- Opening Title Card: This is a story of the triumph of good over evil. Obviously it is a fantasy.
- The Ragpicker: Countess if only you knew... Shall we tell her?... Nothing Countess, it's you that are hiding. You see, there was a time when old clothes were as good as new. In fact they were better because when people wore clothes they gave something to them. But that was a long time ago, Countess. Just as, there was a time when... when garbage was a pleasure. Oh, it smelled a little strange or seemed confused, that's because there was everything there. The smell of sardine, of iodine, cologone, roses. An amateur would leap to the wrong conclusion. But to a professional, it was the smell of life... No Countess, the world has changed. The garbage has changed... People are not the same, Countess. People are different. No one is involved with anyone anymore. There's been an invasion, and infatuation. The world isn't beautiful no longer. The world is not happy... Because you've been dreaming a long time, Countess, and, no one wanted to disturb you. Countess, look, there was a time remember you could walk along the streets of Paris and everybody you met were just like yourself. I mean, oh, a little cleaner maybe or dirty perhaps or angry or smiling. But you knew them. I knew them too. And one day, 20 years ago I saw a face in the crowd. Face without a face; the eyes empty, the expression not human. It was not a human face at all. It saw me staring and when it looked back at me with its gelatin eyes, I shuttered. Because I knew to make room for one of them, one of us must have left the earth. The world is full of faceless people, Countess, and once you stop dreaming, as we all had stopped dreaming, you see them quite clearly. They were here today.
- The Ragpicker: People are not the same, Countess. People are different. No one is involved with anyone anymore. There - there's been an invasion, an infiltration. The world isn't beautiful any longer. The world is not happy.
- Countess Aurelia: Is this true? The world is not beautiful? The world is not happy? Why wasn't I told?
- The Ragpicker: Because you've been dreaming a long time, Countess. And no - nobody wanted to disturb you.
- Countess Aurelia: Say it. Say that you love him before it's too late. Let another moment witch between you and it will become a month, a year, a decade. Your hair will be white. His cuffs will be frayed. And there will be another madwoman in Chaillot. Say it. Before the music stops.
- Constance: Aurelia, must you talk sex in front of Gabrielle.
- Countess Aurelia: Why not? After all, there are two sexes.
- Constance: [in hushed tones] But Gabrielle is a V-I-R-G-I-N.
- [Gabrielle gives an embarrassed expression]
- Countess Aurelia: Oh, she can't be that innocent. She keeps canaries.
- The Ragpicker: The world is being taken over by the pimps. I can remember when a cabbage could sell itself just by being a cabbage. Today that isn't enough. Now, even a cabbage has its pimp.
- The Prospector: [Talking about testing the drinking water in Paris] I have an irrepressible nose. From the moment I caught the scent, I worked my way across Paris, glassful by glassful, taking untold risks with my bowels.
- The General: If and when, sooner or later, Europe is incinerated, France will not be found wanting. A French bomb will explode with the others.
- The General: We have divested ourselves of our colonial possessions. We have broken our historic ties with the United States, and with an island once known as Great Britain. We have made no détente with the Russians, or with the Germans. We stand alone - proud, independent, clarions.
- The Prospector: You want to change the world, right?
- Roderick: I want my generation to have a voice.
- The Prospector: Well, don't dress it up. You want to get rid of the establishment and make a new establishment.
- Roderick: A better one.
- The Prospector: That goes without saying. They're always better until th... .until they're turned the same.
- The Chairman: Whenever the poor are happy and servants are proud - when even the mad are respected, then power is at an end. It's anarchy.
- Countess Aurelia: I intend to exterminate the men.
- Constance: Eh, uh, kill them, you mean?
- Countess Aurelia: Dispose of them, Constance.
- Constance: But if they're killed, they're bound to be missed.
- Constance: In cases like this, I always write the president.
- Countess Aurelia: Does he ever answer your letters?
- Constance: Oh, he knows that I prefer him not to - it might excite gossip.
- The Chairman: Commissar, I trust neither my wife nor my daughter or my best friend.
- The Commissar: No? Well, that's normal.
- The Chairman: [Looking at The Prospector a couple café tables away] But, a face like that, I would trust with my innermost secrets.
- Countess Aurelia: Did you know about this, Irma?
- Irma: I know they want to make us all the same, countess.
- The Chairman: Yes sir, I know these people. Fortunately, I escaped.
- The Reverend: You came from a poor family, did you, Mr. Chairman?
- The Chairman: Yes. I believe I was one of eleven - I'm not sure. My mother spent most of her life bent over a washtub in order to send me to a good school. I'll always be grateful to her, of course, but you know, I just can't remember her face.