- Edison Davis: I've been racking my brain trying to find a reason why you'd be stupid enough to willingly attempt to defraud the American people, and the only reason I can come up with for why you'd be in so deep is because you were his mistress.
- Olivia Pope: FIVE, that's sexist and insulting. You'd never suggest Scooter Libby was screwing Dick Cheney. FOUR, the lengths you're going to try to twist this into a conspiracy are cause for concern. You should speak to someone about that. THREE, the President is awake and talking, and the suggestion that he isn't is partisan political crap that I thought you had enough integrity to rise above. TWO, in the past three minutes, you have called me a criminal, a whore, an idiot, and a liar, so this is pretty much the last time we'll be speaking. So ONE, who I am, or am not screwing, what I am, or am not doing, is no longer any of your damn business.
- Olivia Pope: You almost died.
- President Fitzgerald Grant: Yes.
- Olivia Pope: Don't do it again.
- President Fitzgerald Grant: Okay.
- [first lines]
- Olivia Pope: [walking in to her apartment] Oh, hi.
- Edison Davis: "Oh. Hi?"
- Olivia Pope: Hello, Edison.
- Edison Davis: Olivia. What? What's going on? With us.
- Olivia Pope: Nothing.
- Edison Davis: Nothing's going on with us?
- Olivia Pope: Edison.
- Edison Davis: This serious boyfriend that you had, the one that you broke up with...
- Olivia Pope: Look, I have a lot to do tomorrow, and I haven't had much sleep and I'm not in the mood to...
- Edison Davis: This serious boyfriend Was it Fitzgerald Grant?
- Jerry Grant: [walking in mimicking Fitz's speech rehearsal] Ah, to hell with spending cuts! I want my taxes lowered! We titans of industry built this nation. We deserve to get a little relief in these difficult economic times. Everybody seems to forget that the rich need help, too. Boy, that sounded better in my head than it did out loud, didn't it?
- [all laugh]
- President Fitzgerald Grant: [rejecting his dad advice in front of everyone] I'm just wondering if it's from his vast experience running for President. Oh wait, you never ran, did ya? 'Cause men who get caught sleeping with prostitutes don't get to be leader of the free world. Right?
- Verna Thornton: Who wants coffee?
- President Fitzgerald Grant: What was her name? Charity? No, it was Hope. Hard to forget that name. You really kept hope alive, didn't you, dad?
- Cyrus Beene: Fitz...
- President Fitzgerald Grant: No, Hope is alive. Mom's dead, though.
- Jerry Grant: [harassing Fitz] You know, there's no such thing as a clean campaign! It's an oxymoron!
- Olivia Pope: Do you even want to be President?
- President Fitzgerald Grant: Obviously.
- Olivia Pope: Is it obvious?
- President Fitzgerald Grant: I'm running.
- Olivia Pope: You're running like you're being chased.
- Jerry Grant: [waiting for him after the debate] So that's how you're gonna win this thing, huh? By taking out a hankie and crying? She teed it up for you and you whiffed.
- President Fitzgerald Grant: I know that I've won fewer elections than you. But not because you were better than me, because you are not. You are a petty man. You are an underhanded man. You are a small man, and I don't want to be you, not now, not ever.
- Jerry Grant: You're gonna lose this election, and it's gonna be the end of this so-called career of yours. You're not cut out to lead. You never were. And I may be petty or whatever else you want to call me, but I'm a winner. And that's something you'll never be...
- [walks away from him]
- Sally Langston: When I questioned your readiness to serve, I was just thinking about our country, where it would leave us, how it would make us look to the world. I wasn't rooting for you to fail or die. The truth is, your getting shot was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. I haven't slept a night during this whole time. It is not easy being President.
- Olivia Pope: It was a very nice funeral. I liked what you said about your father.
- President Fitzgerald Grant: It was a lie. The story about the dog he got me for my 10th birthday, I made it up. 'Cause you can't get up at your father's funeral and tell the story about how you sat outside his office door on your 10th birthday and listened to him bang his secretary. I'm not sad. I'm relieved. I'm free.
- Edison Davis: [to Olivia] I love you. I am in love with you, and I don't care what you've done, who you've loved I don't care. And if you will have me, I would very much like to marry you.
- Mellie Grant: [rambling on] You were incredible today. I've never seen anything like it. That press conference was flawless. Struck just the right tone. Presidential. Strong. Everything. Back to normal. I was worried, I have to admit. I was very worried. Something like this happens a shooting or an accident You remember senator Hutchins. He was in that car accident. Now he's quadriplegic, and his poor wife She has to change his diapers. I can't even imagine. Your life can change in an instant. We were lucky. You're back. You're you. That is To have our life go back to the way it was Is a gift. Everything's good. I'm grateful. I'm so grateful. And honestly? Your approval rating has never been higher. You can have anything you want right now. Anything. We should think about that. We should take advantage of this moment politically. But we have to be smart about it. What do you think? What do you want? If you could have anything.
- President Fitzgerald Grant: I want a divorce.
- Cyrus Beene: [in low tones in a hallway] Fitz is clean. Fitz walks on water. Fitz makes the fishes and the loaves. And people like Hollis and me and you...
- Olivia Pope: [scoffs]
- Cyrus Beene: Don't roll your eyes. You're one of us, Olivia. We march behind him. We sing his happy tune. And then we pick up our hatchets, and we chop up the judases into bloody little pieces and dance around their corpses, because that is our job. That is what we do. We take care of Fitz. And we don't do it because we are believers, which we are. We don't do it for the rush or the high or the power, which we are most certainly junkies for. We do it because Fitz can't. He can't do it. If he could do it, we wouldn't worship at his altar. People like Fitz... They go down in history. People like us, we create the history. We run this world so he can lead it.
- Olivia Pope: In order to lead it, the people have to elect him, Cyrus. The people have to find him worthy.
- Cyrus Beene: That's what I'm trying to tell you. The way this world works, the people is you and me and Hollis and Mellie and Verna. We're the people.
- Olivia Pope: Cy...
- [crouches down]
- Cyrus Beene: No. It comes down to two questions, Olivia does he deserve to be President? And if you believe he does, do you think he can win it on his own? If you can say "yes" to both, then we'll never discuss election rigging. Ever again.
- [walks away]