These are just some of my favorite quotes from 'The American President'. If you know of a quote that I missed, feel free to e-mail me at the address found at the bottom of this page.

President Shepherd: This is NOT the business of the American people!
A.J.: With all due respect, sir, the American people have a funny way of deciding on their own what is, and what is NOT their business.

Sydney: I don't know how you do it.
Andy: It's Arthur Murray Six Lessons.
Sydney: That's not what I mean. Two hundred pairs of eyes are focused on you with two questions on their minds: Who's this girl and why is the president dancing with her?
Andy: Well, first of all, the two hundred pairs of eyes aren't focused on me. They're focused on you. And the answers are Sydney Ellen Wade, and because she said yes.

Syd: The President must think I'm a 3rd-rate jerk!
Beth: No, if he thinks you're a jerk, I'm sure he thinks you're a 1st-rate jerk!

Syd: I don't know what happened. One minute I was calling him a mockery of an environmental leader, the next minute I had a date.

Beth: You kissed him? Where?
Syd: On the mouth.
Beth: No. Where in the White House.
Syd: The Dish Room.
Beth: The Dish Room?
Syd: The China Room.
Beth: And then what happened?
Syd: He had to go and attack Libya.
Beth: It's always something.

Robin: I think the important thing is not to make it look like we're panicking.
President Shepherd: See, and I think the important thing is actually not to BE panicking.

A.J.: Excuse me, Mr. President, I just got off the phone with the federal mediator in St. Louis. Management just walked away from the table; the baggage handlers, pilots and flight attendants are all getting set to walk out in forty-eight hours.
President Shepherd: You know, I studied under a Nobel Prize-winning economist, and you know what he taught me?
A.J.: Never have an airline strike at Christmas?

President Shepherd: Listen, I feel terrible, but I'm going to have to cancel our date tonight.
Syd: Another woman?
President Shepherd: No, I got to go to St. Louis to avert a massive airline strike.
Syd: Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that one!

President Andrew Shepherd: The White House is the single greatest home court advantage in the modern world.

President Shepherd: She didn't say anything about me?
A.J.: No, but I could alwats pass her a note before study hall.

Robin: It's Christmas.
Lewis Rothschild: It's Christmas?
Leon Kodak: You didn't get the memo?

President Shepherd: I don't want a girl! What is this? Vegas?
A.J.: No sir, this is the White House.

Beth: The man is the leader of the free world. He's brilliant. He's funny. He's an above average dancer. Isn't it possible our standards are just a tad high?

Sydney: How do you have patience for people who claim they love America, but clearly can't stand Americans?

Lewis: Mood swings? Nineteen post-graduate degrees in mathematics, and your best explanation for going from a 63 to a 46 percent approval rating in five weeks is mood swings?
Leon: Well, I could explain it better, but I'd need charts, and graphs, and an easel.

President Andrew Shepherd: America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's going to put up a fight.

President Andrew Shepherd:People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.

President Andrew Shepherd: The symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

President Shepherd: Why is it that you are always one step behind me. A.J.?
A.J.: Becuase if I weren't, then you'd be the most popular history professor at the University of Wisconsin.

Lucy: If you were a dork you should say you're sorry. Girls like that.

[Sydney is unaware the President is listening.]
Sydney: Your president is the chief executive of fantasy land!
President Shepherd: Well, let's take him out back and beat the s**t out of him!

President Shepherd: We had a nice couple of minutes together. She threatened me, I patronized her. Didn't have anything to eat, but I thought there was a connection.

A.J.: You've said it yourself a million times. If there had been a TV in every living room sixty years ago, this country does not elect a man in a wheelchair.

President Andrew Shepherd: You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

President Andrew Shepherd: You're attracted to me, but the idea of physical intimacy is uncomfortable because you only know me as the President. But it's not always going to be that way, and the reason I know that is there was a moment last night when you were with ME, not the President. And I know what a big step that was for you. So, Sydney, I'm in no rush. Here's my plan. We're going to slow down, and when you're comfortable, that's when it's going to happen. [Sydney emerges from the bathroom wearing nothing but one of his shirts.] Perhaps I didn't properly explain the fundamentals of the slowdown plan.
Sydney Ellen Wade (feeling the bed): No, you explained it great.
President Andrew Shepherd: Are you nervous?
Sydney Ellen Wade: No.
President Andrew Shepherd: Good. My nervousness exists on... several levels. Number one, and this is in no particular order, I haven't done this in a pretty long time. Number two, uh, any expectations that you might have, given the fact that I'm... you know...
Sydney Ellen Wade: The most powerful man in the world?
President Andrew Shepherd: Exactly, thank you. I think it's important you remember that's a political distinction; it comes with the office. I mean, if, uh, Eisenhower were here instead of me, he'd be dead by now.

Sydney: Mr. President, you've got bigger problems than losing me. You just lost my vote.

[Discussing a reprisal for an attack on US troops.]
A. J. MacInerney: Sir, it's immediate, it's decisive, it's low-risk, and it's a proportional response.
President Andrew Shepherd: Someday someone's going to have to explain to me the virtue of a proportional response.

President Andrew Shepherd: What I did tonight was not about political gain.
Leon Kodak: Yes sir. But it can be, sir. What you did tonight was very presidential.
President Andrew Shepherd: Leon, somewhere in Libya right now, a janitor's working the night shift at Libyan Intelligence headquarters. He's going about doing his job... because he has no idea, in about an hour he's going to die in a massive explosion. He's just going about his job, because he has no idea that about an hour ago I gave an order to have him killed. You've just seen me do the least presidential thing I do.

[President Shepherd watching his opponent's campaign ad.]
Andrew Shepherd: Wait, wait, here comes my favorite part.
Bob Rumson: My name is Bob Rumson, and I'm running for President!
Andrew Shepherd: Sure glad he cleared that up, 'cause those people were about to buy some Amway products!

A.J. MacInerney: If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Roosevelt Room, giving Lewis oxygen.