- Stepan: Dear mother, father, sisters and brothers! The happiness of our reunion is immeasurable. The heart of every Soviet citizen is filled with joy. Joy sings in our hearts. It is victory that has brought us this joy. We have all waited for this moment. But we shall not forget those left behind on the battlefield. Time will pass. Towns and villages will be rebuilt. Our wounds will heal. But our fierce hatred of war will never diminish. We share the grief of those who cannot meet their loved ones today, and we will do everything to insure that sweethearts are never again parted by war, that mothers need never again fear for their children's lives, that fathers need never again choke back hidden tears. We have won, and we shall live not to destroy, but to build a new life!
- maty Veroniki: She's crazy about him.
- Aleksey: And he about her. That's what love is, my dear: a harmless mental illness.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Irina, you should have been born a man!
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: I feel pretty good as a woman.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Stop it this minute! You're a still a soldier in the Red Army! Are you trying to get discharged? Are you afraid we'll heal your hands and send you back to the front?
- A patient in the infirmary: No, Doctor, he's not like that. He got a letter.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: I know. That's just an excuse. Big deal! So your bride ran off. You should be glad! She isn't worth a penny if she would trade a handsome guy like you, a real hero, for some rat sitting out the war at home! It's she who's forfeit her happiness, not you! And that's what she deserves. She's got a petty soul. People like her can't understand how much suffering we've gone through. You stood up to death itself. You looked death in the face. You approached it with your chest stuck out. And she couldn't even pass the little test of time. Woman like her deserve only your contempt. There can be no forgiveness for them!
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: Disgraceful! Twelve o'clock, and he's still asleep.
- Varvara Kapitanova -babushka Borisa i Irina: He works a lot. He's tired. Let him at least get some sleep on Sunday.
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: This work of his will end in a wedding.
- Veronika: "Cranes like ships, sailing in the sky, White ones, grey ones, With long beaks they fly" Look! Look! Look! Look!
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: Watch out, Uncle Fedya. She almost has her doctorate and you're still just a physician.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Well, if children don't surpass their parents, then the parents are bad and the children not much better.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Do you think anyone wants to send his son to war?
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: What are you talking about?
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Or do you think others must pay for your welfare, for your life, with their hands, their legs, their eyes, their lives, and you owe nothing to anyone?
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: I have an exemption, Uncle Fedya.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: An exemption? Tell me, how did you get it?
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: Here's the port.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Drink it yourself. We'll have a real drink.
- Boris: Why aren't you in bed yet, grandma?
- Varvara Kapitanova -babushka Borisa i Irina: It's already time to get up, Boris!
- Fyodor Ivanovich: What you want to say is: 'Comrade Boris, fight to the last drop of blood, and beat the fascists. And we at the plant will meet and exceed our production quotas.' We've heard that all before.
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: Veronica, in wartime, it's important not to lose your head. Try to live a normal life.
- Anna Mikhaylovna Lebedeva: I didn't know Boris, but everyone says he was a gifted young man.
- Veronika: Was? Missing doesn't mean dead.
- Anna Mikhaylovna Lebedeva: Of course not. That didn't come out right.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: When our men come back, you'll envy us.
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: The trouble is, not all of them will come back.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: For those who don't, we'll build a monument reaching to the sky, with every one of their names in gold.
- Boris: I'm not her fiance.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: What are you, then?
- Boris: We're just...
- Fyodor Ivanovich: You're just what? That sounds suspicious.
- Boris: I don't mean it that way, Dad.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Then what do you mean?
- Boris: Stop picking on me.
- Veronika: Little croaking frogs, why didn't you look up? You kept on hopping and jumping. That's why you got eaten up.
- Veronika: Where's Mark?
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: I don't know.
- Veronika: You're hiding something from me. Where did he go? You know, don't you? Where?
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: Probably to see Antonina.
- Veronika: What Antonina?
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: Ask Mark.
- Veronika: Tell me.
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: Don't give me orders. Mark... visits her occasionally. You understand?
- Veronika: You're saying this to hurt me.
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: Why would I?
- Veronika: Just to spite me! I'm loved. I have a husband. And you're still an old maid.
- Fyodor Ivanovich: Boris! Come over here. What is this about? You're 25 years old and you - forgive me - act like a fool! What are we? Children? Is this a game? Hide-and-seek? He wants adventure!
- Nikolay Chernov: Your place is cozy. My wife and children are in Tashkent, so I live like a homeless tramp.
- Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina: Siberia. We can't retreat much farther. This is what's become of Mother Russia.
- Volodya: Will you be at the birthday party tonight?
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: Probably.
- Volodya: What will you take for a gift?
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: What can I give?
- Volodya: Yes. The war.
- Antonina Monastyrskaya: In Leningrad on my birthday, we'd take a car and go from one end of the city to the other. Let's go for a ride!
- Nikolay Chernov: In these times, Antonina, a car is worth its weight in gold, and gasoline is rationed.
- Antonina Monastyrskaya: Any kind of vehicle. I beg you! A fire engine, an ambulance, a truck. Anything you like. A ride against the forces of nature!
- Nikolay Chernov: Just the two of us? To forget everything else. I'll try.
- A patient in the infirmary: Broads like that are worse than fascists. They aim right at the heart.
- Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin: [singing] What use are words, Let lips fall silent, Sometimes, They tell lies, The eyes alone, Will never dare, To lie to other eyes, My eyes are now, Dark and sad, As though someone, Had blown out their flame...