Madam Secretary · Season 1
I don't get it. These monks spend all week, painstakingly arranging colored sand to fit this blueprint, and then "whoosh," they just sweep it away? What's the point?
That is the point.
Everything's transitory.
Everything ends.
That's...very sad.
Even that feeling...that'll pass too.
Okay, now you're just piling on.
Next time, Gwen, don't wait for an invitation. You sat on this proposal for how long?
Two years.
A good idea is meaningless without the courage to act. You must speak up.
[after Henry gets shot] Henry, when are you gonna get a desk job that involves a real desk?
Well, they offered me a cubicle, but I was gonna hold out for something with a window.
[after Ambassador Dong vetos the ED education proposal] I really thought The Fonz would clinch it.
He was humming the theme song!
Well apparently "Happy Days" can't beat cold hard cash.
[upon opening a toy engine kit his father left for him] Hey, Jace, you wanna help me see if we can finally get this thing to work?
Uh, and foster a legacy of inter generational cruelty? I think I'll pass.
Okay, I want a name. Who took the last donut?
[after no one responds] It was me, ma'am.
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?
Is that a new jacket?
I want to slay dragons, Ma'am, not play whack-a-mole with evil.
Sometimes making evil have to duck and find another hole is the best we're going to do.
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.
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?
How old were you when you stopped fighting with your siblings?
I'll let you know.
What just happened?
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.
Isn't Nogoyev the Russian lapdog who outlawed free press on the first day?
And made his mother's birthday a national holiday.
Well, that would totally work on my mom.
How are you doing with the whole…
Guy I was dating getting poisoned by some nefarious agent still at large? Not great, but thanks for asking.
Oh, my god, you already know?
I don't know.
Mom, I don't know how you made it twenty years in the CIA with that lousy poker face.
Elizabeth, hang on.
Ah, Russell, you heard the president. Let it go.
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.
So...if I call DoD, you will pass the emergency waiver?
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Madam Secretary pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
