"Me a solder? I'm employed as a part-time, underpaid, civilian interpreter. My job is to translate the quaint, archaic tongue you people persist in speaking into the King's good English."
This is Owen's explanation of the job that he has been hired to do for the English Army. He is a product of Ireland, but he has willingly agreed to help anglicize the names on the map of Ireland. This is his justification for his act, which many might interpret as disloyal or traitorous.
"I wish to God you could understand me."
Yolland says this to Maire after the dance as they both attempt to interpret what the other is saying in spite of speaking different languages. Yolland feels a deep love for Maire, even though they have never been able to communicate with words.
"Commencing twenty-four hours from now we will shoot all livestock in Ballybeg."
Captain Lancey and the English Army cannot find Lieutenant Yolland. Their solution is to make horrible threats to the people of Baile Beag in hopes that someone will speak up.
"To remember everything is a form of madness."
Hugh, the old drunk schoolmaster, says this at the end of the play. It is a mournful comment, a reference to the fact that he wishes he could forget some of the past, so that the changes of the present would not feel so violent and difficult. He compares a good memory to a kind of mental illness, in that it can drive a person crazy to have one's world change so drastically before one's very eyes.
"Yes, it is a rich language, Lieutenant, full of the mythologies of fantasy and hope and self-deception—a syntax opulent with tomorrows. It is our response to mud cabins and a diet of potatoes; our only method of replying to...inevitabilities.”
When Yolland talks about how much he loves the Irish language, Hugh agrees that it is a special tongue, and describes it thusly. He talks about the fact that the language itself reveals information about the national character: the country's hope, but also its sense of delusion. He implies that Irish people have had a hard history, but they make up for their difficulties by speaking a language that is filled with fantasy and beauty.
“Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?”
Yolland says this to Owen in Act 2. He realizes that, even if he learns the Irish language, there will be some part of the Irish identity that will remain opaque to him, some element of belonging that will elude him.
"My name is Sarah"
This seems like a rather straightforward line, but it is actually one of the few things that the young Sarah is able to say aloud. In the first scene, Manus puts in some time teaching her to speak it aloud, and when she is able to say it, he counts it as a major victory for the nearly dumb young girl.
"I don't want Greek. I don't want Latin. I want English."
While many of the Irish students are resistant to the influence of English colonialism in the region, Maire sees it as a sign of her chance at a brighter future. She embraces the linguistic changes that are taking place, and wants desperately to learn how to speak English. She has no interest in dead and dying languages, but in the language of progress.
"Do you believe in fate?"
As Yolland tells Owen about how he almost ended up in Bombay, Owen asks him if he believes in fate. Owen seems to want to understand what so fascinates Yolland about Ireland, but Yolland is in a world of his own, monologuing about his personal journey.
"It's not a word I'd start with, girl. It's a silly word."
When Maire asks Hugh what the English word "always" means, he says this. Here, he hints that always is not a very important word, because it is delusional, and suggests permanence when there is no such thing.
