- [subtitled version]
- English Soldier: There are lots of good things in Italy.
- Michele Di Libero: You don't know Italy.
- English Soldier: Oh, we know Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo.
- Michele Di Libero: They are dead.
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: Do you know what they have done those "heroes" that you command? Do you know what your great soldiers have done in a holy church under the eyes of the Madonna? Do you know?
- American Soldier: Peace, peace.
- Cesira: Yes, peace, beautiful peace! You ruined my little daughter forever! Now she's worse than dead. No, I'm not mad, I'm not mad! Look at her! And tell me if I am mad! Rotten crazy bastards!
- [subtitled version]
- Giovanni: [about her deceased husband] Did you love him?
- Cesira: But I married him.
- Giovanni: And you didn't even like him. I feel sorry for you.
- Cesira: I'd like to see you sleeping with the chickens! Eating once a day! And then a guy with money comes along and tells me, "I am taking you to Rome." I married Rome, not him!
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: Rosetta's a saint. I'm not even worthy to be her mother.
- Michele Di Libero: No, you're something better than you think.
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: Rose! Rose! Rosetta! Oh, my God, the horror! Rose! Analdo fetch some water. Fetch me some water!
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: What are they singing?
- Il passeggero sul treno: It's always something sad.
- Cesira: Yes, they make you feel so melancholy.
- Il passeggero sul treno: Do you know who has the right to be melancholy? Us Italians.
- [subtitled version]
- Una contadina: [to Cesira and Rosetta] What beautiful creatures you are. And how my sons look at you.
- [subtitled version]
- Filippo, il padre di Michele: Nice to meet you. We are celebrating a bad anniversary. My marriage!
- [subtitled version]
- Filippo, il padre di Michele: I have a store in Fondi. People will always need groceries. Unless the Russians come.
- Accordion Player: What do you mean?
- Filippo's Friend: The Russians don't believe in business. Life without business is nothing.
- Filippo, il padre di Michele: As if you ate unsalted food.
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: There are no sins on my conscience. Well, you might count one... the day before yesterday.
- Michele Di Libero: You see?
- Cesira: It was not a sin for which I should die. And where do the children come into it?
- [subtitled version]
- Niece: Just between us, Mussolini, as a man. I mean, what do you think of him?
- Filippo's Wife: He would scare me.
- Serafino: How can you make love with that man? I'd freeze up.
- Cesira: All you have to do is switch off the light.
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: Does it seem right to you that a person has to stick to someone he doesn't love? It's terrible to go to bed with someone you don't like. Every night, all your life.
- [subtitled version]
- Russian: You seem like Ukrainian girl. Ukrainian eyes, beautiful.
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: [about the muscular topless man in the field] He's beautiful. Is he really a Russian?
- Michele Di Libero: A deserter.
- Cesira: They never tell you that they make them like that in Russia.
- [subtitled version]
- La madre impazzita: Di-di-di-di-di-di-di! You can have this milk, if you like.
- La madre impazzita: [pulling out her breast] I don't need it anymore. What for? They killed my baby. Who will I give it to? You want it? Who want's milk? Who wants my milk?
- [subtitled version]
- Michele Di Libero: You Germans have war in your blood.
- Ufficiale tedesco batteria contraerea: War? War, my dear friend, is an experience without which a man cannot say he is a man.
- Michele Di Libero: If that's true, I would rather be castrated.
- [subtitled version]
- Filippo's Friend: May the Virgin protect you!
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: I am so stupid. He was right, Michele. Escape. But you can't escape from this.
- [first lines]
- [subtitled version]
- Roman Citizens: Bombs! Bombs Away! Bombs Away!
- [subtitled version]
- Paride's Friend: You talk as if you weren't an Italian.
- Michele Di Libero: I'm not, if it means staying here and stuffing my face, while the rest of the country is dying. We're pigs! That's what we are! All pigs!
- [subtitled version]
- Paride's Mama: War changes things.
- [subtitled version]
- Cesira: You have a girl?
- Michele Di Libero: No.
- Cesira: Come on. Didn't you ever have one?
- Michele Di Libero: No.
- Cesira: But how can you live without a woman? A normal man can't do that.
- Michele Di Libero: Today if a man can't sacrifice a little, he's of no use to himself, his family or country.
- Cesira: Right, you can do without a lot of things, but not love.
- [subtitled version]
- Michele Di Libero: You always say what is in your heart - right or wrong. I don't have the courage anymore.
- Cesira: You're too honest, that's trouble.
- Michele Di Libero: I am not honest with you.
- Cesira: With me?
- Michele Di Libero: Yes, with you.
- [subtitled version]
- Michele Di Libero: I love you, Cesira.
- Cesira: In such a troubled time, you think of things like that?
- [subtitled version]
- Michele's Elderly Friend in Fondi: [to the German officer] Don't listen to her! She's only a woman.