- Joseph Dobbs: [to his juniors] If you don't trust kids, don't become teachers. If you're afraid of kids, get out of the business of running schools!
- Father Penny: [Slightly drunk] I don't know if you've noticed. There is the decided smell of brimstone in the air. This may have been the wrong way for me, but I believe in God, and I believe in Satan.
- [He drinks and sets his glass down uneasily, only to have it fall]
- Father Penny: Now I believe I will go get another drink.
- [He walks tipsily out of the room]
- Jerome Malley: All right. Shea? You try it. Simul anima est fides unde abiit eo numquam redit.
- Shea: Trust, like the soul, never returns once it goes.
- Jerome Malley: Trust, like the soul, never returns once it goes. Your own translation, Shea?
- Shea: Yes, sir.
- Jerome Malley: In that case, you should have no difficulty parsing it for us.
- Shea: Parsing it, sir?
- Jerome Malley: Parse, Mr. Shea. Break a sentence down into its parts, explaining grammatical form, the function and interrelation of each part. We've been doing it for two years. Proceed.
- Shea: Simul , preposition, means like . Anima , noun, means soul .
- Jerome Malley: Anima , first declension, ablative, singular, feminine. This is a Latin course, gentlemen. Not one of those entertaining English classes where you get by laughing at the teacher's jokes. Go on.
- Shea: Es , the verb sum , third-person singular...
- Jerome Malley: Present indicative.
- Shea: Fidet... I'm sorry. Fides , verb, third conjugation, present participle.
- Jerome Malley: A boy, who having translated the proverb correctly, has the audacity to define fides as a verb is a cheat. Sit down. Banks. Banks?
- Banks: Fides , noun, fifth declension. Nominative, singular, feminine. Trust .
- Jerome Malley: At last. Thank you, Banks. Fides , trust. A much abused word, gentlemen.