Downton Abbey: Lady Violet's Foolproof Guide to Taking Charge

Cora Crawley: "Are we to be friends then?"

Lady Violet: "We are allies, which can be a good deal more effective."

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"Well, give him a date for when Mary's out of mourning. No one wants to kiss a girl in black."

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Mrs. Crawley: "I'll take that as a compliment."

Lady Violet: "Oh, I must have said it wrong."

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Sybil Crawley: "No one ever learned anything from a governess except for French, and how to curtsy."

Lady Violet: "What more do you need?"

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Mary Crawley: "Sybil is entitled to her opinions."

Lady Violet: "No. She isn't until she is married, then her husband will tell her what her opinions are."

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"What's a weekend?"

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"Your quarrel is with my daughter, Rosamund, and not with me. So put that in your pipe and smoke it."

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"We'll just have to take her abroad. In these moments you can normally find an Italian who isn't too picky."

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"I'm a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose."

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Lady Violet: "Wasn't there a masked ball in Paris when cholera broke out? Half the guests were dead before they left the ballroom."

Robert Crawley: "Thank you, Mama. That's cheered us up no end."

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Cora Crawley: "I hate to go behind Robert's back."

Lady Violet: "That is a scruple no successful wife can afford."

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"Don't be defeatist, dear. It's very middle class."

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"One can't go to pieces at the death of every foreigner. We'd all be in a state of collapse whenever we opened a newspaper."

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"We can't have him assassinated. I suppose."

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"Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an HG Wells novel."

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"Why does every day involve a fight with an American?"

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Cora Crawley: "I might send [Mary] over to visit my aunt. She could get to know New York."

Lady Violet: "Oh, I don't think things are quite that desperate."

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"Robert, people like us are never unhappily married."

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"An aristocrat with no servants is as much use to the county as a glass hammer."

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"If we only had moral thoughts, what would the poor churchmen find to do?"

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"I wonder your halo doesn't grow heavy. It must be like wearing a tiara 'round the clock."

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"No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house . . . especially somebody they didn't even know."

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