Elizabeth McCord quotes from Madam Secretary

Russell

The Chinese have had a bug up their ass about the Dalai Lama since the 1950s, when they first drove him from his spiritual seat in Tibet. To them, he's a font of separatist rhetoric, hell-bent on breaking away from China, so it is indeed delicate.

Elizabeth

[laughing incredulously] Are you really mansplaining Tibetan history to me?

Blake

[about the sand mandala] Uh, I still don't get the point.

Elizabeth

That is the point.

Blake

No. Due respect, ma'am, not getting the point can't possibly be the point. You can say that about anything.

Elizabeth

[points at Blake] Exactly.

Elizabeth

Next time, Gwen, don't wait for an invitation. You sat on this proposal for how long?

Two years.

Elizabeth

A good idea is meaningless without the courage to act. You must speak up.

Elizabeth

[after Henry gets shot] Henry, when are you gonna get a desk job that involves a real desk?

Henry

Well, they offered me a cubicle, but I was gonna hold out for something with a window.

Elizabeth

Okay, I want a name. Who took the last donut?

Nadine

[after no one responds] It was me, ma'am.

Elizabeth

Noble gesture, Nadine, but I didn't spend the last 20 years in the CIA profiling dissemblers and liars for nothing. Got anything to say, Matt?

Matt

Is that a new jacket?

Matt

I want to slay dragons, Ma'am, not play whack-a-mole with evil.

Elizabeth

Sometimes making evil have to duck and find another hole is the best we're going to do.

Elizabeth

None of this is easy today but we have a budget to pass and we need to pull it together and fight for a lot of programs that matter.

Jay

Do they? Does any of this matter? All of our big meetings and political positioning, is any of it going to save one person who shouldn't die today?

Elizabeth

How old were you when you stopped fighting with your siblings?

Henry

I'll let you know.

Elizabeth

What just happened?

Nadine

I believe we just made a deal to convince an actress to go to a despot's birthday party in Central Asia so that we can combat human trafficking.

Stevie

Oh, my god, you already know?

Elizabeth

I don't know.

Stevie

Mom, I don't know how you made it twenty years in the CIA with that lousy poker face.

Russell

Elizabeth, hang on.

Elizabeth

Ah, Russell, you heard the president. Let it go.

Russell

Hey, I already have. Faustian bargains always take me an extra minute. No, no, no, I'm all in.

Now, if the Secretary of State were to put in a word on my behalf, I'm sure DoD would shake loose a jet. [chuckles] And then I might be inclined to help you with your request.

Elizabeth

So...if I call DoD, you will pass the emergency waiver?

We have these food aid rules for a reason.

Elizabeth

Yes, to, uh, subsidize US farmers so they can sell off their grain overages.

Now, that's a very simplistic...

Elizabeth

...And to give US shipping companies the monopoly so they can overcharge and underperform on delivery. It is a...inefficient and wasteful system.

Welcome to the United States government.

Elizabeth

[about Piper] You know, this is good. She's going against her instincts. Jason's got to get in there and build on the friendship.

Henry

That's not exactly what I told him.

Elizabeth

So where'd you land? Good cop or bad cop?

Henry

Grounded for lying, pancakes for broken heart.