- Mary Carson: I have chosen to destroy you, Priest. Oh, I'll go to hell for it of course! But it'll be nothing compared to the hell I'm planning for you.
- Ralph de Bricassart: When you were a little girl, you were like my own child to me. I could have you then.
- Meggie Cleary: You can have me now. You can marry me; you love me.
- Ralph de Bricassart: But I love God more
- Young Meggie Cleary: Do you suppose that God is really around us all the time?
- Ralph de Bricassart: What makes you ask me that, my little girl?
- Young Meggie Cleary: Because if He is, I think he must be here... don't you?
- Ralph de Bricassart: [to young Meggie] Why do you tug so at my heart? Why do you fill that space God can't fill?
- Ralph de Bricassart: I haven't found it easy, anyway, to keep my vows... to forgo the love of a woman or of money or to be obedient. That's been the hardest for me, obedience. But I've learnt to obey. This place has taught me that.
- Frank Cleary: Maybe I should become a priest. I'd qualify all right. No woman, no money and oh, do I obey!