- President Josiah Bartlet: I was wrong. I was, I was just... I was wrong. Come on, we know that. Lots of times we don't know what right or wrong is, but lots of times we do, and come on... this is one. I may not have had sinister intent at the outset, but there were plenty of opportunities for me to make it right. No one in government takes responsibility for anything any more. We foster, we obfuscate, we rationalize. "Everybody does it", that's what we say. So we come to occupy a moral safe house where everyone's to blame, so no one's guilty.
- [sigh]
- President Josiah Bartlet: *I'm to blame.* I was wrong.
- Larry: [reading from Ron Burkhalt's book] Bartlet was playing a round of golf with Toby Ziegler, the prickly, mumbling communications director whose inner bitter darkness spelled the break-up of the one marriage we know about.
- C.J. Cregg: It was miniature golf, wasn't it?
- Toby Ziegler: Yeah.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Look, I'm really not going to talk to you about my underwear.
- Sam Seaborn: That's... disappointing, Mr. President.
- Josh Lyman: I studied a lot in school. I studied hard in high school and at Harvard and in law school. My IQ doesn't break the bank and I wanted to do this so I studied all the time. And I missed something or it's like I skipped a year 'cause I never learned what you do after you think you like somebody - what you do next. And every- everybody did learn... a lot of other people, anyway. I didn't walk out tonight. When my phone rings at eleven o'clock it's important- not important to me- important. And I'm not puffing myself so- so that you're...
- Amy Gardner: [Interrupting] You know what? Maybe not so much for you with the talking.
- [She kisses him]
- Sam Seaborn: Legitimate news organizations are gonna cover this, to say nothing of the people who hate us, who are gonna run it over, over, over, over, over. This guy was here for three minutes and he was fired. He *is* not credible. I'm a lawyer. I'm telling you that *has* to be made clear. Every time he makes a factual mistake we've gotta come out with a press release. Every time he misquotes or misidentifies anyone we need to have an affidavit swearing to the truth if there's a comma in the wrong place. He needs to be killed until he is dead, and he needs to be killed again or he is gonna to keep biting at our ankles, and I mean all through the campaign. He needs to be a joke, or we're gonna be.
- C.J. Cregg: [snapping her fingers like the Jets in "West Side Story"] "Boy, boy, crazy boy, keep cool, boy."
- Leo McGarry: It is an historical judgement. Andrew Jackson knew that.
- Josh Lyman: Jackson was censured?
- Leo McGarry: Over the Bank of the US.
- Josh Lyman: Guess what? I didn't know that.
- Leo McGarry: What's your point?
- Josh Lyman: History forgets these things.
- Leo McGarry: Presidents don't. They never get over it. This one won't.