Rose: The reason these confidence men don't get caught is because people are embarrassed to come forward and admit they were conned.
Blanche: I'm sorry, Rose. I just can't.
Rose: Well, perhaps this little story might make you change your mind. Back in St. Olaf there was a shepherd boy who tended his flock on the hill above the town. A wolf kept coming down and stealing his sheep, but the boy never caught him doing it. Because he never saw it happening, he became known around St. Olaf as the boy who didn't cry wolf. Anyway, one day the townspeople heard the boy on the hill yelling, "Wolf, Wolf. " Well, they all figured, if the boy never cried wolf when the wolf was there, if he yelled wolf now, it stood to reason the wolf wasn't there.
Sophia: Boy, nothing gets by you people.
Rose: Damn straight. It was a bear. A huge, ferocious, grizzly bear.
Blanche: What happened to the boy?
Rose: He became known as the boy who cried continuously.

Dorothy: Ma, what do you think I should do?
Sophia: No one can help you with that decision, Dorothy. I can't tell you what to do. I mean, I won't be around forever. I'd like to know there was someone here to love you and take care of you like you take care of me. Maybe he could give you a bigger allowance. I mean, it's nice now and then to buy something that's not generic. You know what I'm saying, Dorothy?
Dorothy: Yes, Ma. And it's nice, you saying you love me and you care.
Sophia: No. I'm saying buy genuine Q-Tips. If I'm gonna put a stick in my ear, I'd like a little cotton at the end.

Dorothy: Look, I'm not proud of what I did, but it didn't seem so bad at the time. He was trapped in a bad marriage.
Sophia: There's no such thing as being trapped in a marriage. In this country you can get divorced. In Sicily there was no divorce. If you wanted to end a marriage, you had to resort to the lupara.
Rose: Is that some kind of legal loophole?
Sophia: It's some kind of sawed-off shotgun.