Desiree Armfeldt: For once, I was truly innocent.
Mrs. Armfeldt: It must have been early in the evening.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Desiree Armfeldt: Why don't you write your memoirs?
Mrs. Armfeldt: My dear daughter, I was given this estate for promising not to write my memoirs.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: [holding a cup of wine at a dinner table] My dear children and friends. According to legend, the wine is pressed from grapes whose juice gushes out like drops of blood against the pale grape skin. It is also said that to each cask filled with this wine was added a drop of milk from a young mother's breast and a drop of seed from a young stallion. These lend to the wine secret seductive powers. Whoever drinks hereof does so at his own risk and must answer for himself.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: Beware of good deeds. They cost far too much and leave a nasty smell.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: I am tired of people. But that doesn't stop me from loving them.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: If people knew the evil caused by listening to others, they would not care about listening and would be far happier.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: Who are we inviting? If they are actors, they will have to eat in the stables.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: Why is youth so terribly unmerciful? And who has given it permission to be that way?


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night

Mrs. Armfeldt: Your father once threw me out of a window.
Desiree Armfeldt: Was it open?
Mrs. Armfeldt: No, closed. I fell straight into a lieutenant colonel. He later became your father.
Desiree Armfeldt: You said my father threw you out.
Mrs. Armfeldt: He became your father later, I said. Aren't you listening? My God I loved him so!
Desiree Armfeldt: Which one?
Mrs. Armfeldt: The one who threw me out the window, of course. The other one was a dolt. He never could do anything amusing.


--Naima Wifstrand (as Mrs. Armfeldt) in Smiles of a Summer Night