The West Wing quotes

721 total quotes


Santos: We need to start addressing real issues and stop wasting time on beauty pageant ephemera.

Santos: Wow. Hi.
Josh: How ya doin'?
Santos: You lost?
Josh: Could be. Could be.
Santos: Come on in.
Josh: Um, sorry to bug you at home, but there wasn't time to wait for you to get back to Washington.
Santos: I'm there next week.
Josh: I'm on a bit of a deadline. It's a filing deadline.
Santos: Josh, Josh, Josh.
Helen: Matt?
Josh: It's a little crazy, I know.
Santos: I'm not running for Congress again, Josh. You came a long way and I'm sorry about that, but it's just...
Josh: I'm not talking about Congress.

Santos: Yes, we worry about what's happening in the culture: we have two young children. But censorship is like saying I can't have a steak because a baby can't chew it. Let's be careful. Yeah?

Santos: You know, I introduced a guest worker program the first year I was in Congress. I couldn't even get a hearing on it. Vinick opens his mouth about it once, it's like he's parting the Red Sea.
Lou: If you agree with it you're going to look like a follower, not a leader.
Santos: He's the one that's following me on this.
Lou: It won't look like it; not now. We can't be chasing reporters around with a six-year old page from the Congressional Record to prove you got there first.
Santos: Yeah, well, I shouldn't have been hiding on these issues. I didn't want to be the brown candidate. I didn't want to be stereotyped. Josh was right; I should have gotten out in front of all this stuff during the primaries.

Senator Framingham: We were close once, back then.
Leo: No. Senator, we just drank back then. We were never close.

Special Agent Wesley Davis: I'm leading Bookbag's paparazzi patrol for three months.
Josh Lymann: Really? Bit of a powderpuff detail there, isn't it, fella?
Wesley Davis: Nah, I go where I'm told.
Josh Lymann: So in your training what were you taught to do if, say, a stringer for Town and Country were to get in her face?
Wesley Davis: You know I can kill you and just make up the reason why I did, right?

Stanley: What happened three weeks ago?
Josh: I don't know what you're referring to.
Stanley: I don't know what I'm referring to either, but some of the people you work with became concerned with your behavior three weeks ago.
Josh: Well, I've been concerned with their behavior since long before that.

Student: What do you call a society that has to just live every day with the idea that the pizza place you are eating in could just blow up without any warning?
Sam: Israel.

Sullivan: We have had a good time always running for the center. But the party's over. You're a Republican, you need to start talking to the Republican, conservative base.
Bruno: Nail him to the cross. He can stump for votes on the Via Dolorosa.

Tabatha Fortis: Nice office.
Toby: Exactly sixty-three feet from the Oval Office. If you don't think we measure, you're out of your mind.

Tabatha Fortis: You think I think that an artist's job is to speak the truth. An artist's job is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention. If we stumble into truth, we got lucky, and I don't get to decide what truth is.

Toby: [about Santos] He's not presidential material.
Josh: Why?
Toby: Why? Because he left. He left Congress. He left Washington to go home and do small, important work. You had to haul him by the hair out of the family bed. Did you never stop to wonder if that was a good choice?
Josh: He stepped up. When presented with the opportunity...
Toby: [interrupting] A man in that job shouldn't have to be presented with anything. It's for someone who grabs it and holds onto it. For someone who thinks the gods have conspired to bring him to this place. That destiny demands of him this service! You don't have that kind of drive, that hubris, how in the hell are you gonna make the kind of decisions that stump every other person in this country? How in the hell are you gonna hold that kind of power in your hand?”
Josh: You don't know he's not that man.
Toby: You don't know that he is. [pauses] Is he? Look me in the eye and tell me that you know. Without a shadow of a doubt...you know. [pauses] That's why the other guy wins.

Toby: [on the phone] Are you kidding? Do you know the term "decent interval"? Go away. [hangs up] Magley from the DNC, wants to talk about who to run for the two vacant House seats.
Will: You're joking.
Toby: They're still picking up pieces of these guys over there, he's talking about DeSantos' poachable district.
Will: What's he calling you for?
Toby: He thought Josh'd be upset about Donna being in the car. I guess he figured since my ex-wife was only almost blown up that I'd be only almost upset.

Toby: [to Andy] I have to get back to work. And you, being a Congresswoman... I'm sure you need to be back out there... you know, screwing the people.

Toby: [to Ed & Larry] This meeting's about politics. Facts won't help.