Shelby Carpenter: I can afford a blemish on my character, but not on my clothes.
Waldo Lydecker: I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.
Waldo Lydecker: Love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation for human actions throughout history. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death.
Waldo Lydecker: My dear, either you were born on a extremely rustic community, where good manners are unknown, or you suffer from a common feminine delusion that the mere fact of being a woman exempts you from the rules of civilized conduct.
Waldo Lydecker: You'd better watch out, McPherson, or you'll finish up in a psychiatric ward. I doubt they've ever had a patient who fell in love with a corpse.
[first lines] Waldo Lydecker: [narrating off screen] I shall never forget the weekend Laura died. A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass. It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection. I felt as if I were the only human being...
Shelby Carpenter: I don't know a lot about anything, but I know a little about practically everything.
Waldo Lydecker: How singularly innocent I look this morning.
Mark McPherson: When a dame gets killed, she doesn't worry about how she looks. Waldo Lydecker: Will you stop calling her a dame?
Waldo Lydecker: In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.
Mark McPherson: I must say, for a charming, intelligent girl, you certainly surrounded yourself with a remarkable collection of dopes.
Waldo Lydecker: I'm not kind, I'm vicious. It's the secret of my charm.
Waldo Lydecker: I cannot stand these morons any longer. If you don't come with me this instant, I shall run amok.
Shelby Carpenter: I forgot to tell you, I also read palms, I swallow swords, I mend my own socks, I never eat garlic or onions, what more could you want of a man?
Shelby Carpenter: I knew there was something on my mind. Ah yes, will you dine with me tomorrow night? Laura Hunt: Yes. Shelby Carpenter: No, it's not that - it's the next night. And what about three weeks from tonight? And all the nights in between?...
Mark McPherson: I suspect nobody and everybody.
Mark McPherson: Yeah, dames are always pulling a switch on you.
Waldo Lydecker: I should be sincerely sorry to see my neighbor's children devoured by wolves.