The West Wing (TV Series)

Six Meetings Before Lunch (2000)

Rob Lowe: Sam Seaborn

Quotes 

• Sam Seaborn : Mallory, education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.

• Mallory O'Brian : Don't play dumb with me.

  Sam Seaborn : No, honestly, I am dumb. Most of the time I'm playing smart.

• Mallory O'Brian : You stood there and argued with me.

  Sam Seaborn : Yes.

  Mallory O'Brian : Why?

  Sam Seaborn : You made an appointment.

• Sam Seaborn : If you haven't seen C.J. do "The Jackal", then you haven't seen Shakespeare the way it's meant to be done.

• Sam Seaborn : Mallory, everything that you're saying makes sense. I just think that the state of urban schools is such that if you can save even one kid...

  Mallory O'Brian : [stands]  You can save more than one kid...

  Sam Seaborn : Tell me how.

  Mallory O'Brian : By asking Congress to approve, not just a little, but a lot more money for public education.

  [Sam laughs] 

  Mallory O'Brian : What?

  Sam Seaborn : [stands]  Public education has been a public policy disaster for 40 years. Having spent around four trillion dollars on public schools since 1965, the result has been a steady and inexorable decline in every measurable standard of student performance, to say nothing of health and safety. But don't worry about it, because the U.S. House of Representatives is on the case. I feel better already.

  Mallory O'Brian : [beat]  Wow.

  Sam Seaborn : What?

  Mallory O'Brian : For a guy who's trying to date me, that was pretty snotty.

  Sam Seaborn : Well, hang on. These are office hours. If I'd know I was working on that I would have had a whole different attitude.

• [Mallory is angry at Sam before going on a date with him because of the position paper he wrote about school vouchers] 

  Sam Seaborn : What kind of dates have you had that you're amazed this hasn't come up?

  Mallory O'Brian : I'm a public school teacher.

  Sam Seaborn : Seriously, the other guys - they order drinks and say: "Before we go any further I just want you to know my position on school vouchers?"

• Mallory O'Brian : Sam.

  Sam Seaborn : It's my day of jubilee.

  Mallory O'Brian : I despise you. And everything you stand for.

  Sam Seaborn : All right, my day was a little bit better a few seconds ago, but that's all right.

• Sam Seaborn : I thought you were trying to drive a wedge between us.

  Leo McGarry : Yeah, but now you're just boring the crap out of me.

• Sam Seaborn : We have people on the payroll who are experts at obfuscating the Constitution.