As it's Maggie Smith's birthday today, we look back at some of the best lines from Downton Abbey, including her scathing put-downs as the Dowager Countess.
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Picture credits: ITV Pictures
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Grantham, the Dowager Countess
"Of course it would happen to a foreigner. No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Anna Smith, Head Housemaid
"I love you, Mr. Bates! And I know it’s not ladylike to say so, but I’m not a lady and I don’t pretend to be."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Sybil Crawley
"No one ever learned anything from a governess except for French, and how to curtsy."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Mary Crawley
"I hope you know that really smart people sleep in separate rooms."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Cora, the Countess of Grantham
"No one ever tells you about raising daughters. You think it’ll be like Little Women, and instead they’re at each others’ throats."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Sarah O'Brien, the Countess of Grantham's Lady's maid
(Talking about Cora, the Countess of Grantham) "I’d like to give her the old heave ho–in a dark alley somewhere."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Grantham, the Dowager Countess
"What's a 'weekend?'"
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Edith Crawley and Lady Mary Crawley
Lady Edith: (in reference to Lary Mary's beau) "So he slipped the hook"
Lady Mary: "At least I'm not fishing with no bait"
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Mrs Patmore, Cook
(to Daisy, the kichen maid) "Daisy, what’s happened to you? I said you could go for a drink of water, not a trip up the Nile."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Charles Carson, Butler
Carson: "We may have to have a maid in the dining room."
The Earl of Grantham: "Cheer up, Carson. There are worse things happening in the world."
Carson: "Not worse than a maid serving a duke."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Grantham, the Dowager Countess
"Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an H.G. Wells novel."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Cora, the Countess of Grantham
(to her daughter, Lady Mary) "The point is, when you refused Matthew, you were an earl’s daughter with an unsullied reputation. Now, you are damaged goods."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Sarah O'Brien, the Countess of Grantham's Lady's maid, and Thomas Barrow, First Footman
Thomas: (talking about Matthew Crawley, heir to the estate) "Are we to treat him as the heir?"
O'Brien: "Are we heck as like! A doctor's son from Manchester? He'll be lucky if he gets a civil word out of me."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Grantham, the Dowager Countess
"I'm a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Robert, the Earl of Grantham and Cora, the Countess of Grantham
Earl of Grantham: (talking about their daughter) "Poor old Edith. We never seem to talk about her."
Countess of Grantham: "I'm afraid Edith will be the one taking care of us in our old age."
Earl of Grantham: "What a ghastly prospect!"
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Mary Crawley and Sir Richard Carlisle
Sir Richard: "I want you to marry me."
Lady Mary: "Why?"
Sir Richard: "Because I think very highly of you."
Lady Mary: "Very highly. Goodness."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Robert, the Earl of Grantham
(about his daughter) "Mary can be such a child. She thinks that if you put a toy down, it’ll still be sitting there when you want to play with it again."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Rosamund Painswick
Lady Rosamind: "There's nothing like an English summer, is there?"
Lady Mary Crawley: "Except an English winter."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Lady Sybil Crawley
Lady Mary Crawley: "Sybil is entitled to her opinions."
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: "No. She isn't until she is married, then her husband will tell her what her opinions are."
Classic quotes from Downton Abbey
Mrs Isobel Crawley
Isobel: "What should we call each other?"
The Dowager Countess: "Well, we could always start with Mrs. Crawley and Lady Grantham."
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