"Order is the barrier that holds back the flood of death."
Mason says this to the group of passengers in the tail car as justification for why they must submit to their lowly position and not start trouble. With this line, we see that Mason aligns herself with the hierarchy of society to which she belongs, never questioning its violence or corruption.
"You know what I hate about myself? I know what people taste like. I know babies taste the best."
Curtis says this in an admission of his guilt and shame at having eaten people and babies in order to survive while living in the tail car all of his life. Just before he goes to meet Wilford, he sits with Nam outside Wilford's car and makes this tragic admission, crying as he does so.
"Have you ever been alone on this train?"
Wilford asks this of Curtis just as he asks him to take over as the conductor of the train for him. It is his way of luring Curtis into being his successor. If Curtis chooses to take over the leadership role from Wilford, he will finally be able to have a moment alone, after years of living in close quarters under squalid conditions. This line shows how manipulative Wilford is in his invitation.
"When's the last time you got laid? Like Gilliam said, holding a woman is much better with two arms."
This line marks another instance in which Wilford tries to manipulate Curtis into accepting his offer to become the head of the train. He appeals to Curtis' desire to be alone as well as his desire for sex, by suggesting that if he takes Wilford up on his offer, Curtis might be able to enjoy the pleasures of sex once again.
"They've got no bullets!"
Edgar shouts this to the other revolutionaries after Curtis goes running towards one of the guards and the guard pulls the trigger and nothing happens. Just as Curtis suspected, bullets are in short supply on the train, and the guns are simply illusions of authority. With the knowledge that the guards do not have bullets, the oppressed are able to rise up and overpower the authorities to begin the revolution.
Wilford: Curtis, everyone has their preordained position, and everyone is in their place except you. Curtis: That's what people in the best place say to the people in the worst place.
Wilford says that everyone's class position on the train is "preordained," and it is not in their power to change that. This is his rationalization for making people live like animals, and using child laborers to keep the train running. However, Curtis sees right through this logic, and fires back at Wilford that the powerful always say this in order to repress the weak. This disagreement is at the heart of Wilford and Curtis' confrontation.
"Passengers, this is not a shoe. This is disorder. This is size ten chaos. This. See this? This is death."
Mason uses the prop of a shoe as a symbol for the peasants in the tail car. While the front car is represented by a hat, the tail car is a shoe, and as she places the shoe on a man's head, Mason demonstrates the absurdity of people from the lower classes acting as though they are more powerful than they really are. This metaphor is all part of the corrupt propaganda of the train.
"We take the engine and we control the world. It's time we take the engine."
Curtis says this to Gilliam early on in the film. While Gilliam goes along with his plan to a certain extent, he is more doubtful about Curtis' plan to take the engine. But Curtis insists that if they want to start a true revolution, they will need to go directly to the source of the train's power, the engine, where the corrupt leader Wilford is.
"This is the world. The train saved humanity…The engine lasts forever. The population must always be kept in balance."
Wilford says this to Curtis when Curtis is in his car. He justifies the violence and disorder on the train by insisting that without the train the passengers would be completely helpless. He tells Curtis that the engine is the only thing keeping humanity alive, a belief that he uses to justify all of his horrible actions.
"I belong to the front, you belong to the tail."
A willfully submissive cog in the social machine of the train, Mason parrots an idea championed by Wilford, that everyone is meant to occupy the class in which they have been born. She suggests that people "belong" in the tail, while she "belongs" in the front, and this is how she rationalizes all of the injustices that take place on the train.
