- Cory Matthews: That's just I want, to be Topanga's boyfriend. And then we can name our children Chewbacca and Plankton.
- Cory Matthews: Eric, somebody's in love with you.
- Eric Matthews: Oh, yeah? Who?
- Cory Matthews: Topanga Lawrence. You know, that hair in the front row with the girl attached?
- Eric Matthews: We're talking about a sixth grader? Later.
- Cory Matthews: I'm telling you, Eric, she loves you.
- Eric Matthews: Look, she's 11. She's too young to have feelings like that.
- Cory Matthews: Minkus is only 11, and he loves her.
- Eric Matthews: Will you stop saying that word? Nobody loves anybody. I mean you're babies. You're too young to understand the pain of love, the agony of love the seamy underbelly of love. You're not going to fully understand it until you're... 15.
- Cory Matthews: Like you?
- Eric Matthews: I understood it at 14, but, hey, I was a natural.
- Alan Matthews: Your mom told me you're having a little confab about a girl.
- Cory Matthews: Not any normal girl, a totally weird girl Topanga Lawrence.
- Alan Matthews: Well, I bet most girls seem a little weird to you at this age.
- Cory Matthews: Come on, Dad. You don't understand. I'm not talking "I'm a guy and I don't understand girls. " I'm talking really, truly weird. She eats sandwiches made out of brown rice and has a sister named Nebula.
- Alan Matthews: Well, what seems to be the problem between you and this girl?
- Cory Matthews: No problem. See, I thought she had a crush on me. She kept hanging around and doing things for me.
- Alan Matthews: And you liked that.
- Cory Matthews: No, I hated it but then I found out she really likes Eric.
- Alan Matthews: And you were relieved.
- Cory Matthews: No.
- Alan Matthews: Disappointed?
- Cory Matthews: No.
- Alan Matthews: Confused.
- Cory Matthews: See, Dad? You always know.
- Alan Matthews: Well, get used to being confused, pal because girls are going to be rattling your cage for the next 60 years.
- Cory Matthews: Till I'm 71?
- Alan Matthews: Yeah, but then you get a break.
- Cory Matthews: You do?
- Alan Matthews: Yeah. You die.
- Eric Matthews: [addressing Cory's class] You've all known each other since kindergarten, but next year there's gonna be maybe 9 or 10 other 6th grade classes from different schools making up your 7th grade class and you're not gonna know all those kids. A lot of them are going to think differently than you.
- Stuart Minkus: What do you mean?
- Eric Matthews: Well, do you smoke cigarettes?
- Stuart Minkus: No.
- Eric Matthews: Lot of kids in your new school will, lot of them will try and pressure you into it, telling you how cool it is to smoke. You want to be cool, don't you?
- Stuart Minkus: More than you can ever know.
- Eric Matthews: Maybe you'll smoke.
- Stuart Minkus: I don't think so.
- Eric Matthews: Why not?
- Stuart Minkus: Because according to the New England journal of medicine, smoking reduces lung capacity, leads to emphysema and causes heart attack and lung cancer.
- Eric Matthews: What if...
- [points at Topanga]
- Eric Matthews: she thought it was cool, then would you smoke then?
- Stuart Minkus: In a heartbeat.
- Eric Matthews: WELCOME to the world of peer pressure.
- [to Topanga]
- Eric Matthews: So, he smokes, you think that's cool?
- Topanga Lawrence: I think anyone who smokes is a disgusting pig!
- Stuart Minkus: I'm trying to quit!
- Eric Matthews: It's not that easy, Minkus, there's all kinds of pressures. What about alcohol?
- Stuart Minkus: Could you use someone else as an example, please?
- Eric Matthews: [to Cory] What about alcohol?
- Cory Matthews: What about it?
- Eric Matthews: [to Shawn] What about drugs?
- Cory Matthews: Hey, calm down, Eric, we're not into that stuff, what we like is baseball and comic books.
- Eric Matthews: Yeah, that's what you like NOW, but that's going to change, just like you're changing schools, just like you're gonna start feeling a lot of new stuff inside of you you're not really gonna understand.
- Cory Matthews: How do you know?
- Eric Matthews: Because you're growing up.
- [to Topanga]
- Eric Matthews: Some of you have already started.
- Shawn Hunter: [in the school lunchroom] That was the worst macaroni and cheese I've ever tasted. You gonna finish yours?
- George Feeny: [about Cory's class] Up till now they've lived a very sheltered existence, and next year will be the equivalent of moving out of a small town into a big city.
- Eric Matthews: It's just a bigger school.
- George Feeny: How easy would it be for you to get drugs?
- Eric Matthews: I don't do drugs.
- George Feeny: But if you wanted to?
- Eric Matthews: Pretty easy.
- George Feeny: Alcohol?
- Eric Matthews: Even easier.
- George Feeny: How about cigarettes?
- Eric Matthews: Come on, Mr. Feeny.
- George Feeny: Do you consider yourself popular, an influential person?
- Eric Matthews: Mr. Feeny, I'm no role model.
- George Feeny: That's correct. But the moment you stepped into that classroom, you became one.