- Tom Pettigrew: There's one habit of his which will never become the fashion. Every morning two serving maids have to carry buckets of water up flights of stairs for him to wash himself.
- Mr. Throstle: He washes himself? All over?
- Tom Pettigrew: Every morning!
- Mr. Throstle: [incredulous] All over, every morning!
- Peter Standish: It hasn't always been an eccentricity, Throstle. You admire the Romans - they bathed every day.
- Mr. Throstle: Only when they became degenerate, sir. The virile fathers of the republic...
- Peter Standish: ...were as dirty as you, I dare say.
- Tom Pettigrew: Drink doesn't affect me, sir. Drink has never affected me!
- Mr. Throstle: What causes you to stagger then?
- Helen Pettigrew: You have no reason to be afraid of him.
- Kate Pettigrew: No more reason than I have to fear a graveyard at night.
- Geiger Man: [after running a Geiger counter over him] Your count's a trifle high, Dr. Forsythe.
- Roger Forsyth: Don't worry about it till I glow after dark.
- [Chuckles]
- Roger Forsyth: What are you running away from?
- Peter Standish: Let's say I don't like my work and let it go at that.
- Roger Forsyth: I see. The occupational disease of the nuclear scientist. The old familiar cry. Stop the world I want to get off.
- Peter Standish: You call it escape. I call it adventure.
- Tom Pettigrew: What do you call the colonies nowadays?
- Peter Standish: The United States of America.
- Tom Pettigrew: Hmmm. A trifle pompous, don't you think? But after all it's only temporary. You Americans will soon come back to the fold. Mark my words sir, you shan't be able to get along without us.
- Peter Standish: [ironically] I wish I had your knowledge of foreign affairs.
- Tom Pettigrew: It takes years!