- President Josiah Bartlet: Toby...
- Toby Ziegler: Yes, sir?
- President Josiah Bartlet: When you walk out of here, there'll be people out there, perhaps a great many, who'll think of you as a hero. I just don't for a moment want you thinking I'll be one of them.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Our daughter's getting engaged to the fruit fly guy.
- Abbey Bartlet: He's a research scientist. Stop making him sound like something out of a horror film. Did you know that fruit flies reproduce at a prodigious rate?
- President Josiah Bartlet: Well, you've been whining about more grandchildren.
- Abbey Bartlet: I meant that they're more than just usually enthusiastic.
- President Josiah Bartlet: All right.
- Abbey Bartlet: In fact, they make bunnies look like dysfunctional prudes.
- President Josiah Bartlet: That's our daughter you're talking about.
- Abbey Bartlet: Indeed.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Yeah, how about that?
- Abbey Bartlet: Are you...?
- President Josiah Bartlet: A little, how about you?
- Abbey Bartlet: Astonished, actually.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Why? Did you and she never discuss...?
- Abbey Bartlet: Oh, no. There are some things that are outside even the mother-daughter bond, at least for us. Did you and she...?
- President Josiah Bartlet: We always adhered to a strict "Don't ask, don't tell" policy; clung to it, actually.
- Abbey Bartlet: It is one's daughter, and wants her to be happy in whatever.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Of course, true to herself.
- Abbey Bartlet: There's nothing wrong with that inclination.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Nothing, whatsoever.
- Abbey Bartlet: But God Herself may strike me dead, it is not to be denied that I am not unhappy that my daughter is straight after all.
- President Josiah Bartlet: At least straight enough to be marrying the fruit fly guy.
- President Josiah Bartlet: Toby? Is it possible to be astonished and, at the same time, not surprised?
- Toby Ziegler: Congratulations, you've earned your rather exhorbitant fee today.
- Alana Waterman: Toby, I haven't done anything
- Toby Ziegler: That's the first time today he has said the word "Please".
- White House Counsel Oliver Babish: [President Bartlet has just fired Toby] Rough in there.
- Toby Ziegler: To be expected.
- White House Counsel Oliver Babish: I thought he'd thank you for your service.
- Toby Ziegler: He's angry
- White House Counsel Oliver Babish: Someone should thank you for your service.
- President Josiah Bartlet: 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 Ziegler: Due respect, sir, I don't think I'm morally superior to everyone.
- President Josiah Bartlet: No, just to me.