- Dr. Max DeBryn: [on being told that his forensic evidence is contradicted by Judy Vallens's statement] Put it this way, Morse. Either I, a Home Office pathologist of some years' standing, have taken leave of my senses, or she's a liar.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [angered by Frobisher's patronizing evasiveness] Condescend to me, Master, and I'll frog-march you across that quad, down the High and into Cowley Police Station - in handcuffs!
- DI Fred Thursday: [after Morse's unexpected return to Oxford has saved the day] I put you on a train.
- DC Endeavour Morse: I got off.
- Joan Thursday: [after her disastrous date with Peter Jakes] I thought I'd be all right with a copper.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Well, there are coppers and there are coppers.
- Joan Thursday: What sort are you?
- DC Endeavour Morse: The kind that sees young ladies safely home.
- DI Fred Thursday: [confronted by Vince Kasper when looking for Vic Kasper instead] It's the engineer I'm looking for - not the oily rag.
- Dorothea Frazil: [surveying the wreckage of her office after it has been vandalized, and she threatened, by gangsters] Everyone's a critic!
- [first lines]
- Prof Alistair Coke Norris: Every story has a beginning - before the gates of Troy; in a certain house in Ithaca; on the road to Thebes. But no matter where it starts, every story has its hero. As often as not, a young man on the journey from innocence to experience.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [asked if his return to Oxford has to do with his unhappy love affair of years earlier] I've many faults, God knows, but I try to draw the line at masochism. Besides, it's the killer that returns to the scene of the crime, not the... whatever I was.
- [in the pub, Jakes carries three glasses of beer to the table: two pints of bitter for Morse and Thursday and a pint of lighter beer for himself]
- DI Fred Thursday: [to Jakes] What's that, then? *Lager* beer, is it?
- [Jakes echoes the advertising slogan]
- DS Peter Jakes: Double Diamond. Works wonders.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [dryly] The wonder is anyone buys the stuff.
- Vince Kasper: [Thursday is aiming a gun at him] You think you're going to walk out of here?
- DI Fred Thursday: I know you're not.
- Cyril Morse: [on his deathbed] Police, still?
- DC Endeavour Morse: Yes.
- Cyril Morse: [after a long pause] I never liked the police.
- Dorothea Frazil: [describing the intruders who have trashed her office] They were quite specific. I'm to lay off stories about Booth Hill if I know what's good for me. Which, alas, was a lesson I never took to.
- DI Fred Thursday: [trying to coerce Carlisle into confessing] A short spell inside's better than an eternity in a wooden box.
- Joyce Morse: [after Morse has bought drinks for them both] I thought you'd taken the pledge.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Fell among thieves.
- Chief Superintendent Bright: [on the arrival of Vic Kasper in Oxford] You think he's come here looking for a soft touch?
- DI Fred Thursday: More like, he's come here looking to keep breathing.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [surprised when his half-sister kisses him goodbye] Since when do we do that?
- Joyce Morse: You looked like you could do with it.
- DI Fred Thursday: [after Morris Cubitt has claimed he is now in charge of the Moonlight Rooms] Don't kid a kidder, Morrie. You're a front man. Near-beer, blue jokes and totting up the night's take - that's your forte. So who's in the big chair now, eh?
- Albert Gudgeon: [reporting in secret to Thursday] One or two new faces hanging about. London types. Only you didn't hear that from me, right?
- DI Fred Thursday: Good man, Albert. Reliable.
- DC Endeavour Morse: At ten bob a time. I expect he is.
- DI Fred Thursday: Any copper's only as good as the intelligence he's got coming in. What do they teach you at Carshall?
- DC Endeavour Morse: I don't remember anything in Judges' Rules about paying for information.
- DI Fred Thursday: Got something new to think about, then, haven't you?
- Chief Superintendent Bright: Look - I don't want this animus between Kasper and yourself turning into some kind of private vendetta. This is Oxford, not the Wild West.
- DI Fred Thursday: I know my duty, sir.
- Chief Superintendent Bright: See you remember it. I'm thinking of you, Thursday. I've seen too many a good officer lose his way over some personal feud. Believe me, such things never end well.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: [about the corpse of Alistair Coke-Norris] No-one come forward to claim him?
- DC Endeavour Morse: Not yet.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: I've bagged his personal effects, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.Just the usual - specs, smoker's bits and bobs, keys, wallet. Somebody saw the accident, did they?
- DC Endeavour Morse: No. Why?
- Dr. Max DeBryn: Case like this, I'd normally expect to find some injury to the lower limbs. Point of impact- where the body's come into contact with the vehicle. Outside of the head injury, there's not a mark on him. Could have been a glancing blow, I suppose. Tossed him into the air, and the kerb's done the rest.
- Morris Cubitt: [Thursday has doubted the truth of his story] Straight! As God's my judge.
- DI Fred Thursday: [still doubtful] Yeah, but He's not, though, is He?
- Millicent Coke Norris: If you entertain any suspicion of impropriety between my husband and these young women you mention I believe I can set your mind at rest.
- Vince Kasper: [about his father] He's gone soft!
- Cynthia Riley: He's more of a man than you'll ever be.
- Jolyon Frobisher: I refute the allegation utterly. As I do her previous farrago of printed untruths and half-baked innuendo.