North and South (UK) Season 1 Episode 1

Margaret Hale: You've been blessed with good luck and fortune, but others have not!
John Thornton: I do know something of hardship. 16 years ago, my father died, very miserable circumstances. I became the head of the family very quickly, and was taken out of school. I think I might say that my only good luck, was to have a mother of such strong will and integrity. I went to go work in a draper's shop, and my mother managed so that I could put 3 shillings aside a week. I taught myself denial. No I am able to keep my mother in such comfort as her age requires, and I thank her every day for that early training. So Ms. Hale, I do not think that I was especially blessed with good fortune or luck. I have stayed my welcome.

John Thornton: I was angry, I have a temper. Fire is the greatest danger in my mill. I have to be strict.
Margaret Hale: No gentleman would use his fists on such a... pathetic creature. Or shout at children!
John Thornton: I dare say a gentleman shouldn't have to see 300 hundred corpses layed out on the Yorkshire hillside, as I did last May. Many of them where children, and that was an accidental flame. The whole mill destroyed in 20 minutes! I should go.

John Thornton: Aye, crawl away on your belly, and don't come back!
Stevens: Please sir, I have little ones.
John Thornton: You know the rules!
Stevens: My children will starve, sir!
John Thornton: Better to starve than to burn to death! Get out before I call the police!

Henry Lennox: Sorry, I was just remembering your prescription for the perfect wedding: "I should like to walk to church on a Sunday morning". Was this the path you were describing?
Margaret Hale: Why, yes, I suppose so, but I wasn't really thinking of my wedding, you understand?
Henry Lennox: I was wondering, Margaret, whether...
Margaret Hale: Please, don't.
Henry Lennox: Whether you might consider making that walk, sharing that morning, with one who...? Please, listen Margaret.
Margaret Hale: Please, don't continue... I'm sorry.
Henry Lennox:Excuse me... you led me to believe that such an offer would not be unwelcome. A London girl would've know not to talk of wedding days in such ambiguous terms...
Margaret Hale: Excuse me, I've said nothing I'm ashamed of. I'm sorry if you have been mistaken my affections for you.
Henry Lennox: Is there someone else? Someone else you prefer?
Margaret Hale: No! I do like you, Henry, but I'm not ready to marry anyone. You must believe that I mean what I say.

Ms.Hale: You are mistaken. You don't know anything about the south. It may be a little less energetic in its pursuit for competitive trade, but then there is less suffering than I've seen in your mills. And all for what?
Thornton: Well, we make cotton.
Ms.Hale: Which no one wants to wear!
Thornton: I think I might say that you do not know the north. We masters are not all the same, no matter what your prejudice against Milton men and our ways.
Ms.Hale: Well I've seen the way you treat your men. You treat them as you wish because they are beneath you.
Thornton: No, I do not.

Thornton: Don't worry mother, I'm in no danger for Ms.Hale. She's very unlikely to consider me a catch. She's from the south, she doesn't care for our northern ways.