- Sir Bruce Bullerby: You hear people saying there's not a lot satisfaction in a knighthood, but I've noticed most of those people haven't got one.
- Francis Urquhart: You approve of my choice? Utterly incorruptible, absolutely impartial. He just can't stand Frenchmen and who can blame him for that?
- Sir Bruce Bullerby: When 70 per cent of the electorate have had enough of him and say so, the nation's leading newspaper can't simply ignore it. Of course it's time for him to go. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. He knows it, doesn't he?
- Geoffrey Booza Pitt: He's won so many times he thinks he's indestructible. And perhaps he is.
- Sir Bruce Bullerby: No one is, Geoffrey. Look at what happened to Margaret.
- Rayner: We have too many old people in Britain. Let's not shy away from the problem.
- Francis Urquhart: What are you suggesting, John? Euthanasia at 65?
- Rayner: Of course not, Prime Minister.
- Francis Urquhart: [smiling] I'm very relieved.
- Francis Urquhart: I want to erase that woman from the public memory, Elizabeth. I want to wipe her off the board. I want to be remembered as the greatest Prime Minister since Winston Churchill.
- Francis Urquhart: Have you seen the papers this morning?
- Barry Crumb: There's some good coverage, sir. An update on the shooting, your birthday celebrations...
- Francis Urquhart: "Our Pensioner Prime Minister", "Time to F.O. F.U." and no fewer than three profiles of Tom Makepeace, the man most likely to succeed. You call that good coverage, do you?
- Francis Urquhart: [During a cabinet meeting, discussing health care for the elderly] Damage limitation again, Betsy?
- Betsy Bourke: I'd rather see it as an opportunity to reaffirm some basic principles.
- Rayner: The principle here being the right to live for ever in perfect health?
- Francis Urquhart: [Urquhart has just put down one of his elderly dogs] All things pass. Nothing lasts for ever. She was a good bitch. She had a good life, and there are some things one prefers to do oneself.