Rose Smith, Esther Smith: [singing] Meet me in St. Louie, Louie, meet me at...
Mr. Alonzo Smith: For heaven's sake, stop that screeching!
Rose Smith: We're sorry, Papa.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: The fair won't open for seven months, and that's all anybody ever sings about or talks about. I wish they would all meet at the fair and leave me alone.

Rose Smith: Money. I hate, loathe, despise and abominate money.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: You also spend it.

Rose Smith: Oh, Es, isn't he simply enchanting? And so mature!
Esther Smith: Well, how did it happen? Where did you meet?
Rose Smith: I was coming out of the shop and he was coming in. We bumped into each other!
Esther Smith: Accidentally?
Rose Smith: Almost!

Esther Smith: [singing] Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light. / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight. / Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the yule time gay / Next year all our troubles will be miles away. / Once again as in olden days, happy golden days of yore / Faithful friends who are dear to us, will be near to us once more. / Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow / Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow. / So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Esther Smith: I'm going to let John Truett kiss me tonight.
Rose Smith: Esther Smith.
Esther Smith: Well, if we're going to get married, I may as well start it.
Rose Smith: Nice girls don't let men kiss them until after they're engaged. Men don't want the bloom rubbed off.
Esther Smith: Personally, I think I have too much bloom. Maybe that's the trouble with me.

Esther Smith: It's our last dance in St. Louis. I feel like I'm going to cry.

Esther Smith: John Truett. I've come here to ask you something... What do you mean hitting a five-year-old child?... The next time you want to hit somebody, pick on somebody your own size. If there's anything I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate, it's a bully.
[punches and kicks him]

Esther Smith: Meeting him across the lawn for the first time would be so ordinary. I don't want to be just introduced to him. I want it to be something strange and romantic and something I'll always remember.

Esther Smith: Oh, Katie, they were just little white lies.
Katie the Maid: A lie's a lie. Dressin' it in white don't help it. And just why was I lying this time? Why must we have dinner an hour early?
Esther Smith: Because Rose is expecting...
Katie the Maid: Now don't go blaming your sister.
Esther Smith: Blaming her? Why, we're doing this for her. You know Rose's problem. Warren Sheffield has been writing to her for six months without one word that even smells like a proposal.
Katie the Maid: What's that got to do with having dinner an hour early?
Esther Smith: Warren is telephoning Rose long-distance from New York at half-past six.
Katie the Maid: Long-distance?
Esther Smith: Yes, and if the whole family is sitting here drinking in every word, she may be loathe to say the things a girl's compelled to say to get a proposal out of a man. If that man, unfortunately, is Warren Sheffield.
Katie the Maid: Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.
Esther Smith: Well, we can't be too particular. While we love Rose, the brutal fact is that, well, she isn't getting any younger.
Katie the Maid: There's the poor old maid now!

Esther Smith: Papa, if losing a case depresses you so, why don't you quit practicing law and go into another line of business?
Mr. Alonzo Smith: That's a good idea. Starting tomorrow, I intend to play first base for the Baltimore Orioles. I'm sorry, Anna, if I was a little bombastic.
Mrs. Anna Smith: That's all right, dear, you'll feel better once you've had your dinner.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: I suppose so, but right now I'm going to soak in that cool bathtub for one solid hour.
Esther Smith: But that's impossible. Dinner's being served in five minutes.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: It's only five twenty-five, not six twenty-five.
Mrs. Anna Smith: We've planned on eating an hour early tonight.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: Well, the plans have just been changed. I'm taking a bath.
Mrs. Anna Smith: We're eating early for Katie's sake. Family trouble. She wants to go over there as soon as we've finished eating. Her sister's fighting with her husband.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: I see. And I suppose they'll stop fighting if I don't take a bath?
Mrs. Anna Smith: Now she's been with us for ten years, and she never asks favors. We don't want to risk losing her.
Esther Smith: No, nowadays you can't get a maid for less than twelve dollars a month.
Mr. Alonzo Smith: I don't care if we have to pay a maid fifteen dollars a month! Dinner's at six-thirty, and if Katie wants to hand in her notice, she can reach me in the bathtub!