- Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Jesus, what the fuck did I do?
- Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You happy now, bitch?
- Lt. Cedric Daniels: Lt. Cedric Daniels: Couple weeks from now, you're gonna be in some district somewhere with 11 or 12 uniforms looking to you for everything. And some of them are gonna be good police. Some of them are gonna be young and stupid. A few are gonna be pieces of shit. But all of them will take their cue from you. You show loyalty, they learn loyalty. You show them it's about the work, it'll be about the work. You show them some other kinda game, then that's the game they'll play. I came on in the Eastern, and there was a piece-of-shit lieutenant hoping to be a captain, piece-of-shit sergeants hoping to be lieutenants. Pretty soon we had piece-of-shit patrolmen trying to figure the job for themselves. And some of what happens then is hard as hell to live down. Comes a day you're gonna have to decide whether it's about you or about the work.
- D'Angelo Barksdale: I want what Wallace wanted. I want to start over. That's what I want. I don't care where. Anywhere. I don't give a fuck. I just want to go somewhere where I can breathe like regular folk. You give me that and I give you him.
- Det. Ellis Carver: See, that's why we can't win.
- Det. Thomas Hauk: Why not?
- Det. Ellis Carver: They fuck up, they get beat. We fuck up, they give us pensions.
- D'Angelo Barksdale: All my people, man. My father, my uncles, my cousins. It's just what we do. You just live this shit until you can't breathe no more.
- Maj. William A. Rawls: [to McNulty] I want to see you land okay, Jimmy. So tell me, where don't you want to go?
- Sgt. Ellis Carver: [Observing Bodie beat a competing dealer with a bat] See, that's why we can't win.
- Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Why not?
- Sgt. Ellis Carver: They fuck up, they get beat. We fuck up, they give us pensions.