The West Wing (TV Series)
Dead Irish Writers (2002)
Rob Lowe: Sam Seaborn
Quotes
-
[while discussing the importance of funding the superconducting supercollider - a controversial scientific project that would cost billions]
Sen. Jack Enlow, D-IL : If we can only say what benefit this thing has. No one's been able to do that.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : That's because great achievement has no road map. The X-Ray is pretty good, and so is penicillin, and neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now we have an entire world run by electronics. Haydn and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't. They invented them.
Sam Seaborn : Discovery.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : What?
Sam Seaborn : That's the thing that you were... Discovery is what. That's what this is used for. It's for discovery.
-
Sam Seaborn : You're not in any way a helpful person.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Don't have to be. I have tenure.
-
Sam Seaborn : I'm not an instigator.
Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg : Yes, you are.
Sam Seaborn : Yeah, but I'm on the side of the angels.
-
Sam Seaborn : And now the student becomes the teacher, huh?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Not really, no.
Sam Seaborn : Okay. So did I disappoint you when I didn't go into physics?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : No.
Sam Seaborn : Any?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : You were bad at it.
Sam Seaborn : No, I wasn't.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Yeah.
Sam Seaborn : I just needed a little encouragement.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : No.
Sam Seaborn : Look. Congress isn't going to fund your damn superconductor. All right?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Supercollider. Superconducting supercollider. This is exactly what I'm talking about. A 54-mile tunnel 150 feet below ground, in which protons and antiprotons would be flung into each other at the speed of light. Can you remember that?
Sam Seaborn : Yes.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Good. Because when you talk about it, you shouldn't sound like an idiot.
-
Sam Seaborn : And now the student becomes the teacher, huh?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Not really, no.
Sam Seaborn : Okay. So did I disappoint you when I didn't go into physics?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : No.
Sam Seaborn : Why?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : You were bad at it.
Sam Seaborn : No, I wasn't.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Yeah.
Sam Seaborn : I just needed a little encouragement.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : No.
Sam Seaborn : Look. Congress isn't going to fund your damn superconductor. All right?
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Supercollider. Superconducting supercollider. This is exactly what I'm talking about. A 54-mile tunnel 150 feet below ground, in which protons and antiprotons would be flung into each other at the speed of light. Can you remember that?
Sam Seaborn : Yes.
Dr. Dalton Millgate : Good. Because when you talk about it, you shouldn't sound like an idiot.