- [prologue]
- Control Voice: God looked upon His world and called it good, but Man was not content. He looked for ways to make it better and built machines to do the work - but in vain we build the world unless the builder also grows.
- D.A. Thomas Coyle: Wouldn't we all be better off if science hadn't exploded its technology in our faces?
- D.A. Thomas Coyle: [in court] What was your relation to the late Dr. Link?
- Mrs. McCrae: Oh, we weren't related. I was his housekeeper, and nothin' more, for the past nine years.
- Thurman Cutler: Barclay never did have brains enough to pour water out of a boat, and the D.A. has the taint of ambition, which makes him no better.
- Thurman Cutler: Your Honor, this trial - if we can now call it that in summation, since it is a devisement based on a compact between Miss Nina Link and the prosecution - still is binding on the life or death of Adam Link. I am not now entering a plea for mercy or extenuating circumstances, because that would imply guilt, and under no circumstances does the defense admit guilt. Of course, the district attorney is not really trying a robot for murder. We both knew from the beginning that he is trying all of society on the concept of a robot itself, on progress, on science, on the future, on the ability of society to control what it creates. If you find Adam Link guilty, you are convicting society of irresponsibility. You are telling society to put away its yearning for a better world, its hunger for a better way of life, its... reaching for the stars.
- Sheriff Barclay: We don't know yet what makes that infernal machine work or when it might go off. It's just like a bomb!
- Judson Ellis: When are you going to evacuate the town, Sheriff?
- Sheriff Barclay: You know, fella, we got smart-aleck reporters right here at home.
- Judson Ellis: Any town that could dream up a hoax like this has a sense of humor that I wouldn't try to compete with.
- Sheriff Barclay: What happened?
- Evie: That tin man hurt me.
- Sheriff Barclay: He tried to kill you, just like he did Doc Link. Just dumb brute savagery.
- [epilogue]
- Control Voice: Out of every disaster, a little progress is made. Man will build more robots and learn how to make them better - and given enough time, he may learn how to do the same for himself.
- Judson Ellis: Stiff upper lip, Nerves of Steel. You may end up a skillet, Tin Man, but I'm going to make you famous.
- Sheriff Barclay: Doc built himself this here mechanical man because he's a crackpot scientist. Anyway, it got out of control and killed him.
- Judson Ellis: Frankenstein killed by his own monster. Sheriff, this is the space age.
- Sheriff Barclay: Mister, that thing in there ain't no joke.
- Judson Ellis: Did you get a signed confession?
- Sheriff Barclay: Look, there's no doubt he killed him. Doc was alone in his lab. Nobody else COULDA done it.
- Thurman Cutler: [in court] Can you remember what happened?
- Adam: I remember everything, Mr. Cutler. I am incapable of forgetting.
- Thurman Cutler: Yes, well, that's something I forgot.
- Thurman Cutler: Oh, I'd do anything in the pursuit of justice. Hadn't you better draw up those papers before I think of something else?
- Judson Ellis: Oh, come off it. All you wanted was another shot at Coyle and Barkley and that whole crowd of entrenched stupidity.
- Thurman Cutler: "Entrenched stupidity." That's not half-bad, but tell me something. Is that confined to small towns, or do you find it in big cities, too?
- Judson Ellis: Sure, but we have a better class of stupidity.