House of Cards (TV Series)

Chapter 46 (2016)

Kevin Spacey: Francis Underwood

Photos 

Quotes 

• Francis Underwood : 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 Underwood : [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 Underwood : 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 Underwood : 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 Underwood : [standing between Kennedy and Reagan]  Hmm, all three of us took bullets. Well, I know why we're smiling. We survived.

• Francis Underwood : [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.

• Francis Underwood : [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."

• [last lines] 

  Francis Underwood : [on the phone]  That was before everything.

  Claire Underwood : I know...

  Francis Underwood : [sets down the phone and crosses the hall to her room] 

  Claire Underwood : Francis, are you there?

  Francis Underwood : [opens her door]  We're going to destroy them.

  Claire Underwood : Yes, we are.