You know what no one wants to talk about? Hate. I know all about hate. It starts in your gut, deep down here, where it stirs and churns. And then it rises. Hate rises fast and volcanic. It erupts hot on the breath. Your eyes go wide with fire. You clench your teeth so hard you think they'll shatter. I hate you, God. I hate you! Oh, don't tell me you haven't said those words before. I know you have. We all have, if you've ever felt so crushing a loss. There are two parents with us today who know that pain, the most terrible hurt of all- losing a child before her time. If Dean and Leanne were to stand up right now and scream those awful words of hate, could we blame them? I couldn't. At least their hatred I can understand. I can grasp it, but God's wantonness, His cruelty, I can't even begin to... My father dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 43, and when he died, I looked up to God and I said those words, because my father was so young, so full of life, so full of dreams. Why would God take him from us? [aside] Truth be told, I never really knew him or what his dreams were. He was quiet, timid, almost invisible. My mother didn't think much of him. My mother's mother hated him. The man never scratched the surface of life. Maybe it's best he died so young. He wasn't doing much but taking up space. But that doesn't make for a very powerful eulogy, now, does it? [to the congregation] I wept. I screamed, "Why, God? How can I not hate you when you steal from me the person I most love and admire in this world? I don't understand it, and I hate you for it." The Bible says in Proverbs, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Lean not on your own understanding. God is telling us to trust Him, to love Him despite our own ignorance. After all, what is faith if it doesn't endure when we are tested the most? We will never understand why God took Jessica or my father or anyone. And while God may not give us any answers, He has given us the capacity for love. Our job is to love Him without questioning His plan. So I pray to you, dear Lord, I pray to you to help strengthen our love for you, and to embrace Dean and Leanne with the warmth of your love in return. And I pray that you will help us fend off hatred, so that we may all truly trust in you with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. Amen.
S1 E15Unfinished Business
You can speak to me like an adult, Tom. You don't have to lecture me like I'm a little girl.
You haven't earned the right to be treated as an adult. You think a few front-page stories and some face time on TV makes you the next Judy Miller? You've got a long way to go. Don't be so arrogant.
Okay, so you think when a woman asks to be treated with respect, that's arrogance?
Yeah. What now, are you accusing me of sexism?
Just making an observation.
Ok, no TV for a month.
[to Dean Masters] Would you like me to resign, Mr. Masters? Just say the word, and it's done. If it will bring you any satisfaction. I asked the reverend once, "What are we supposed to do in the face of so much senseless pain?" And he said to me, "What else can we do but take what seems meaningless and try to make something meaningful from it?"
He's right. That's how God works: through us.
Will you let me work for you? [aside] What you have to understand about my people is that they are a noble people. Humility is their form of pride. It is their strength, it is their weakness, and if you can humble yourself before them, they will do anything you ask.
Two freshmen girls are moving into their dorm room together. One of them's from Georgia, one of them's from Connecticut. The girl from Connecticut's helping her mother put up curtains. The girl from Georgia turns to them and says, "Hi! Where y'all from?" The girl from Connecticut says, "We're from a place where we know not to end a sentence with a preposition". The girl from Georgia says, "oh, beg my pardon. Where y'all from, cunt?" You heard that one before?
A version of it. With softer language.
Tom, we don't need people who follow the rules. We need people with personality. We want Zoe's face, her energy. We want to get her on TV as much as possible. It helps us cut through the noise. See what I'm saying?
Love of family: most politicians are permanently chained to that slogan, family values. But when you cozy up to hookers and I find out, I will make that hypocrisy hurt.
It's so refreshing to work with someone who'll throw a saddle on a gift horse rather than look it in the mouth.
You see, Freddy believes that if a fridge falls off a minivan, you better swerve out of its way. I believe it's the fridge's job to swerve out of mine.
I don't think you appreciate anything. I think you're an ungrateful, self-entitled little c-
[Tom cuts himself off]
Little what? Little what, Tom? Say it!
Cunt. You're a cunt.
[Zoe takes out her phone and begins typing]
What are you doing? Don't you dare-
You don't even know what I'm typing.
Get out, Zoe.
Just a second. I'm almost done.
Get out. You're fired.
Whatever you have to tell yourself, Tom.
Get out!
So should I press "send"? I think I should. Call me whatever you want, but you should remember, these days, when you're talking to one person, you're talking to a thousand.
[to Frank] Either you assure me right now that amendment is out, or I'm walking out that door and I'm gonna start launching missiles.
Marty and I have a good working relationship. Or used to. You can see he has a temper, but I can usually cut through that and reason with him. But I may have pushed him too far, which is worrisome. Friends make the worst enemies.
I know how to run a paper, Margaret. What I don't know how to do is run a paper staffed with people I can't control.
Was she really out of control?! To my understanding, she simply turned down a new position.
It's her attitude. It's the way she turned it down.
Did you think to ask her what she'd rather do instead?
Is it my job to pander to all my employees--
My employees. And if they have something to offer that you don't, yes, it is your job. We've been through this, Tom. The paper's operating at a loss. We need people like Zoe.
I'm very aware of how much we're hurting, Margaret. Staff reductions, dip in circulation. Each one of those faces and every subscriber we lose, they keep me awake at night. Now, I won't argue the business side of things. It's neither my place nor my area of expertise, but know this-- Zoe Barnes, Twitter, blogs, enriched media, they're all surface. They're fads. They aren't the foundation this paper was built on, and they aren't what will keep it alive. We have a core readership that thirsts for hard news. Those are the people I work for. And I won't be distracted by what's fashionable.
Nobody tells me when to work and when to play.
[to Peter] Everyone in that room wanted to cross you off the list. I said no. I stuck up for you. I said, "Peter Russo, he's got potential. He's young. He's capable. He's going places". I made them keep you in contention. You're still on that list. You show up at my house in the middle of the night, drunk, to whine, to try to shift the blame on me instead of taking responsibility for yourself and your own actions. Maybe they were right in that meeting. Maybe you are worthless. I'm the only person who believes in you, Peter, but maybe that's one too many. The hot water will open up your capillaries. The aspirin you just took will make your blood thinner. It's up to you, Peter. Oh, and if you do decide to take the coward's way out, cut along the tracks, not across them. That's a rookie mistake.
[to Meechum] From this moment on you are a rock. You absorb nothing, you say nothing, and nothing breaks you.
This is the worst possible position to be in. If I water down the bill, the president will still see me as a failure. If the strike doesn't end in a week, I forced myself into a corner. Only total victory will put me back into his good graces. The alternative is exile, which would mean the last five months were for nothing. I cannot abide falling back to square one.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's House of Cards pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.