- Mr. Harrington: This job starts at 3,000 a year.
- Michael Rossi: Then we're all wasting our time. That's only $5 a week more than I was making as a teacher, Mr. Harrington
- Mr. Harrington: But this offers you security -- a long term contract.
- Michael Rossi: Guaranteed poverty is not security.
- Mrs. Thornton: A person doesn't always get what she deserves. Remember it. If there's anything in life you want, go and get it. Don't wait for anybody to give it to you.
- Rodney Harrington: We were just playing a game called Photography. You turn off the lights and see what develops.
- Betty Anderson: [to the other girls, while she's trying on a revealing red dress in Mrs. MacKenzie's shop] Just remember: men can see much better than they can think. Believe me, a low-cut neckline does more for a girl's future than the entire Britannica encyclopedia.
- Michael Rossi: I kissed you. You kissed me. That's affection, not carnality. That's affection, not lust. You ought to know the difference.
- Lucas Cross: Might do your kids a lot more good to learn how to handle a bottle of liquor, instead of an algebra problem.
- Mrs. Thornton: You're talking like a fool.
- Lucas Cross: [Defiantly] Ohh, be I?
- Allison MacKenzie: Nelly.
- Nellie Cross: Yeah?
- Allison MacKenzie: You've been a daughter and a mother. Which one is worse?
- Nellie Cross: Being a mother.
- Allison MacKenzie: Why?
- Nellie Cross: You find yourself doing the same things you hated your own mother and father doing.
- Michael Rossi: I intend to initiate a sex-education course in the school.
- Constance MacKenzie: Isn't that a function of the home?
- Michael Rossi: You'd think it would be, yet not one parent in ten does it. No, sex is taboo in the home.
- Constance MacKenzie: And it should be in the schools.
- Michael Rossi: Where would they learn it, the alleys in parked cars?
- Constance MacKenzie: They'll learn it when they marry. Good night Mr. Rossi.
- Allison MacKenzie: [Asking about the stories she wrote] What do you think? Are they good enough to send to a magazine?
- Michael Rossi: Yes, if you want to end up in prison. Those stories were full of enough libel and slander and double entendre to hang us all. Allison, is that how Peyton Place really looks to you?
- Allison MacKenzie: They were only fiction. I didn't use any real names.
- Michael Rossi: You didn't have to. I recognized everybody in town.