- Lovelace: If you marry Soames I swear you will become the youngest and prettiest widow in the county.
- Clarissa: Do not be sad. I am not sad. Rejoice with me that all my worldly troubles are so near an end.
- [refusing Lovelace's marriage proposal]
- Clarissa: I would not bind myself in covenant with you for a thousand, thousand worlds.
- Uncle Anthony: [talking about Lovelace] Heir to a peerage, a fine paternal estate, two unmarried aunts. Mark that.
- James: And an army of whores and bastards. Mark that.
- Clarissa: I have always heard that you prefer not to confine your pleasure to more than one lady entirely.
- [after Clarissa has fled from home, her family are trying to find her. Her brother goes to see her best friend]
- Anna: Even if I knew where she was, which I don't, my mother has forbidden me to write.
- James: Surely you do not mean to frustrate any hopes we have of a reconciliation?
- Anna: On whose terms?
- James: [to Anna's mother] Is it a daughter's place to bandy terms?
- Anna: Or a brother's to impose them? If my friend wishes to be reconciled, I'm sure she remembers your address.
- Clarissa: Dig a hole deep enough to conceal this unhappy body for I fear that those who would not stir to protect me living will move heaven and earth to defend me dead.
- Clarissa: You tell me that my uncle, a man I never knew to lie, now requires me to pretend I am already married?
- Clarissa: My soul is above you, man. Do not urge me to tell you how much I know my soul is above you.
- Mrs. Sinclair: I've never heard such a-doings in all my life. Such a chicken of a gentleman and a tiger of a lady.
- [discussing the possible return of Clarissa]
- James: No! If she ever enters these doors, I shall leave.
- Mr Harlowe: Then leave. The child has suffered enough.
- Belford: I know these promising ladies, you see, all sauce and no stuffing. 50 guineas on it she flies the nest.
- [after Lovelace has raped Clarissa]
- Clarissa: What further evils are reserved for me? I find I am your prisoner.
- [Grandfather Harlowe has died and left the entire estate and wealth to his younger granddaughter, Clarissa]
- Bella: Imagine! Leaving all the family paintings to her, just because she used to tickle with him! And wipe and clean with her own dainty fingers.
- James: [taking Bella's hand] Dainty? Whose fingers could be daintier than these?
- Bella: He might just as well have left them to the maid.
- Lovelace: Oh she may threaten, she may weep, she may rave 'Oh you traitor! Oh you fiend!' but little by little she comes to like her little cage.
- Lovelace: Well done Jack, you have avenged her well. One man cannot have every woman worth having... Clarissa let this redeem my soul.