Toby Ziegler quotes from The West Wing

Toby

I was hoping we would be able to speak in private.

Bartlet

Your actions have pretty much made that impossible. I haven't had much time to absorb this news, so I'll apologize in advance if I express any half-formed thoughts.But the one thought that hits the hardest is that this was somehow inevitable; that you've always been heading for this sort of crash-and-burn. That self-righteous superiority; not that you were smarter than everyone; that you were purer, morally superior.

Toby

Due respect, sir, I don't think I'm morally superior to everyone.

Bartlet

No, just to me.

Toby

[about Santos] He's not presidential material.

Josh

Why?

Toby

Why? Because he left. He left Congress. He left Washington to go home and do small, important work. You had to haul him by the hair out of the family bed. Did you never stop to wonder if that was a good choice?

Josh

He stepped up. When presented with the opportunity...

Toby

[interrupting] A man in that job shouldn't have to be presented with anything. It's for someone who grabs it and holds onto it. For someone who thinks the gods have conspired to bring him to this place. That destiny demands of him this service! You don't have that kind of drive, that hubris, how in the hell are you gonna make the kind of decisions that stump every other person in this country? How in the hell are you gonna hold that kind of power in your hand?”

Josh

You don't know he's not that man.

Toby

You don't know that he is. [pauses] Is he? Look me in the eye and tell me that you know. Without a shadow of a doubt...you know. [pauses] That's why the other guy wins.

Josh

I forget, in D.C. do they allow felons to vote? [pause] Too soon?

Toby

Yeah, a little bit.

Toby

[about the prospect of C.J. joining the Santos administration] Well, you'd be a get, too. Are you gonna do it?

C.J.

Mmm... Probably, I... I don't know, it's, um, complicated.

Toby

Why?

C.J.

[pause] Danny Concannon.

Toby

Yeah, I heard something about that.

C.J.

We've been spending time together, which is perfectly nice, but he's getting way ahead of himself. I mean, I'm not ready to shape my life around a guy I've been with for a month, that doesn't make sense.

Toby

You didn't pick him up in a bar last Thursday, you've been close for eight years.

C.J.

That doesn't mean it magically falls into place once we take the leap. What? I'm not resisting.

Toby

You're not?

C.J.

I'm not one of those women who can't handle a good thing when it's standing in front of them.