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S4

The West Wing · Season 4

“Inauguration, Over There” quotes from The West Wing

5 quotes

“Inauguration, Over There” · Season 4

In this episode: Josiah Bartlet (3), Toby Ziegler (2), Will Bailey (2), C.J. Cregg (1), Charlie Young (1)

I heard once - I don't know if this is true - I heard once that you convinced the President to let you rewrite a section of the State of the Union with less than twenty-four hours to go. It was the second year and everybody was a Republican, whether they were or not, and people at the DNC had convinced him to include the line, 'The era of big government is over.' And you couldn't live with it. Because government should be a place where people come together and no one gets left behind. An instrument of good. And that's exactly what we heard in the State of the Union the next night.

There were maybe four people in the room when I had that conversation.

Well, if I'd have been one of them, I would have repeated it to everyone I met.

Charlie, I'm gonna change my mind again on the Bible.

[ironically] Mr. President, you have to imagine my utter surprise.

Aren't you afraid that one day I'm just gonna kick your ass like it's never been kicked?

We're not talking about the President going to Asia or the President going to Rwanda or the President going to Qumar. We're talking about the President sending other people's kids to do it.

That's always what we're talking about. And in addition to being somebody's kids, they're also soldiers and sailors, and if we're about freedom from tyranny, we should be about freedom from tyranny, and if we're not, we should shut up!

We're for freedom of speech everywhere. We're for freedom to worship everywhere. We're for freedom to learn... for everybody. And because in our time, you can build a bomb in your country and bring it to my country, what goes on in your country is very much my business. And so we are for freedom from tyranny, everywhere, whether in the guise of political oppression, Toby, or economic slavery, Josh, or religious fanaticism, CJ. That most fundamental idea cannot be met with merely our support. It has to be met with our strength. Diplomatically, economically, materially. And if Pharaoh still don't free the slaves, then he gets the plagues or my cavalry, whichever gets there first. The USTR will go crazy and say that we're not considering global trade. Committee members will go crazy and say I haven't consulted enough. And the Arab world will just go indiscriminately crazy. No country has ever had a doctrine of intervention when only humanitarian interests were at stake. That streak's gonna end Sunday at noon.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can change the world. Do you know why?

Because it's the only thing that ever has.

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