Sam: He [Gov. Ritchie] said that this was how ordinary Americans got their entertainment.
Toby: I've been to 441 baseball games at Yankee Stadium. There's not one person there who's ordinary.
Sam: I know.
Toby: You making fun of the Yankees?
Sam: Uh...no...
Toby: Now?
Season Four

Sam: I don't need your help. I'm asking for your help so let's not make a federal...
Ainsley: [into her phone] Dad, it's me. Sam's asking for my help.
Sam: Put the phone down.
Ainsley: [into her phone] Gotta go, dad, I need to help Sam.
Sam: That must have rolled them in the aisles back in Georgia.
Ainsley: I'm from North Carolina.
Sam: Wherever it was you studied baton twirling.
Ainsley: That'd be Harvard Law School.

Sam: I flat-out guarantee you that if men were biologically responsible for procreation, there'd be paid family leave in every Fortune 500.
Ainsley: Sam, if men were biologically responsible for procreation, they'd fall down and die at the first sonogram.

Sam: I need you to tell me everything you can tell me about the superconducting supercollider.
Professor Milgate: How much time do we have?
Sam: About ten minutes.
Professor Milgate: If you pay very close attention, stay very, very quiet � I can teach you how to spell it.

Sam: I think you should. I think ambition is good. I think overreaching is good. I think giving people a vision of government that's more than Social Security checks and debt reduction is good. I think government should be optimistic.

Sam: I'm just going to change my shirt.
Leo: You look bad. You're tired. You slept in the office. It's Friday. Go home.
Sam: Why?
Leo: Because I think you're putting too much faith in the magical powers of a new shirt.

Sam: I'm less visually observant than others but I make up for it.
Emily: How?
Sam: With cunning and guile.

Sam: In 1787, there was a sizable block of delegates who were initially opposed to the Bill of Rights. This is what a member of the Georgia delegation had to say by way of opposition; 'If we list a set of rights, some fools in the future are going to claim that people are entitled only to those rights enumerated and no others.' So the Framers knew�
Harrison: Were you just calling me a fool, Mr. Seaborn?
Sam: I wasn't calling you a fool, sir. The brand new state of Georgia was.

Sam: It's a private poll. The press doesn't have access to it... The only way they'd know what questions were being asked is if they were actually called by one of the pollsters and... Oh my god!
C.J.: Yes.
Sam: A reporter got called by one of the pollsters?
Josh: Wow. What are the chances of that?
Sam: The chances of that are astronomical.
Josh: We can calculate it. They sample 800 respondents...
C.J.: Would the two of you stop being amazed by the mathematics!

Sam: It's not just about abortion, it's about the next 20 years. Twenties and Thirties it was the role of government, Fifties and Sixties it was civil rights. The next two decades it's gonna be privacy. I'm talking about the Internet. I'm talking about cell phones. I'm talking about health records and who's gay and who's not. And moreover, in a country born on the will to be free, what could be more fundamental than this?

Sam: Mandatory Minimums are racist.
Toby: I understand that.
Sam: They're a red herring.
Toby: I understand that, too.
Sam: It's a way of looking like you're tough on crime, without assuming the burden of being tough on crime.
Toby: Everything you've said I understand.
Sam: I'm saying...
Toby: We do things one thing at a time.
Sam: But I'm saying we don't have time to do things one thing at a time.
Toby: We're talking about treatment.
Sam: I'm talking about treatment and I'm talking about Mandatory Minimums and I'm saying it's a red herring and I'm saying it's racist.
Toby: When you talk to the President, I want you talking about treatment. I want you talking about treatment vs. enforcement and I don't want you to stray from that!
Sam: Toby, is this what you meant when you said, "Sam, you're completely in charge of this"?
Toby: Yes, I meant, you're in charge of this, in the sense that you're subordinate to me in every way.

Sam: Ms. O'Brien, I understand your feelings, but please believe me when I tell you that I'm a nice guy having a bad day. I just found out the Times is publishing a poll that says a considerable portion of Americans feel the White House has lost energy and focus. A perception that's not likely to be altered by the video footage of the President riding his bicycle into a tree. As we speak, the Coast Guard is fishing Cubans out of the Atlantic Ocean while the Governor of Florida wants to blockade the Port of Miami. A good friend of mine's about to get fired for going on television and making sense, and it turns out I accidentally slept with a prostitute last night. Now would you please, in the name of compassion, tell me which one of those kids is my boss's daughter?
Mallory: That would be me.
Sam: You.
Mallory: Yes.
Sam: Leo's daughter's fourth-grade class.
Mallory: Yes.
Sam: Well, this is bad on so many levels.

Sam: Okay, can I talk to you about adrenaline for a second?
Ainsley: Adrenaline?
Sam: Yeah. You're feeling it right now and it's gonna get even more cause it's a big night, and you were a hit and you've never experienced anything like this.
Ainsley: And you think I'm going to have a nutty.
Sam: I'm saying don't drink until you're off television.
Ainsley: God! Thanks Sam for that debating tip. You have a feel for nuances. You say I shouldn't be drunk when I'm representing the White House.
Sam: Yeah. And remember you're a blond, Republican girl and that nobody likes you.

Sam: Oratory should raise your heart rate. Oratory should blow the doors off the place. We should be talking about not being satisfied with past solutions. We should be talking about a permanent revolution.
Toby: Where have I heard that?
Sam: Permanent Revolution?
Toby: Yeah.
Sam: I got it from a book.
Toby: What book?
Sam: The Little Red Book
Toby: You think we should quote Mao Tse-tung?
Sam: We do need a permanent revolution.
Toby: Still, I think we'll stay away from quoting Communists.
Sam: You think a Communist never wrote an elegant phrase? How do you think they got everyone to be Communist?

Sam: Over three and a half centuries ago, linked by faith and bound by a common desire for liberty, a small band of pilgrims sought out a place in the New World where they could worship according to their own beliefs... and solve crimes.
Toby: Sam...
Sam: It'd be good. By day, they churn butter and worship according to their own beliefs, and by night they solve crimes.
Toby: Read the thing.
Sam: Pilgrim detectives.
Toby: Do you see me laughing?
Sam: I think you're laughing on the inside.
Toby: Okay.
Sam: With the big hats.
Toby: Give me the speech.