Lady Mansfield: You never broke the rules. You simply become powerful enough to make new ones.
John Davinier: Should not any lady be flattered to be such a subject?
Dido Elizabeth Belle: How should any male know the ways of a lady when he has not even mastered the ways of a gentlemen?
John Davinier: Quite. Though one should be forgiven for thinking he is in the presence of a lady, when she is in fact still a juvenile.
John Davinier: Yes, I love her! I love her with every breath I breathe.
Elizabeth Murray: If I were in your place, I would choose the man I love. I only hope he's worth it.
John Davinier: With due respect, I should question whether human life should be insurable as cargo at all.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: I remember my father's eyes. They were kind, gentle, a little like yours.
John Davinier: Mine?
Dido Elizabeth Belle: I mean in colour.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: Papa, how may I be too high in rank to dine with the servants and too low to dine with my family?
Lord Mansfield: Society has a habit of disregarding one of its own even when opportunity provides.
Captain Sir John Lindsay: I beg you, uncle, love her as I would were I here, and ensure that she is in receipt of all that is due her as a child of mine.
Lady Mansfield: That is simply impossible.
Captain Sir John Lindsay: What is right can never be impossible.
Lady Mansfield: She is black.
Captain Sir John Lindsay: She is my blood.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: The alternative is to replace Lady Mary in her responsibilities at Kenwood.
John Davinier: But, she's a spinster.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: Papa did not trust I could achieve a match that would raise my rank or even equal it.
John Davinier: You are above reducing yourself for the sake of rank. I pray he would marry you without a penny to your name, for that is a man who would truly treasure you.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: Is Mabel a slave?
Lord Mansfield: I beg your pardon?
Dido Elizabeth Belle: Is... Mabel... a slave?
Lord Mansfield: She is free, and under our protection.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: Oh, like me.
Lady Mary Murray: Elizabeth, a word of advice, wait for no man, my dear.
Elizabeth Murray: Aren't you quietly relieved that you shan't be at the caprice of some silly sir and his fortune? The rest of us haven't a choice - not a chance of inheritance if we have brothers, and forbidden from any activity that allows us to support ourselves. We are but their property.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: Must not a lady marry, even if she is financially secure? For who is she without a husband of consequence? It seems silly - like a free negro who begs for a master.
John Davinier: Well, unless she marries her equal. Her true equal. A man who respects her.
John Davinier: Permit me to ask, why do you not dine with your family ever?
Dido Elizabeth Belle: That is not correct.
John Davinier: Forgive me, but twice now I have seen you separated from the gathering. I am confounded.
Dido Elizabeth Belle: And well you might be when the son of clergy is permitted to the table before a lady of the house.
John Davinier: Is that a reminder of my place?
Dido Elizabeth Belle: No. It's a statement of mine.
Lady Mansfield: I just learned yesterday that Mr. Davinier is in town.
Lord Mansfield: I'm not surprised, Dido is beginning to sound a lot like him.
