- Rev. Camden Farebrother: [describing Dorothea] Miss Brooke's yearning for self-sacrifice and her hunger for martyrdom mask a secret desire to bully the lesss virtuous and impose her will on others - for their own good, of course. It's education that does it, my boy. Education and too much church. What will happen when all women become like her?
- Dr. Tertius Lydgate: [sighs] Men will become better too, I suppose. I hope I'm dead by then, though.
- Will Ladislaw: [after Casaubon's funeral] A tragedy, your husband's death. Still, we can be sure that he died in a state of great happiness. An old man, a scholar, married to a passionate and beautiful young woman. Perhaps he over-exerted himself. Or perhaps the sheer bliss of the married state proved too much for his delicate constitution.
- Dorothea: [stiffly] I'm afraid you misunderstand the situation. Mr. Casaubon never... I mean, he had no interest... I mean, the marital relationship was not a passionate one.
- [Angrily]
- Dorothea: His heart did not give out in bed!
- Will Ladislaw: [with wry tenderness, gazing at Dorothea's tearful face] Perhaps he had no heart at all.