- Augustus Landor: I do believe that the Academy takes away the young man's will. Advances him with regulations and rules. Deprives him of reason. It makes him less human.
- Captain Hitchcock: Are you implying the Academy is to blame for these deaths?
- Augustus Landor: Someone connected to the Academy, yes. Hence he Academy itself.
- Captain Hitchcock: Well that's absurd. By your standard, every crime committed by a Christian will be a stain on Christ.
- Augustus Landor: And so it is.
- Cadet Edgar Allan Poe: [walking through the snow-covered cemetery] To enjoy the Highlands in the full extent of their glory, it must seen immediately after the fall of the leaf.
- Lea Marquis: Why is that?
- Cadet Edgar Allan Poe: Vegetation does not improve, but rather obstructs God's originating design.
- Lea Marquis: A romantic... You do enjoy talking about God and death, don't you?
- Cadet Edgar Allan Poe: I do consider death to be one of poetry's most exalted themes.