- Danny Concannon: Are you being punished?
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: I'm not being punished. I'm going on the trip.
- Danny Concannon: Well, if the whole bus goes off the record, will you tell us why you're going on the trip?
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: I made fun of Notre Dame.
- Sam Seaborn: You think a Communist never wrote an elegant phrase? How do you think they got everybody to be Communists?
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: The Assistant Energy Secretary is flying to Portland in the middle of the night so he can meet with me on Air Force One on the way back?
- Charlie Young: Yes sir.
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: The day-to-day experience of my life has changed in many ways since taking this job.
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: A long flight across the night. You know why late flights are good? Because we cease to be earthbound and burdened with practicality. Ask the impertinent question. Talk about the idea that nobody has thought about yet. Put it a different way...
- Sam Seaborn: Be poets.
- Leo McGarry: My divorce papers came today. She thinks I'm going to drink.
- Josh Lyman: Sounds like a pretty good reason to.
- Leo McGarry: I'm an alcoholic. I don't need a good reason to.
- Congressman Skinner: You know I never understood why you gun control people don't all join the NRA. They've got two million members. You bring three million to the next meeting, call a vote. All those in favor of tossing guns... bam! Move on.
- Josh Lyman: It's a heck of a strategy, Matt. I'll bring that up at a meeting.
- Charlie Young: Mr. President, if this was an idea, somebody would've had it already.
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: I find fault with that formula.
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: For a sidebar on the game tomorrow: Why'd you go to Notre Dame?
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: Why not?
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: Bearing in mind I'm just repeating someone else's question. You were accepted at Harvard, Yale, and Williams; why'd you go to Notre Dame?
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: 'Cause I was thinking about becoming a priest.
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: Really?
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: Yeah.
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: What happened?
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: I met Abbey.
- Charlie Young: He wanted me to tell you that we're approaching South Bend, and that he likes to hear the song at a brisk and steady tempo.
- Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg: Oh, kill me now.
- [despondent over his current writing "slump"]
- Sam Seaborn: 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.
- Josh Lyman: Did you steal that dress?
- Donna Moss: I bought this dress.
- Josh Lyman: But you're returning it tomorrow.
- Donna Moss: Yes, I am.
- Josh Lyman: That's stealing.
- Donna Moss: I'm giving it back.
- Josh Lyman: After wearing it once.
- Donna Moss: There's a word for this.
- Josh Lyman: It's "stealing".
- Donna Moss: I'm a girl on a budget, Josh. I'm being thrifty.
- Josh Lyman: And felonious.
- Congressman Skinner: Josh, all the Marriage Recognition Act does is ensure that a radical social agenda isn't thrust upon an entire country that isn't ready for it yet.
- Josh Lyman: Thirty-two states have passed laws banning same-sex marriage; the states are doing a fine job protecting themselves from a 'radical social agenda' without a federal shield.
- Congressman Skinner: Josh...
- Josh Lyman: I like you guys that wanna reduce the size of government: make it just small enough so it can fit in our bedrooms.
- Josh Lyman: Hey, you look good.
- Donna Moss: Yes, I do.
- Josh Lyman: You weren't wearing that dress during the day, today.
- Donna Moss: Pity the girl who tries to get something past you, Josh.
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: If I'm gonna sign it in January, why am I vetoing it now?
- Josh Lyman: A symbolic gesture to the gay community.
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: I'm sure the gay community can't wait to thank me.
- Leo McGarry: Mr. President...
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: This is just wrong.
- Josh Lyman: Yeah...
- President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: You can look at the polling numbers and Article Four and Social Security benefits, it doesn't matter - it's just wrong. We shouldn't be defining love, and we certainly shouldn't be ill-defining it.
- Congressman Skinner: You let Donna out?
- Josh Lyman: Temporarily. She's having dinner.
- Congressman Skinner: With who?
- Josh Lyman: A guy she has no future with.
- Congressman Skinner: Why no future?
- Josh Lyman: 'Cause I say so.
- Josh Lyman: Who was he?
- Donna Moss: A lobbyist with Travis West. He was pretty full of himself and without a lot of cause to be.
- Josh Lyman: An obnoxious insurance lobbyist. What were the odds?