much or else you were stupid. You must have known what it would do to me to take me away from my home.
- William Robinson: No, I didn't know. But that's no defense. I thought I'd find a better life for all of us here. I didn't know or I'd never have come because although I love my sons deeply, I always loved you so much more.
- Jack Robinson: [Seeing his mother working at the loom] Look at mother. And I once thought that a woman had to be idle in order to be beautiful.
- William Robinson: I've been thinking a great deal the last few months about this world we live in. We call it civilized. And yet men are using their energy to destroy one another. A little man with an insane ambition has set out to conquer Europe. It doesn't matter to him that a million young men will be killed and maimed because of him. And that man is a hero to one of my sons.
- Fritz Robinson: You can't deny Napoleon is a great man, sir.
- William Robinson: But I do deny it. Napoleon is a great militarist.
- [Pointing to Jesus]
- William Robinson: He was a great man.
- William Robinson: Because of your schooling, I've seen very little of you lads since we've lived in England. And what I have seen I don't particularly admire.
- Elizabeth Robinson: Every family sends one son into the Army and, of course, Fritz would never really join Napoleon. Jack will marry the Lady Angela and become a great figure in society. And Ernest, he will become a famous scholar.
- William Robinson: One son whose profession is to kill. He doesn't care on which side so long as he can kill. Another who idolizes fops and wastrels and would be content to live in idleness on a woman's money. And another who is rather a priggish little bookworm. And one who thinks profoundly, I'm sure, but he refuses to speak until it's funny things.
- Elizabeth Robinson: William, that's not just. They're splendid boys.
- William Robinson: I venture to disagree. I love my sons deeply, but I don't approve the standard by which they live.
- Fritz Robinson: Why, sir?
- William Robinson: Because I believe a man should create, not destroy. He should build if it's only a roof to give him shelter. A garden to give him food; and a loom to make us clothing. Well, on this earth, there are places we can live such a life. In peace and honor God.. Where my sons can learn to be men.
- Elizabeth Robinson: William, what are you saying?
- William Robinson: That we are leaving for a new land.
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