Father Brendan Flynn: Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.
[last lines] Sister Aloysius: Sister James... Sister James: What is it, Sister? Sister Aloysius: [crying] I have doubts. I have such doubts.
Father Brendan Flynn: [to Sister James] There are people who go after your humanity, Sister, that tell you that the light in your heart is a weakness. Don't believe it. It's an old tactic of cruel people to kill kindness in the name of virtue.
Father Brendan Flynn: You have no right to act on your own! You have taken vows, obedience being one! You answer to us! You have no right to step outside the church! Sister Aloysius Beauvier: I will step outside the church if that's what needs to be ...
Father Brendan Flynn: I can fight you. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: You will lose.
Father Flynn: Where is your compassion? Sister Aloysius: Nowhere you can get at it.
Sister James: I don't think Father Flynn did anything wrong. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: You just want things to be resolved so you can have simplicity back.
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: [to Sister James] What have you seen? Sister James: It is unsettling to look at people with suspicion. I feel less close to God. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: When you take a step to address wrongdoing, you are taking a step awa...
Father Brendan Flynn: You haven't the slightest proof of anything! Sister Aloysius Beauvier: But I have my certainty! And armed with that, I will go to your last parish, and the one before that if necessary. I'll find a parent.
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: James Hurley, what are you doing out of class? Jimmy Hurley: Sister James sent me down. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: For what? Jimmy Hurley: Talking. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: Well, go back up and SHUT UP!
Sister James: How can you be so sure that he is lying? Sister Aloysius Beauvier: Experience. Sister James: You just don't like him! You don't like it that he uses a ballpoint pen. You don't like it that he takes 3 lumps of sugar in his tea. You don't...
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: What happened in the rectory? Father Brendan Flynn: Happened? Nothing happened. I had a talk with a boy. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: About what? Father Brendan Flynn: Private matter. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: He's twelve years...
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: Look at that. You've blown out my light.
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: [to Father Flynn] I have no sympathy for you. I know you are invulnerable to true regret. [long pause] Sister Aloysius Beauvier: And cut your nails.
Sister James: [Referring to her students] I don't allow them ballpoint pens. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: [Picking one off the floor] And yet here one is.
Mrs. Miller: You can't hold a child responsible for what God gave him to be.
Mrs. Miller: Sister, I don't know if you and me are on the same side. I'll be standing with my son and those who are good with my son. It'd be nice to see you there.
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: Is Father Flynn in doubt? Is he concerned that someone else is in doubt?
