- Sister Hilda: Call me stickler for the Scriptures, I don't recall any reindeer in Bethlehem.
- Sister Monica Joan: You can't be certain. Saint Eustace himself had a vision of Christ between the antlers of a stag, white as snow. And there were mystics who believed our Lord himself appeared to men in such a form.
- Nurse Lucille Anderson: All islands are like this. All islands have a boundary, and ya live your life within it and ya love it or ya break out and make a life elsewhere. And on every island in the world, no matter how magnificent, there are those who cannot leave and those who cannot stay; and I was one of those who could not stay.
- Nurse Shelagh Turner: [unpleasantly surprised at Mother Mildred's Branch House expansion plans] The Outer Hebrides?
- Mother Mildred: I thought you'd approve being Scottish.
- Nurse Shelagh Turner: I'm not that sort of Scottish. I grew up in a busy market town; the Hebrides are very remote.
- Sister Hilda: [finally reaching and entering St. Faelan's Youth Hostel] We have obtained our objective. May the Lord guard our comings and goings, and may he help us do the jobs we do so well at home.
- Nurse Trixie Franklin: [sitting in the dreary St. Faelan's Youth Hostel] Whoo, I'm sorry, but this is a completely dreadful way to convalesce. We're all dressed up as if we've burgled a jumble sale.
- [they all laugh]
- Nurse Trixie Franklin: And now we're peeling our own potatoes!
- Nurse Lucille Anderson: With absolutely no way of turning them into chips. May the Lord forgive me, but right now I'd kill for three pennyworth of chips and a saveloy.
- Nurse Valerie Dyer: Ey, have we turned you into a Cockney on the quiet?
- [they all smirk]
- Nurse Lucille Anderson: I'd like to think so.
- Nurse Valerie Dyer: [referring to some local women's narrow-minded attitude toward Lucile's obvious foreign background] Lucile, I heard what that woman said to you in the clinic today, uh...
- Nurse Lucille Anderson: It happens all the time at home, I'm almost used to it. But people like them aren't used to people like me; and I can't hate them for it, because I come from an island too.
- Nurse Trixie Franklin: Not an island like this.
- Nurse Lucille Anderson: [she laughs] Hah, all islands are like this. All islands have a boundary, and ya live your life within it and ya love it or ya break out and make a life elsewhere. And on every island in the world, no matter how magnificent, there are those who cannot leave and those who cannot stay; and I was one of those who could not stay.
- [Valerie and Trixie smile understandingly]
- [last lines]
- Mature Jennifer Worth: Some Christmases will always be more memorable than others - not because they surpass all the others we've known, but because the light shines from a different source. We're worned, but made wiser; welcomed in and given something new. Christmas isn't a competition, but the prize itself: a gathering and a sharing of the things that matter most. It is of no consequence whether we're the biggest or the brightest; whether we're the strongest, or the bravest, or the most inclined to win. It is the smallest things that have the highest value: the glance that sees, the ear that hears, the thought made deed, and the links in the chain of love that bind us all.
- Mother Mildred: Hmm, it seems to me that with all the posts so amply covered, the best thing we could do is to take almost all of you away to convalesce. You need a change of scene, good food, sea air; and I know precisely where all three can be obtained.
- Sister Monica Joan: I fear you evoke the spectre of the Mother House.
- Mother Mildred: Our esteemed Sister is incorrect. I think that, on balance, that I speak to Sister Julienne alone.
- [they retreat to the chapel room]
- Sister Julienne: We could go into my office; I had just lit the paraffin stove... so I could see to some paperwork.
- Mother Mildred: Sister, it's best if we remain within convenient distance of the altar rail. By the time I inform you of my plans, we might both feel the need to pray. I believe God is calling me to open another Branch House.
- Sister Julienne: Where?
- Mother Mildred: As ever!: where good nursing and skilled midwives are *desperately* needed; where there is often no doctor for many miles; where climate is our enemy and water and electricity both fickle friends at best.
- Sister Julienne: Are you thinking of expanding our operation to Africa?
- Mother Mildred: No. We're going to the Outer Hebrides.
- Morag Norris: [upon hearing Shelagh speak in her accent] You're Scots?
- Nurse Shelagh Turner: I am.
- Morag Norris: A bheil Gàidhlig agad?
- [Shelagh looks happily stumped]
- Morag Norris: Ugh. I asked if you spoke Gaelic. There's no need to answer. Nurse that just left didn't speak it either. There's some here that speak nothing else on the island, but we manage.
- Fred Buckle: [dressed up and posing as Santa Claus in the Iris Knight Hall as the Turner children sit on his lap] Well what do you want for Christmas? Hmm?
- [humorously surprised by what May whispers in his ear]
- Fred Buckle: You want mummy and daddy to get outta bed and put some clothes on?