Margaret: Yes.
John: It’s fundamental. Bed-rock. The rock on which most marriages split, and up to now it’s been just left to chance ... a girl must have absolutely no real emotional experience until she’s married. Her first real experience may alter her whole being, yet by the time she’s allowed that first experience she must have tied herself up for life. Now I don’t think that’s merely silly. I think it’s definitely wrong.
Colin: I agree with you.
John: Grandpa agrees with me. I must be right.
Colin: Yes, my child, but I think you’ve got to be extremely careful over this experimenting business of yours.
John: Why?
Colin: You’ve got the artistic temperament, God help you. Most people haven’t. The majority of ordinary respectable human beings just want quiet, uneventful, peaceful lives.
Frankie: Yes.
Colin: You can just as easily wreck people’s happiness by persuading them to go experimenting all over the place, as by denying them the right to do it.
Gwen: Don’t just say “Don’t, don’t, don’t.” That’s negative ... a denial of things. We can’t live by that.