Woody Mahoney: How'd you get so pretty? And so rich?
Sharon McLonergan: Well, you see, in Glocca Morra, where we come from, there's an old legend, and it says: 'You'll never grow old and you'll never grow poor, if you look to the rainbow, beyond the next moor.'
Woody Mahoney: That's a lovely legend.
Sharon McLonergan: Aye.
Woody Mahoney: I wonder who thought it up.
Sharon McLonergan: My father: Finian McLonnergan.

Finian McLonergan: [singing] Green is the color of the shamrocks /and the grass on Blarney hill / Oh, the darlin' green of Ireland /and the good old dollar bill.

Finian McLonergan: America is full of millionaires.
Sharon McLonergan: But Father, are there no ill clad or ill housed in America?
Finian McLonergan: Aye, but they're the best ill clad and the best ill housed in the world.

Finian McLonergan: Don't be superstitious, it's bad luck.

Finian McLonergan: Now that you're half mortal, you're indecent.

Finian McLonergan: What do you think makes America different from Ireland?
Sharon McLonergan: It has more Irishmen?

Buzz Collins: Well, you'll like working here, Boy. I've hired all the senator's butlers for the past ten years. Hundreds of them. He's a little intolerant at times, but that's just his blood pressure. Now, let's see you serve that julep.
[Howard serves it]
Buzz Collins: Oh, no. Rawkins won't like that, that's no way to serve a julep. It's too fast. Get some shuffle into it. You've seen some of the new movies like 'Birth of a Nation' and 'Gone With the Wind,' haven't you? Here, like this, George.
Howard: Howard.
Buzz Collins: Yeah, okay, Jackson.
[He does a splay-legged shuffle and imitates Rochester]
Buzz Collins: Yo' julep suh, Massa Rawkins, suh, all frossy an' minty, yawk! Yawk! Yawk! You see, George?
Howard: Uh... why do I have to shuffle?
Buzz Collins: Oh, I don't have to explain that to you. It makes for kindly feelings between employer and employee. Now try it again, only not so fast this time.
Howard: Uh... how did you do that again?
Buzz Collins: I don't understand you Jackson. I mean, you don't walk like your supposed to, you don't talk like you're supposed to, you don't even know how to serve a julep like you're supposed to! Are you educated or something?
Howard: Well, I'm working on my Masters.
Buzz Collins: Working on your master's what?
Howard: It's a college degree!
Buzz Collins: Oh! Don't mention the word 'college' around the Senator! It upsets him. But that's beside the point, George. Do you want a job here or don't you?
Howard: Well, yes sir I do, I... Ah needs da money.
Buzz Collins: [cheerful] Oh! Well, that's all the more reason for you to make good here. Then when you get your... college degree, you've got a job here for life!

Senator Billboard Rawkins: [dictating a speech to Buzz] Gentlemen, the festering tides of radicalism are upon us. But before I yield up our glorious South -and her sister commowealth, the U.S. of A - I will lay down my life. I will do more - I will filibuster. Back, you crackpots! Forward, America! Forward to the hallowed principles of our forefathers. Forward to the sweet tranquility of the status quo. Forward... to yesterday!

Senator Billboard Rawkins: My family's been having nothing but trouble with immigrants ever since they come to this country!

Senator Billboard Rawkins: You've been violating the law, here.
Finian McLonergan: Since when?
Senator Billboard Rawkins: This afternoon. I just finished drafting this.
Senator Billboard Rawkins: [reading] Local ordinance number 7428: be it known that in the county of Rainbow Valley, it is a felony for members of the Caucasian and Negro races...
Finian McLonergan: But it seems to me that this law could not be a legal law...
Senator Billboard Rawkins: Of course it's legal! I don't know where you immigrants get these radical, foreign ideas!
Sharon McLonergan: From a wee book the immigration officer handed us. It's called 'The United States Constitution.'
Finian McLonergan: Haven't you read it?
Senator Billboard Rawkins: I don't have time to read it, I'm too busy defending it!