3.75 avg rating — 18,599 ratings

"Episode 1.3, Evelyn Napier describes the hunt as "something out of a Trollope novel.""

3.88 avg rating — 1,011,631 ratings

"Season 1.2, Robert tells Carson that he should not be so melodramatic as he is not "playing Sydney Carton." "

4.17 avg rating — 2,456,210 ratings

"Episode 1.5, Cora says "No one ever warns you about bringing up daughters. You think it’s going to be like Little Women. Instead they’re at each other’s throats from dawn till dusk.""

3.96 avg rating — 43,108 ratings

"Episode 1.6, Robert says "You should see what [Branson] reads. It's all Marx and Ruskin and John Stuart Mill." (See also The Subjection of Women, by John Stuart Mill)."

3.92 avg rating — 381 ratings

"Episode 1.6, Robert says "You should see what [Branson] reads. It's all Marx and Ruskin and John Stuart Mill.""

3.68 avg rating — 197,647 ratings

"Episode 1.6, Robert says "You should see what [Branson] reads. It's all Marx and Ruskin and John Stuart Mill.""

4.45 avg rating — 317,752 ratings

"Episode 1.6, Mary says "Papa prefers the servants to read the bible and letters from home."

Episode 3.6, the servants discuss Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet (Luke 7:38).

Episode 4.2, Cora says "Heavens, a Damascene conversion!" (Acts 9, 22, 26)"

3.89 avg rating — 564,544 ratings

"Episode 1.7, Violet says "First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I were living in a--an H.G. Wells novel.""

3.85 avg rating — 539,760 ratings

"Episode 1.7, Mrs. Bird says "Well if you want your garden party to be run by a Blind Pew, that's your business.""

3.93 avg rating — 72,599 ratings

"Episode 2.1, Violet says that Cora's floral arrangement "Looks like a creature from the Lost World.""

3.72 avg rating — 5,686 ratings

"Episode 2.2, Molesley gives a copy to Anna in an effort to spend more time with her."

4.02 avg rating — 240,416 ratings

"Episode 2.2 Violet says to Edith, "You're not Toad of Toad Hall!," after Edith announces that she has volunteered to operate a tractor at a nearby farm."

4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings

"Episode 2.3, Edith says "I'm not sure about Marriott," after handing a book to a convalescent officer."

3.83 avg rating — 392 ratings

"Episode 2.3, Edith says "I know we've got lots of G.A. Henty," to a convalescent officer."

4.05 avg rating — 49,528 ratings

"Episode 2.6, Matthew quotes one of the short stories in this collection "I am the cat that walks by himself and all places are alike to me.""

3.84 avg rating — 302,370 ratings

"Episode 2.9, Lady Mary says to Matthew, “I’m Tess of the D’Urbervilles to your Angel Clare, I have fallen, I am impure.” "

4.03 avg rating — 130,627 ratings

"2011 Christmas Special, Part One, Mary acts out this book title while playing The Game."

3.44 avg rating — 918,642 ratings

"Episode 3.7, Mrs. Hughes says "Ethel has far more chance of happiness, than in re-enacting her own version of The Scarlet Letter in Downton.""

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings

"Episode 3.6, Cora says "not everyone chooses their religion to satisfy ‘Debrett’s'.""

3.84 avg rating — 382,631 ratings

"Episode 3.6, Cora asks Robert (of Violet), "Is she really so Machiavellian?""

4.23 avg rating — 35 ratings

"Episode 2.4. This songbook includes sheet music for the song Edith and Mary performed for the convalescent soldiers (If You Were the Only Girl). The song was sung, ahistorically, in waltz (3/4) time. The version in this songbook sounds like the version performed on the show."

4.03 avg rating — 205,925 ratings

"Episode 3.8, Mrs. Hughes says "Well, I am surprised to find you're a fan of Mr. Oscar Wilde.""

4.17 avg rating — 405,259 ratings

"Episode 3.8, Mrs. Hughes says "Well, I am surprised to find you're a fan of Mr. Oscar Wilde.""

3.77 avg rating — 21,241 ratings

"Episode 3.9, Carson quotes "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.""

3.76 avg rating — 99,058 ratings

"Episode 3.9, Matthew says "We're not in a novel by Walter Scott.""

3.91 avg rating — 175 ratings

"Episode 3.9, Isobel says "Are you thinking of getting married, Dr. Clarkson? Because if you are, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.""

3.73 avg rating — 11 ratings

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings

3.88 avg rating — 427,317 ratings

"Episode 4.1, Mrs. Hughes says "And in case you're wondering, it's as bad as if we were reading about it in a novel by Dickens.""

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 6 ratings

"Episode 4.1, Mrs. Patmore says, "Well then on your own head be it!" I believe this phrase was first published in Lord Kilgobbin."

4.19 avg rating — 19,843 ratings

"Episode 4.2, Isobel says, "She's not The Lady of Shalott.""

4.29 avg rating — 4,792,009 ratings

"Episode 5.1, Lady Shackleton says, "A single peer with a good estate won't be lonely long if he doesn't want to be," and Violet responds, "You sound like Mrs. Bennet.""

3.21 avg rating — 299 ratings

"Episode 5.3, Mary says "But I think my judgement was rather clouded by…" and the Branson interrupts: "By what Miss Elinor Glyn likes to write about in her novels.""

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings

"Episode 5.5, Rose asks if anyone has heard of "Atticus Aldridge," and Lady Rosamund reponds "Sounds like the hero of a novel by Mrs Humphry Ward." "

4.13 avg rating — 23 ratings

"Episode 5.5, Molesley lends Volume 5 of the Cambridge Modern History to Daisy."