TV show quotes
This is what you wanted? A job in a corrupt administration, a presidency in ruin?
I'm in the White House. Not out there, wondering what it's like in here.
Not for long.
Once you're in, you're in. It's the American way.
[as Claire is being sworn in] Here we are again. You know, if you ignore all the pomp and circumstance, the most perverse thing is that I actually believe in the presidency, its importance, what it means around the world, even symbolically - but I believe in power even more, for its own sake. Gore Vidal once wrote that power is an end to itself, and the instinctive urge to prevail the most important single human trait. I've always told myself that everything I did was for her, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe I love power more.
[to Claire] No one will ever love you as much as I do. I hope you know that. Just as no one will ever love me like you.
If she doesn't pardon me, I'll kill her.
My turn.
[discussing threats on Claire's life] There are a lot of threats involving the C-word, ma'am. Lots and lots of the C-word, unfortunately.
[wryly] You mean "Claire"?
It's not true, what he told you all those years ago: that there are two kinds, useful and useless. There's only one kind. Pain is pain. Francis, I'm done with you. [she opens her hand and releases the bird she was holding] There, no more pain.
[to Claire] There's a bill sitting on your desk, a bill that took years and money to get passed. You sign that, and I know I've got a friend in the White House. If not... then I don't.
Are you still there? Whatever Francis told you over the last five years, don't believe it. It's going to be different for you and me. I'm going to tell you the truth.
I know, you want to know what really happened to him. A man like Francis doesn't just die. That would be... what's the word? Convenient.
[after threatening a politician] I promised myself I wouldn't be like him. That was textbook Francis, wasn't it? But he handed me to them like a shaker of salt, and now they won't let go. This is a wound of their own making.
It's Doug Stamper, Madame U.S. Attorney.
How did you get this number?
Don't hang up.
The next call I expect is from your lawyer in my office.
You really shouldn't.
Mr. Stamper, this is highly...
I'm going to recant. [pause] Are you there?
[hesitantly] Yes.
I'm going to lay out how this is going to go, and you stop me at any point if I'm wrong. I'm going to recant, which means you're going to need a new prosecutor because you're going to need to recuse yourself so you can testify against me. And this call we're on? Not going to look very good for you. Anything you say in court will be ruled hearsay, and the judge, if he's in a good mood, is going to ask for more evidence, and you and your new prosecutor aren't going to have any. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This case isn't going to make your career. The case that's going to change your life is the prosecution of Claire Underwood.
[of her late husband] He was a good kisser, I'll give him that. But the rest was so underwhelming. I felt like he wasn't all there, like he wasn't... all in, so to speak. Of course, my first thought - and isn't this true of most women?- was to wonder if it was me, was I somehow less skilled than I like to believe I am.
Well, I can't really answer to that, Annette.
I can. It was him. And I bet it was never very different with you. Even you, the blonde goddess. Even with you. Am I right? It's really only dawning on me now, the sacrifice you made. I sort of pity you. What you must have denied yourself all those years.
And this is where I tell you to shut your mouth, Annette. You don't know anything about marriage, much less mine.
Tell yourself whatever you want, Claire. We both know the truth.
We both lost someone who shaped the course of our lives - for good, but also for ill. And now here we are, unexpectedly free to take a different tack. We can do whatever we want, Doug. We've been entwined, you and I, like it or not, for decades now. I think we deserve to go our separate ways. The only problem is that we have something urgent to attend to called Cathy Durant. And then, we can finally be free. Do what we really want. Do what we need to do. What does Doug Stamper want?
Are you trying to erase him? Because you can't.
I'm not trying to do anything except be the sitting President of the United States. It's wrong to assume that Francis' ambitions directly aligned with mine, Doug. The best way to not be associated with his questionable deeds is to do good. That's what I plan on doing, anyway. [Stamper laughs] Oh, you find that funny, do you? Well, it's true.
I never understood what he saw in you. I mean, the outside, sure, but the inside...
LeAnn's death...
No! You never cared for her.
It wasn't necessary, and I told him so. And yet... Doug, do me a favor. Close your eyes. Please. [he does so, and she puts Frank's cuff links in his hand] He wanted you to have them.
[about Usher] I look at him sometimes and picture him at 6 years old. Was he always so deliberative, cautious? I think, "In another life, in some other context, might we have been friends?"
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