The Best House of Cards, Season 4, Episode 7 Quotes

Francis: [aside to the camera] Conscience has an unmistakable stink to it; sort of like raw onions and morning breath. But a lie stinks even more when it's coming from someone who isn't used to lying. It's more like rotten eggs and horseshit.

- For that reason, I am ending my bid to be the Democratic nominee for president.
- That was Heather dunbar from her campaign headquarters in Washington.
- With dunbar out, that leaves president unden/vood as the presumptive nominee.
- The focus now is on who president unden/vood's running...
- Good morning.
- Good morning.

- And a weapon like that could blow up in my hand and that's why it's plan b.
- Plan a is much safer.
- Expose that Conway is using his gun illegally and remove the weapon from his hand.
- All three of us took bullets.
- I know why we're smiling. We survived.

- He wanted my help and I said no.
- Maybe if! Had, he wouldn't have...
- So stupid.
- He got out.
- Why did he do this?
- That's what I'm trying to find out.

Francis: Imagine a duel. Me and Conway. Now, Conway has a powerful gun, a search engine. And it's powerful because with it, he can tell what you think, what you want, where you are and who you are. He can turn all those searches into votes, and that's enough bullets to kill my chances of winning. But I have an even bigger gun. It's called the NSA. It's one of the perks of being president. That is, if the courts allow my surveillance request.
Francis: [indicating portraits of past presidents] I imagine the men hanging on these walls wished they'd had a gun like that available to them. Your phone, the phone of the person sitting next to you, your neighbor's phone and everyone you know and the 300 million Americans you don't know. I can see you, and I can use what I see to rig this election.
Francis: Now, of course, a weapon like that, well, you can imagine how risky it is. Huh, it might have even given pause to an old crook like him.
[indicating Nixon]
Francis: I mean, they roasted him on the spit for tapping into a few rooms at the Watergate. I'm talking about tapping into every single home in America. And a weapon like that could blow up in my hand and that's why it's plan B. Plan A is much safer. Expose that Conway is using his gun illegally and remove the weapon from his hand.
Francis: [standing between Kennedy and Reagan] Hmm, all three of us took bullets. Well, I know why we're smiling. We survived.

- I'm disappointed, Donald.
- But I understand.
- And I won't pressure you.
- Should we do this?
- Okay.

- Is that the...
- Same model. Not the actual one.
- Surprised the secret service let...
- Well, they removed the firing pin.
- It's lighter than I imagined.
- It's amazing something this small could do that much damage.
- I was gonna bring it tomorrow, but I think it might be too theatrical.

- We took a path, a difficult one, because we had no guarantee where it was going to lead us.
- It took a steel goddamn stomach, and so has everything else we had to do since.
- So don't worry about you and me now.
- Find your steel, Claire.

Francis: [aside to the camera] When the Roman general Sulla - who was about the same age as I am now - marched on Rome to purge the city of usurpers, it was a bloodbath. His greatest rival was a young man named Marius - who was just twenty-six years old - and after Sulla had him killed, he held up his head in the Forum and looked into the boy's dead eyes and said "First, you must learn to pull an oar. Only then can you take the helm."

- Goodness, no. You running?
- That would be a disaster for the democrats.
- I better see my wife.
- Ten...
- Me, too.
- Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!
- Happy new year!

- Who are you thinking about?
- Nobody followed you?
- No one. I'm positive.
- You know, sometimes
- I have a student and something seems off.
- They look a little too old, you know?
- To be in college.
- What is that?
- Xanax.

- Vermont doesn't help you.
- You have a deep sense of duty, like all the men and women here who served their country, and that's far more important to me than strategy.
- To be honest, I don't know if I want it, frank.
- When I had to take over, the stress, the responsibility...
- Two weeks as president was about as much as I can handle.

[last lines]
Francis: [on the phone] That was before everything.
Claire: I know...
Francis: [sets down the phone and crosses the hall to her room]
Claire: Francis, are you there?
Francis: [opens her door] We're going to destroy them.
Claire: Yes, we are.

- I saw you in the bathroom, looking at me.
- It's not the first time.
- Sometimes I want to say something,
- I just don't know what to say.
- It's uncomfortable.
- Maybe it will always be like that.
- But we have to separate that out.
- It can't affect our plan.
- Because that's the one thing that we have figured out.

- It was a mistake.
- Okay.
- Look...
- Why don't we go back upstairs and collect some money?
- Okay? Everyone wants to see you.

- Don't make me say it a third time, and don't threaten to resign, because I know you won't, because you can't even fathom what it means to be a civilian.
- Execute my order.
- Yes, sir.
- Sir.
- It's done.
- Sir.
- I aborted.

- What you need to do is call off the air strike.
- You've already signed the order.
- We've got planes in the air.
- My job is to win a campaign, I need to have...
- And my job is to protect the president.
- Enough!
- Jesus Christ.
- Go. I need to speak with him.