Mac [to Sam Harris]: Troy Castro didn't rob that bank, Sam. You and your brother Nicky did.
Sam Harris: Nicky said that if I told anyone, we'd go to jail. (crying) I don't want to go to jail.
Mac: You're not going to jail. I promise. We know what went down, Sam. We just need to hear it in your words.

Mac: (about Richard Lawson) If this guy's a successful real-estate agent, what's he doing breaking into Sam Harding's penthouse?
Stella: Well, before he died, Harding set up a trust to take care of his home, keep it empty after his death. Nobody was allowed to go inside, not even the building's super or maintenance man.
Mac: He wanted to hide the fact that he murdered Walter Jones and left him there to rot.
Stella: His secret and Jones' body would've remained undiscovered, except this week the rule against perpetuities went into effect.
Mac: That stops dead people from owning property forever.
Stella: Right, which means the penthouse was just about to be put up for auction by the state.

Mac: (about the picture of Eckhart and his wife) So what are we looking at?
Hawkes: Manhattanhenge.
Stella: Manhattan- what?
Hawkes: It's a biannual phenomenon in which the rising or setting sun aligns perfectly with the east-west grid of Manhattan's streets. Sort of a Stonehenge-meets-concrete-and-hot-dog-carts kind of thing.

Mac: (to his team) We're going to work night and day to figure out exactly why this killer chose his victims, and were going to use that connection to catch him before the press gets wind of it and panics the whole damn city over some kind of compass killer. Or worse... before he adds another victim to the map.

Mac: (to John Cook) You might be a badass on your neighborhood block, but when you get on the cell block, you'll be just another punk who shot a little kid in the back.

Mac: (toasting during dinner) Here's to a great team and to getting Hollis Eckhart off the streets.
Stella: Yes. And to reminding us that life is fleeting and we should hold on to the people we love while we can.

Mac: Don. Everything okay with you?
Flack: Yeah, I'm fine.
Mac: I'm not convinced.
Flack: Why do you need to be? Did I do something wrong?
Mac: It's what you didn't do. It could have got you killed.
Flack: Am I being second-guessed for not killing someone? I thought that was a good thing.
Mac: It is, if it was a choice. People are concerned about you, Don.
Flack: Tell people I said thanks, but I can take care of myself.
Mac: I wish that was true. If it wasn't for Lindsay saving your ass today, we might be having this conversation in an emergency room, or maybe not at all.
Flack: Unless you want to make that official, I got nothing else to say.

Mac: Eckhart was supposed to meet his wife at Lincoln Center after work.
Stella: But when he was running late, he told her to go to the surveyor's office instead.
Mac: Figured if they were going to miss the show, they might as well be together.
Danny: So, he blamed himself as much as everyone else.
Lindsay: Maybe more.
Hawkes: Each man is the architect of his own fate.
Stella: And sometimes the fate of others.

Mac: Have you talked to Sheldon?
Stella: I'm... I'm not sure what to say. Guess my expectations are too high.
Mac: What do you mean?
Stella: Hawkes is a brilliant former surgeon. And that being said, I know that he couldn't have saved Martin Stafford's life if he had tried. But what's bugging me is I don't understand why he didn't know more was wrong with him. Why he didn't see the symptoms, why he didn't tell us everything at the crime scene.
Mac: I've been asking myself those questions. When Hawkes told me what happened, I was angry, but I resisted giving him a lecture or threatening modified duty, because... it was Sheldon. All I kept thinking was, this isn't like him. It wasn't like him at all. I suppose we do expect a lot out of each other.
Stella: (sighing) Is that bad?
Mac: No.

Mac: Hey, let's be clear. Part of me wants to take this badge off and settle this another way.
Flack: Get out of my face.
Mac: (runs him against the wall) Hey! We're in the middle of a murder investigation and you go AWOL?!?
Flack: I can handle myself.
Mac: Oh, yeah? Is that what you're doing here in this apartment? (pulls out Flack's gun) Is that why I had to get this from Terrence? Is that why I had to have Stella triangulate your phone and Danny check the ERs to see if you turned up dead? You can keep telling people that you're fine, but that won't work.

Mac: How you feeling?
James Roberts: Guilty. Like... this is all my fault. My best friends are all dead because of me.
Mac: That's not true, James. This is life. It throws things at you. Some good, some bad. No one could have predicted what happened, not even if you're Albert Einstein.

Mac: I'm going to go get Grace Chandler. Stella, you go get Sam Baker, get him out of lockup, and bring him down to Interrogation. You two pick up Debbie Fallon, get her over to the precinct.
Stella: What's going on?
Mac: We got ourselves a triangle. Except it doesn't involve love. It involves murder.

Mac: I've got a spare room. (smiling) And it's not up for negotiation.

Mac: Is he still here?
Sid: Who?
Mac: The husband, the man who I.D.'d her body.
Sid: He left. He was so upset. I hope he went home...
Mac: Where exactly was he standing?
Sid: That table right over there. Here (flips the lights on as Mac picks up the compass) Oh, no. The killer was here.
Mac: And I don't know where the hell he's going next.

Mac: Nicky gave the bank teller a note asking for exactly $933.
Mrs. Harris: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Nine... $933?. That's our rent. Sam must have heard me on the phone saying I didn't have it.
Sam Harris: I told Nicky we were going to get kicked out of the apartment. He said we had to look after you now, 'cause Dad was gone.