- Mother Superior: Rachel? Well, Rachel has a home and parents who love her. She's a follower, not a leader. She can be guided. But, Mary... oh, Mary has a will of iron. To bend but not to break... to yield but not capitulate... to have pride but also humility. This has always been my struggle, Sister. Can I be less tolerant of Mary than the Church has been of me?
- [last lines]
- Mary Clancy: Who knows, Reverend Mother, maybe someday Rachel will come back and join the order.
- Mother Superior: If she does, I quit!
- Mary Clancy: [looking at the Mother Superior's dress] Oh! It looks beautiful!
- Mother Superior: It is nice, isn't it? I used to do a great deal a great deal of sewing when I was a girl. I'd always blessed my mother for insisting that I learn to how to handle a needle. When my parents died, I was sixteen then. My uncle, who'd lived in Paris...
- Mary Clancy: Paris?
- Mother Superior: Paris was my mother's home before she'd immigrated to Quebec and married my father. I'd lost my parents within three months of each other. The flu epidemic. Well, I went to live in Paris. My uncle arranged for my apprenticeship with a well known couterier. Of course, I was only a seamstress, but I had visions of creating my own designs and the house of Madeline Rousch challenging the great Channel. That was my name, Madeline Rousch. I remember standing behind the curtains with the fitters when the collections were shown. The buyers came from all over the world. Many times as I watched the models display the gowns, I'd think "Now I would have done that one differently. Used a different fabric. Something that had more movement, more mystery." Oh, I know it's vanity, of course. But I think I could have made a success of it.
- Mary Clancy: But how could you give it up?
- Mother Superior: I found something better.
- Rachel Devery: Couldn't we have uniforms, too, Reverend Mother?
- Mother Superior: Most certainly not. The band will perform in their gym suits.
- Rachel Devery: Our gym suits?
- Mother Superior: Yes.
- Mary Clancy: But, they're awful! I mean, it's not as if they were like Sacred Heart's. At Sacred Heart they wear short-shorts for gym.
- Mother Superior: They're French.
- Mother Superior: This is a Catholic school Mr. Gottschalk!
- Mr. Gottschalk: Band uniforms are non-sectarian.
- Mary Clancy: Hi, Marvel-Ann!
- Marvel-Ann Clancy: Drop dead!
- Rachel Devery: Who's that?
- Mary Clancy: Marvel-Ann. My uncle George is her father. He's been sending her to the nuns since she was six. I told her she was illegitimate, so she hates me.
- Rachel Devery: Is she?
- Mary Clancy: Lord, no! Uncle George is very careful about that kind of thing.
- [upon their first arrival at St. Francis]
- Mary Clancy: Ohhh! It's positively medieval!
- Rachel Devery: All that's missing is the dragon!
- [cut to the Mother Superior]
- Mother Superior: Evidently, Sister Ursula's German accent amuses you.
- Mary Clancy: I didn't know she was German, Reverend Mother.
- Mother Superior: Then surely you didn't know that during the war, Sister Ursula kept 34 Jewish children hidden for more than two years in the cellar of a destroyed convent outside of Munich. And that when this was finally discovered she was imprisoned. She suffered untold indignities, and she... she...
- [choking up, then turning away]
- Mary Clancy: Are we dismissed, Reverend Mother?
- Mother Superior: [quietly] Yes.
- Mary Clancy: Rache! I need something to stuff in the window. The snow's coming in.
- [Rachel gives Mary a magazine]
- Mary Clancy: I can't stuff His Holiness in the window!
- Rachel Devery: Well, I'm not going to give you Burt Lancaster!
- Mother Superior: As for the social graces, I'm convinced that your school encourages barbarism and concerns itself only with free thinking, free wheeling and finger-painting.
- Mr. Petrie: The finest educational minds in the country happen to be on our side!
- Mother Superior: God is on ours!
- Rachel Devery: [to Mary during their final punishment] I wonder if my father realizes that he's paying good money to have me educated to be a janitor.
- Sister Constance: [Talking to Mary Clancy] Now, what are you so solemn about? God's in his Heaven, all's well with the world... Now cheer up.
- Exasperated Lady on Train: Really! A child your age smoking!
- Mary Clancy: I'm not a child, madam; I'm a midget with bad habits.
- Rachel Devery: You going to St. Francis, too?
- Mary Clancy: [indicating her school uniform] Would I be caught dead in this Dior creation otherwise?
- Rachel Devery: That's a fact.
- Mary Clancy: What's your name?
- Rachel Devery: Rachel Devery.
- Mary Clancy: No it's not!
- Rachel Devery: Huh?
- Mary Clancy: It's Fleur de Lis. You're half French.
- Rachel Devery: How about that! What's your name?
- Mary Clancy: Kim Novak?
- Rachel Devery: I like it.
- Mary Clancy: So do I. But I'm stuck with "Mary Clancy"!
- Mother Superior: Sister Liguori is my assistant and teaches mathematics. You'll find her methods newer than new.
- [Sister Clarissa rescues the girls from the pool, dressed in full habit]
- Mother Superior: How's the water, sister?
- Sister Constance: What are you so solemn about? God's in His heaven. All's well with the world. Now, cheer up.
- Mary Clancy: [modeling a black corset] Jayne Mansfield.
- Rachel Devery: [modeling a plain Jane, beige bra] Rock Hudson.
- Mary Clancy: Come on, let's find you a better one.
- Rachel Devery: [while washing pots for punishment] Reverend Mother says that the detergent might help wash away my sins.
- Mother Superior: Will you please, in the future, remember that St. Francis is not a training school for counter spies.
- Sister Clarissa: All right, girls, form a line.
- Mary Clancy: We already have, Sister.
- Sister Clarissa: Oh. Well then, throw out your chests - and breathe in the fresh air. Out! Out with your chest!
- Rachel Devery: It's as out as it will go.
- Rachel Devery: He's a doll. Sort of like, Jack Lemmon, only younger. I *love* Jack Lemmon.
- Mary Clancy: Naturally.
- Mother Superior: It may come as something of a surprise to you; but, smoking, drinking, and similar extracurricular activities are not permitted at St. Francis. Get rid of those things!
- Mother Superior: The only desperation around here, Mr. Petrie, is that of the Sisters who have to cope with that product of progressive education you have inflicted upon us - namely Rachel Devery.
- Mr. Petrie: Well, I hardly expect you to completely accept new trends, creative concepts of education.
- Mother Superior: It's an abomination.
- Rachel Devery: What did Mother Superior say to you?
- Mary Clancy: I wouldn't repeat it in this sacred place.
- Sister Rose Marie: Reverend Mother, I can't do it. I just know I can't.
- Mother Superior: I must insist. There are no two ways about it, Sister. I'd do it myself; but, I have a meeting with Father Devlin and I have no idea what time I'll be free.
- Sister Rose Marie: Reverend Mother, please.
- Mother Superior: Besides, the outing will do you good.
- Sister Rose Marie: But, Reverend Mother, I don't know anything about - binders.
- Mother Superior: Brassieres, Sister, brassieres.
- Sister Clarissa: Heel, toe. Heel, toe. Heel, toe. Shoulders back. Chests out! Heel, toe. Heel, toe. Heel, toe. Heel, toe. Heel, toe. Heel, toe...
- Rachel Devery: [smoking cigars] Where'd you get these?
- Mary Clancy: The plumber left them.
- [Rachel starts coughing]
- Mary Clancy: What's the matter?
- Rachel Devery: I'm not sure I like 'em.
- Mary Clancy: So you have something you hate that you can give up for Lent.
- Rachel Devery: Yeah! Good thinking.