The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation’s proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations.
William Feather
Recommending “The Legacy of Star Trek” essay reminded me of the many very good quotations in the series and movies. So here are a few of them, roughly sorted by series (or movie tied into the series), but with no particular order within each series:
- The Original Series (TOS)
- The Next Generation (TNG)
- Deep Space Nine (DS9)
- Voyager (VOY)
- Enterprise (ENT)
Have fun 🙂
The Original Series
“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
James T. Kirk, introduction to each original-series episode, in Star Trek TOS
“I think they’re going to take all this money that we spend now on war and death –”
“And make them spend it on life.”
Edith Keeler and Kirk in Star Trek TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever”
“When dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating; you even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors. You just sit living and reliving other lives left behind in the thought records.”
Vina in Star Trek TOS
“The only solution is … a balance of power. We arm our side with exactly that much more. A balance of power — the trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all. But the only one that preserves both sides.”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS “A Private Little War”
“Punishment becomes ineffective after a certain point. Men become insensitive.”
Eneg in Star Trek TOS “Patterns of Force”
“One of the advantages of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS “Dagger of the Mind”
“Madness has no purpose. Or reason. But it may have a goal.”
Spock in Star Trek TOS “The Alternative Factor”
“Insults are effective only where emotion is present.”
Spock in Star Trek TOS “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
“Do you know the one — ‘All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by …’? You could feel the wind at your back in those days … hear the sounds of the sea beneath you. And even without the wind and the water, it’s still the same. The ship is yours … you can feel her … and the stars are still there, Bones.”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS
“Can you imagine how life could be improved if we could do away with jealousy, greed, hate …”
“It can also be improved by eliminating love, tenderness, sentiment — the other side of the coin”
Dr. Roger Corby and Kirk in Star Trek TOS “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
“One day, soon, man will be able to harness incredible energies, energies that could ultimately hurl us to other worlds in … in some sort of space-ship. And the men who reach out into space will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world and to cure their diseases. Those are the days worth living for!”
Edith Keeler, giving a speech at the 21st Street Mission, in Star Trek TOS: “City on the Edge of Forever.”
“What does God want with a Starship?”
Kirk in “Star Trek V”
“Genius doesn’t work on an assembly line basis. You can’t simply say, ‘Today I will be brilliant.'”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS: “The Ultimate Computer”
“Computers are more efficient than human beings. Not better.”
Spock in Star Trek TOS “The Ultimate Computer”
“Yes. I think that most of us are attracted to beauty and repelled by ugliness. One of the last of our prejudices.”
Kirk to Marvick in Star Trek TOS “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”
“Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair.”
Kirk in Star Trek: “Generations”
“Conquest is easy. Control is not.”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS: “Mirror, Mirror”
[On whether to help the Klingon Empire]
“They’re animals.”
“Jim, there is an historic opportunity here.”
“Don’t believe them! Don’t trust them!”
“They’re dying.”
“Let. Them. Die.”
Kirk and Spock in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991)
“Captain’s log, stardate 9522.6: I’ve never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I could never forgive them for the death of my boy. It seems to me our mission to escort the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council to a peace summit is problematic at best. Spock says this could be an historic occasion, and I’d like to believe him, but how on earth can history get past people like me?”
Captain James T. Kirk, dictating his personal log, in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991)
“You don’t trust me, do you? I don’t blame you. If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.”
Chancellor Gorkon of the Klingon Empire, to Captain James T. Kirk, in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991)
“You’re a great one for logic. I’m a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread. We are both extremists. Reality has brought us somewhere in-between.”
Captain James T. Kirk, in a conversation with Spock, in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991)
“I can see you Kirk. Can you see me?”
“Chang!”
“Oh, now be honest, Captain. Warrior to warrior. You do prefer it this way, don’t you, as it was meant to be. No peace in our time. ‘Once more onto the breach, dear friends.'”
Chang and Kirk in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”
“My God, what have I done?”
“What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.”
Kirk and McCoy, watching the sacrificed Enterprise burn in the atmosphere of the planet they are standing on, in “Star Trek III”
“… and tell Doctor McCoy, he should have wished me luck.”
Spock in Star Trek TOS: “The Immunity Syndrome”
“Our species can only survive if we have obstacles to overcome. You take away all obstacles. Without them to strengthen us, we will weaken and die.”
Kirk to the Companion in Star Trek TOS “Metamorphosis”
“After a time, you may find that ‘having’ is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as ‘wanting.’ It is not logical, but it is often true.”
Spock in Star Trek TOS: “Amok Time”
“… a dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars.”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS: “Whom Gods Destroy”
“I object to intellect without discipline; I object to power without constructive purpose.”
Spock in Star Trek TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”
“All I understand is that you apparently don’t have the backbone to stand up and fight to protect the ones you love. I speak of courage, gentlemen. Does courage mean so little to you?”
Kirk to Ayelborne, on the threat of a Klingon takeover of the planet Star Trek TOS “Errand of Mercy”
“Our missions are peaceful — not for conquest. When we do battle, it is only because we have no choice.”
Kirk in Star Trek TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”
The Next Generation
“I know Hamlet. And what he might say with irony I say with conviction: ‘What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!'”
Captain Jean-Luc Picard to Q in Star Trek TNG “Hide and Q”
“If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wonderous with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it’s not for the timid.”
Q, an omnipotent alien lifeform watching mankind, in Star Trek TNG: “Q Who”
“The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s historical truth or scientific truth or personal truth. If you can’t find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth, then you don’t deserve to wear that uniform.”
Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek TNG “The First Duty”
“I aspire sir, to be better than I am. B4 does not. Nor does Shinzon.”
Data in Star Trek X
“Death is that state where one lives only in the memory of others, which is why it is not an end. No goodbyes—just good memories.”
Tasha Yar in Star Trek TNG “Skin of Evil”
“I envy you … the world you’re going to.”
“I envy you … taking these first steps into a new frontier.”
Sloane and Picard in “Star Trek VIII: First Contact”
“Someone once said ‘Don’t try to be a great man. Just be a man, and let history make its own judgement.'”
“That’s rhetorical nonsense. Who said that?”
“You did, ten years from now.”
Riker, visiting the past, and Dr. Cochrane, in “Star Trek VIII: First Contact”
“Her transcript is *very* impressive. She’s done honors work in neurobiology, plasmadynamics, and micoregeneration. I’d say that’s pretty well-rounded.”
“Well that’s a nice way of saying that I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with my life.”
Beverly and Rogers in Star Trek TNG: “True Q”
“There were many parts of my youth that I’m not proud of … they were loose threads … untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those treads … it unraveled the tapestry of my life.”
Picard, coming to terms with his past, in Star Trek TNG: “Tapestry”
“But I have no sexual desire.”
“Ah! Impotence on top of everything!”
Data (an android) and Sigmund Freud in Star Trek TNG: “Phantasms”
“I wished to give them knowledge, for knowledge is power”
Q in “Star Trek: Q-Squared”
“You are an imperfect being, created by an imperfect being.”
Borg Queen to Data in “Star Trek VIII: First Contact”
“All this technology … and we are still susceptible to the ravages of old age …”
Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek TNG: “Sarek”
“You can’t outrun them. You can’t destroy them. If you damage them, the essence of what they are remains … they regenerate and keep coming. Eventually, you’ll weaken. Your reserves will be gone. They are relentless.”
Q, about the Borg, a cyborg collective with a collective hive mind, in Star Trek TNG: “Q Who”
“When a man is convinced he is gonna die tomorrow, he probably gonna find a way to make it happen.”
Guinan in Star Trek TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds Part 2”
“If you want to get ahead, you have to take chances … stand out in a crowd … get noticed.”
Riker to Lieutenant Picard in Star Trek TNG “Tapestry”
“It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose; that’s not a weakness, that’s life.”
Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek TNG: “Peak Performance”
“Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we’ve lived. After all Number One, we’re only mortal.”
“Speak for yourself sir, I plan to live forever.”
Picard and Riker in “Star Trek: Generations”
[Data, an android, is feeling anxiety as they approach the Borg.]
Picard: “I suggest you deactivate your emotion chip for now.”
Data [click]: “Done.”
Picard: “Data, there are times when I envy you.”
“Star Trek: First Contact”
“They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn HERE. This far NO farther. And I will make them pay for what they’ve done.”
[ …]
“You broke your little ships.”
Picard, seeking revenge for the pain the Borg inflicted to him and humanity, and Lily, in “Star Trek: First Contact”
“Feelings aren’t positive and negative, they simply exist. It’s what we do with those feeling that becomes good or bad. For example, feeling angry about an injustice could lead someone to take a positive action to correct it.”
Picard in “Star Trek VIII – First Contact”
“Q might have done the right thing for the wrong reason. Perhaps we needed a good kick in our complacency to get us ready for what’s ahead.”
Picard in Star Trek TNG: “Q Who”
“Seize the time, Meribor. Live now; make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.”
Picard in Star Trek TNG: “The Inner Light”
If you can’t even count on the ground beneath your feet to remain stable, what in the world does remain stable.
Picard in “Star Trek: Q-Squared”
“We must strive to be more than what we are … It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards.”
Data in Star Trek TNG: “The Offspring”
“We do exactly what we would do if this Q never existed. If we’re going to be damned, let’s be damned for who we really are.”
Captain Picard in Star Trek TNG: “Encounter At Farpoint”
“There are creatures in the universe who would consider you the ultimate achievement, android. No feelings, no emotions … no pain. And yet you covet those qualities of humanity. Believe me, you’re missing nothing. But if it means anything to you, you’re a better human than I.”
Q, former omnipotent being turned human, to Data the Android who strives to become more human, in Star Trek TNG: “Deja Q”
“Savage lifeforms never follow even their own rules.”
Q in Star Trek TNG: “Encounter At Farpoint”
“Of all the species yours cannot abide stagnation.”
Q in Star Trek TNG: “Hide And Q”
“As I learn more and more, what it is to be human, I am more and more convinced that I would never make a good one. I don’t have what it takes. Without my powers I’m frightened of everything. I’m a coward … and I’m miserable … and I can’t go on this way.”
Q in Star Trek TNG: “Deja Q”
“Don’t be afraid of your darker side, have fun with it.”
Troi to Riker in Star Trek TNG: “Frame of Mind”
“The price is a little to high for me – and I don’t like who I’d have to thank.”
Star Trek TNG
“You [humans] reveal yourselves best in how you play.”
Q in Star Trek TNG: “Hide And Q”
“Our neural pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns.”
Riker, quoting Data’s definition of friendship, in Star Trek TNG: “Time’s Arrow, Part 1”
“If we all die … here, now … you will not be able to gloat! You wanted to frighten us … we’re frightened. You wanted to show us that we are inadequate … for the moment, I will grant that. You wanted me to say that I need you …I need you!”
Picard to Q in Star Trek TNG: “Q Who”
“With all trust comes the possibility of betrayal.”
“Then perhaps it is better not to trust.”
Picard and Data in Star Trek TNG: “Legacy”
“We think we’ve come so far … the torture of heretics, the burning of witches is all ancient history … then … before you can blink an eye … suddenly it threatens to start all over again.”
Captain Picard in Star Trek TNG: “The Drumhead”
Have we become so fearful? Have we become so cowardly that we must extinguish a man because he carries the blood of a current enemy?
Captain Picard in Star Trek TNG: “The Drumhead”
“With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.”
Captain Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie, in Star Trek TNG: “The Drumhead”
“And how do I know that someone I might save down there might not be the next Adolf Hitler? Or Khan Singh? I’m willing to take that chance.”
Picard in Star Trek TNG: “A Matter of Time”
“Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or the galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you’re not that important.”
Q to Picard in Star Trek TNG: “Tapestry”
“Why? Why, to give you a taste of your future … a preview of things to come. Con permiso, capitaine? The hall’s been rented, the orchestra engaged … it’s time to see if you can *dance*.”
Q, after confronting the Federation with the Borg, in Star Trek TNG: “Q Who”
“We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile. We are the Borg.”
The Borg in Star Trek TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”
“You probably can’t imagine what it is like to be so lost and frightened that you will listen to any voice which promises change.”
Hugh to Riker, on Lore’s influence upon the fragmented Borg collective, in Star Trek TNG “Descent, Part II”
Picard (to Worf): “You want to run away and blow up the ship, you COWARD!”
Dr. Crusher: “Jean-Luc …!”
Worf (to Picard): “If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand!”
Picard: “Get off my bridge.”
Star Trek VIII: “First Contact”
You know what Michelangelo used to say? That the sculptures he made were already there before he started, hidden in the marble. All he need to do was remove the unneeded bits. It wasn’t quite that easy with you, Data. But the need to do it, my need to do it, was no different than Michelangelo’s need.
Star Trek TNG: “Brothers”
“Humans are such commonplace little creatures. They roam over the galaxy searching for something they know not what.”
Q in Star Trek TNG: “Deja Q”
Deep Space Nine
“I finally realized that it wasn’t Starfleet that I was trying to get away from. I was trying to escape the pain I felt, after my wife’s death. I thought I could take the uniform, wrap it around the pain and toss them both away. But it doesn’t work like that. Running may help for a little while, but sooner or later the pain catches up with you, and the only way to get rid of it is to stand your ground and face it.”
Sisko in Star Trek DS9 “Way of the Warrior”
“Victory is life.”
“Today is a good day to die!”
Ikat’ika and Worf in Star Trek DS9: “By Inferno’s Light”
“It’s your life, Jake. You have to choose your own way. There is only one thing I want from you. Find something you love … then do it the best you can … .”
Ben Sisko in Star Trek DS9: “Shadowplay”
“It’s easy to be a saint in paradise.”
Captain Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek DS9
“It takes courage to look inside yourself, and even more courage to write it for others to see.”
Sisko in Star Trek DS9
“Inter arma enim silent leges.”
“In times of war, the law falls silent. Cicero. Is that what we’ve become — a 24th Century Rome? Driven on nothing more the certainty that Caesar can do no wrong?”
Admiral Ross and Bashir in Star Trek DS9
“They’re just rules … they’re written in a book, not carved in stone. And even if they were in stone, so what? A brunch of us just made them up.”
The Great Nagus, about the Rules of Acquisition, the Ferengi ‘Bible’, in Star Trek DS9
“You’ve come a long way from the naive young man I met five years ago. You’ve become distrustful and suspicious. It suits you.”
“I had a good teacher.”
Elim Garak and Dr. Julian Bashir in Star Trek DS9
“I’m the science officer, it’s my job to have a better idea.”
Dax in Star Trek DS9: “Paradise”
[Dr. Bashir has tried in vain to find a medicine for a plague (the Blight) that an aggressive alien empire (the Dominion) spread on a planet]
Bashir: “There’s no cure for the Blight. The Dominion made sure of that. And I was so arrogant I thought I could cure it in a week.”
Jadzia Dax: “Maybe that was arrogant. But it’s even more arrogant to say that there is no cure, just because you couldn’t find it.”
Star Trek DS9
“I don’t care about your negotiations and I don’t care about your treaty. All I care about is my patient and at the moment he needs more treatment and less politics. Now, you can either leave her willingly, or I’ll call security and have you thrown out!”
“I will not forget how you have spoken to me today!”
“Neither will I.”
Dr. Bashir and Kai Winn in Star Trek DS9: “Life Support”
“Open your eyes, Captain. Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We’ve never harmed you – and yet we’re constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands, and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we’ve left the Federation – and that’s the one thing you can’t accept. Nobody leaves Paradise – everyone should want to be in the Federation. Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join; you’re only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you’re even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You’re more insidious; you assimilate people, and they don’t even know it.”
Eddington in Star Trek DS9: “For the Cause”
“Even in your darkest moments, you can always find something that will make you smile.”
Sisko in Star Trek DS9: “In The Cards”
“Being an outsider isn’t so bad. It gives one a unique perspective.”
Odo in Star Trek DS9: “The Search, Part II”
“I always hope for the best. Experience, however, has taught me to expect the worst.”
Garak in Star Trek DS9
“This war’s over. You lost.”
“Have I? I think you will find that neither the Jem’Hadar, nor the Breen would agree with that assessment — they will fight to the last man.”
“And what would that accomplish?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You may win this war, Commander, but when it is over I assure you that you will have lost so many ships — so many lives — that your victory will taste as bitter as defeat.”
Kira and Founder in Star Trek DS9: “What You Leave Behind”
“No matter which side wins this war … I’m going to lose.”
Odo, about the war between the Federation and his race, in Star Trek DS9
“You’re always telling that space is big, that it’s an endless frontier filled with infinite wonders.”
“It’s true.”
“Well if that’s the case, you would think it would be more than enough room to allow people to leave each other alone.”
“It just doesn’t work that way. It should, but it doesn’t.”
Joseph Sisko and Capt. Sisko in Star Trek DS9: “A Time To Stand”
“There are rules, Garak, even in a war.”
“Correction: humans have rules in war. Rules that tend to make victory a little harder to achieve, in my opinion.”
O’Brien and Garak in Star Trek DS9: “Rocks and Shoals”
“Don’t you understand?! None of this matters! We’re all dying in what’s ultimately just going to be remembered as a minor skirmish!!! It doesn’t matter if you shot your own foot off to get the medics to pull you off of the front lines, or if you sacrificed your life to save a ‘hopper transport full of hundreds of people!!!! This is just a minor footnote in history! We’re all going to die! And no one’s going to remember it!!! It’s an insignificant fight!, and No one’s going to remember that anyone fought and died here on Ajilon Prime … . No one will remember!”
Jake in Star Trek DS9: “… Nor The Battle To The Strong”
“Eight hundred million dead …”
“And the casualty reports are still coming in … Aren’t you going to congratulate me, doctor? My exile is officially over. I’ve returned home. Or rather, to what’s left of it …”
“I know things must look bleak to you right now, Garak …”
“Some may say that we’ve gotten exactly what we deserve … after all, we’re not exactly ‘innocent,’ are we? And I’m not just talking about the Bajoran occupation … our entire history is one of arrogant aggression. We collaborated with the Dominion … betrayed the Alpha Quadrant … there’s no doubt about it, we’re guilty as charged.”
“We both know the Cardassians are a strong people … they’ll survive … Cardassia will survive.”
“Doctor, please — spare me your insufferable Federation optimism. Of course it will survive … but not the Cardassia I knew. We had a rich and ancient culture — our literature, music, art were second to none. And now, so much of it is lost … So many of our best people … our most gifted minds …”
“I’m sorry, Garak. I didn’t mean …”
“Quite all right, doctor. You’ve been a good friend. I’m going to miss our lunches together.”
“I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
“I’d like to think so. But who can say … we live in uncertain times.”
Bashir and Garak in Star Trek DS9: “What You Leave Behind”
“You’d shoot a man in the back?”
“It’s the safest way, isn’t it?”
Odo and Garak in Star Trek DS9: “Call to Arms”
“The Federation needs men like you, Doctor. Men of conscience, men of principle, men who can sleep at night. You’re also the reason that Section 31 exists. Someone has to protect men like you against a universe that doesn’t share your sense of right and wrong.”
Sloan, member of Section 31, which protects the Federation by breaking its laws, in Star Trek DS9: “Inter Arma Silent Leges”
“Let this be a lesson, doctor — perhaps the most valuable one I could teach you: sentiment is the greatest weakness of all.”
Garak in Star Trek DS9: “In Purgatory’s Shadow”
“Do you really want to give up your life for ‘the order of things’?”
“It is not my life to give. And it never was.”
Sisko and Remata’Klan, a genetical modified soldier for the Dominion, in “Star Trek DS9”
“You’ve never had a child. You don’t know what it’s like to watch your son … to watch him fall a little further behind every day … . You know he’s trying, but something’s holding him back. You don’t know what it’s like to stay up every night worrying that maybe it’s your fault. Maybe you did something wrong during the pregnancy, maybe you weren’t careful enough, or maybe there’s something wrong with you. Maybe you passed on a genetic defect without even knowing it.”
Mr. Bashir, about his decision to use illegal and dangerous genetic reenginering on his son, in Star Trek DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”
“My father used to say, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I laid the first stone right there. I’d committed myself. I’d pay any price, go to any length, because my course was righteous … my intentions were good. In the beginning, that seemed like enough.”
Star Trek DS9 – 6×19: “In The Pale Moonlight”
“Thank you for restoring my faith in the Ninety-eight Rule of Acquisition: ‘Every man has his price.'”
Quark, after a spotless starfleet officer had to bribe him to ensure the compilation of a plan that might save Federation survive an ongoing bloody war, in Star Trek DS9: “In The Pale Moonlight”
“That’s why you came to me, isn’t it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren’t capable of doing? Well, it worked. And you’ll get what you want: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant. And all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain.”
Elim Garak to Captain Benjamin Sisko, in Star Trek DS9 6×19: “In the Pale Moonlight”
“I think I can live with it. And the most damning thing of all … if I had to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing: A guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safty of the Alpha Quadrant. So, I will learn to live with it. Because I can live with it … I can live with it. … Computer, erase that entire personal log.”
Last lines of Sisko in Star Trek DS9: “In The Pale Moonlight”
“All I ask is a tall ship, and a load of contraband to fill her with …”
Quark in Star Trek DS9: “Little Green Men”
“Why do you still live here?”
Prophet of Bajor to Benjamin Sisko regarding to the memories of the death of his wife, he still clings to and relives, years after it happened, in Star Trek DS9
“It’s not you I hate, Cardassian. It’s what I became because of you.”
Miles O’Brien in Star Trek DS9
Bashir: “A compound fracture of the right radius, two fractured ribs, torn ligaments, strained tendons, numerous contusions, bruises and scratches — what have you been doing?”
Quark: “You mean, what have WE been doing?”
(Quark and Grilka laugh)
Bashir: “Nevermind, I don’t need that particular image running around in my head. I’ll just treat you.”
(Dax and Worf enter sickbay … “roughed up”)
Bashir: “What happened to you two?”
Worf: “We … um … .”
Dax: “Well, um … if you must know, uh … .”
Bashir: “NO! No, uh, I don’t need that image either. In fact, I’m going to stop asking that question altogether! People can come in, I will treat them, and that’s all!”
Star Trek DS9: “Looking For Par’Mach In All The Wrong Places”
“You were at my wedding. You heard the story of the first two Klingon hearts and how nothing could stand against them, and how they even destroyed the gods that created them. I’ve heard that story since I was a boy, but I never understood it, I mean really understood it, until I was standing there in the jungle with my heart pounding in my chest and realized that even I could not stand against my own heart. I had to go back, and it did not matter what Starfleet thought or what the consequences were, she was my wife … and I could not leave her.”
Worf, about aborting an important mission to save his wife, in Star Trek DS9: “Change of Heart”
“Well, I was hoping that our relationship would be a long and happy one, but I suppose I’m willing to settle for short and exciting.”
Odo to Kira, after learning of her suicidal plans for a blockade against a superior fleet, in Star Trek DS9
“I’ve dreamt of the day when I would finally see him stripped of his rank and title, when he would suddenly find himself without a friend in the world, without the power of his birthright. Well, I’ve had that moment now, and I took no joy in it.”
Martok in Star Trek DS9: “Once More Into the Breach”
“I’m not leaving until I’m sure you’re …”
“I want you to go, Nerys.”
“Why?”
“You … watched Bareil die in this very room. I know how that’s always haunted you. I don’t want your last memory of me to be … witnessing my death.”
“Isn’t that my choice?”
“Maybe it is. And maybe I’m being selfish by telling you everything that I want … but I don’t want the last thing I see to be … pain in your eyes.”
“You’d be surprised how well I can hide my feelings … when I need to.”
“Not from me.”
Kira Nerys and a dying Odo in Star Trek DS9: “Extreme Measures”
“One of these days we’re going to wake up and find that someone is missing from this circle, and then we’re going to mourn … but we shouldn’t have to mourn alone.”
Chief O’Brien in Star Trek DS9
“It’s like I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Quark in Star Trek DS9: “What You Leave Behind”
“Laws change depending on who’s making them, but justice is justice.”
Odo in Star Trek DS9: “A Man Alone”
“I think I’ve figured out why humans don’t like Ferengi. The way I see it, humans used to be a lot like Ferengi. Greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We’re a constant reminder of a part of your past you’d like to forget! But you’re overlooking something. Humans used to be a lot worse than Ferengi. Slavery. Concentration camps. Interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see … we’re nothing like you. We’re better.”
Quark, to Sisko in Star Trek DS9: “The Jem’Hadar”
“The trouble is earth. On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see Paradise. Well, it’s easy to be a saint in Paradise.”
Sisko in Star Trek DS9: “The Maquis Part 2”
“Let me tell you something about hu-mons, nephew. They’re a friendly, intelligent, wonderful people … so long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time, and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty, and as violent as the most blood-thirsty Klingon.”
Quark in Star Trek DS9: “The Siege of AR-558”
Gul Dukat: “I should have killed every last one of them! I should have turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy has never seen! I should have killed them all …”
[Sisko clubs him over the head with a metal pole]
Sisko: “And that’s why you’re not an evil man.”
Star Trek DS9
“Why are you defending him, Quark? You’re his greatest enemy.”
“Maybe because that’s the closest thing he has in this world to a friend.”
Bar patron and Quark, about Odo, in Star Trek DS9: “A Man Alone”
“Cardassians have never been afraid of war, a fact we’ve proven time and again over these past two years. 7 million of our brave soldiers have given their lives to fulfill our part of the agreement, and what has the Dominion done in return? Nothing. We’ve gained no new territories. In fact, our influence throughout the Quadrant has diminished. And to make matters worse, we’re not even masters in our own home. Travel anywhere in Cardassia and what do you find? Jem’Hadar, Vorta, and now Breen. Instead of the invaders, we have become the invaded. Our allies have conquered us without firing a single shot. Well, no longer. This morning, detachments of the Cardassian First, Third, and Ninth Orders attacked Dominion outposts on Rondack 3. This assault marks the first step towards the liberation of our homeland from the true oppressors of the Alpha Quadrant. I call upon Cardassians everywhere – Resist. Resist today. Resist tomorrow. Resist till the last Dominion soldier has been driven from our soil.”
Damar, Cardassian Leader, speaking to his people, in Star Trek DS9
“There are times when the computer asks me to identify myself and I have to think about what to say! Or worse yet, there’s days when I wake up and I don’t even know if I’m a man or a woman until I pull back the covers.”
Ezri, the newest host for the symbiont Dax, in Star Trek DS9
“Let me tell you a story. I once knew a Cardassian, a dashing, handsome young man, with a promising career, but one day, through no fault of his own, he found himself exiled and alone with nowhere to turn. But did he give up? No. He struck upon a brilliant plan. Instead of fleeing for the rest of his life, he sought shelter in the one place no one expected him to go: in the stronghold of one of his people’s most hated enemies. There, against all odds, against the merciless logic of the universe itself, he thrived.”
“By becoming the greatest tailor in the galaxy!”
“And the moral of the story, my dear, is to never underestimate my gift for survival.”
Garak and Ziyal in Star Trek DS9: “Call to Arms”
[Ikat’ika, a Jem’Hadar soldier, is fighting Worf in the arena, and although he is winning, Worf stands up every time he gets beaten down]
Ikat’ika: “I yield.”
Deyos: “You WHAT?”
Ikat’ika: “I yield! I cannot defeat this Klingon – I can only kill him. And that no longer holds my interest.”
Star Trek DS9
“Do you understand Worf? You will be left with nothing!”
“… I will have my honor.”
Gowron and Worf in Star Trek DS9
[Sisko is trying to arrest Eddington, a former security officer turned traitor]
Odo: “Sir, have you ever reminded Starfleet Command that they stationed Eddington here because they didn’t trust me?”
Sisko: “No.”
Odo: “Please do.”
Star Trek DS9
“The only real question is whether you believe in the legend of Davy Crockett or not. If you do, then there should be no doubt in your mind that he died a hero’s death. If you do not believe in the legend, then he was just a man … and it does not matter how he died.”
Worf in Star Trek DS9: “Once More Into the Breach”
“That is the most imbecilic attempt to rationalize personal cowardice I’ve ever heard.”
Rossoff in Star Trek DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”
“If they succeed, you can drink to their courage. And if they fail, you can still drink to their courage.”
Derok, celebrating the ongoing suicide mission of one ship of their armada by bringing Blood Wine to the bridge, in Star Trek DS9: “Once More Into the Breach”
[after Bashir tells the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf]
Bashir: “The point is, if you lie all the time, nobody’s going to believe you, even when you’re telling the truth.”
Garak: “Are you sure that’s the point, doctor?”
Bashir: “Of course. What else could it be?”
Elim Garak: “That you should never tell the same lie twice.”
Star Trek DS9
“Pretty girl like you shouldn’t be eating alone.”
“I don’t do whatever it is you want, not for money, not for food.”
Odo and Kira in Star Trek DS9: “Necessary Evil”
“It’s time to put the past behind us?”
“What about the present?”
Star Trek DS9
“Assuming you’re not a spy.”
“Assuming.”
“Then maybe you’re an outcast.”
“Or maybe I’m an outcast spy.”
“How could you be both?”
“I never said I was either.”
Bashir and Garak in Star Trek DS9
“I do enjoy my work. But I am afraid I’ve used it as an excuse to avoid the rest of my life.”
Odo to Kira in Star Trek DS9 “His Way”
“Always burn your bridges behind you. You never know who might be trying to follow.”
Enabran Tain to Garak in Star Trek DS9: “Improbable Cause.”
“We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy, trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I’m here. Not to conquer you either with weapons or with ideas. But to coexist and to learn.”
Benjamin Sisko, to an alien race, in Star Trek DS9: “The Emissary”
Voyager
“They don’t have movies where you come from, do they?”
“We had something similar a few hundred years ago, but they lost their appeal when people discovered their real lives were more interesting.”
“Still, it’s nice to take a break from your life now and then, don’t you think?”
Crewman Cutler and Dr. Phlox in Star Trek VOY
“I am proud of what I am. I believe in what I do. Can you say that?”
Chekov to Irina Galliulin in Star Trek TOS “The Way to Eden”
“Your mission is to explore. Imagine you’d explored everything, that there’s nothing left. Would you want to live forever? For us, the disease is immortality.”
Q3 in Star Trek VOY: “Deathwish”
“When I was a respected philosopher, I argued that the purity of the Continuum was a great thing, the road, the endless possibilities … only they’re not so endless after all. At the beginning of the ‘New Age,’ there was the exhilaration of discovery, the animated discussions of new things learned. But after a time, all had been learned. All had been shared. Listen to their dialogues now. They haven’t spoken for millennia. There’s nothing left to say!”
Q3, complaining about immortality, in Star Trek VOY: “Deathwish”
“May your death bring you the peace you never found in life.”
Tuvok in Star Trek Voyager
“Now’s as good a time as any to tell you. Your ceiling is hideous”
Neelix, lying paralyzed on his back in sickbay, in Star Trek VOY: “Phage”
“Sticks and stones can’t break my bones, so you can imagine how I feel about being called names.”
The holographical Doctor to Seska in Star Trek Voyager: “Basics, Part II”
“New ideas are often greeted with skepticism … even fear. But sometimes, those ideas are accepted … and when they are, progress is made … eyes are opened.”
Chakotay to Minister Odala in Star Trek VOY “Distant Origin”
Enterprise
“This is extremely sophisticated work for twentieth century Earth.”
“Well, I made some modifications of my own.”
“Really? What kind of modifications?”
“I prefer to let my work speak for itself.”
“I think it already has.”
“I didn’t realise you shared humanity’s reactionary attitude toward this field of medicine.”
“On the contrary, we’ve used genetic engineering on Denobula for over two centuries, to generally positive effect.”
“But you don’t approve of what I’ve done.”
“You tried to redesign your species. The first time that was attempted on Earth, the result was thirty million deaths.”
“We can’t let past mistakes hold us back.”
“It’s your responsibility as a scientist to learn from past mistakes.”
“Well, what makes you think I haven’t?”
“I can read.”
Phlox and Soong in “Star Trek Enterprise – Borderland”
“Ventral and dorsal torpedo launchers, pulsed phase cannons.”
“Upgrades you recommended. What is it?”
“I had an argument once with Captain Jefferies. He was one of the designers of the NX-Class.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“I told him I didn’t want to be in command of a warship trying to make first contact with new species. Jefferies was right. We needed those weapons, and a hell of a lot more.”
Archer and Erika in “Star Trek Enterprise – Home”
“The will of the patient is the cornerstone of Denobulan medical ethics.”
“Don’t you believe if you can help someone, you’re ethically bound to do so?”
“Hippocrates wasn’t Denobulan.”
Dr. Phlox and Capt. Archer in “Enterprise”
“They were subjects of the Empire – their welfare was not your concern!”
“Apparently, it wasn’t yours either.”
Advocate Orak and Cap. Archer in “Enterprise”
“We could stay and help them.”
“The Vulcans stayed to help Earth ninety years ago. We’re still there.”
“I never thought I’d say this, but … I’m beginning to understand how the Vulcan must have felt.”
Captain Archer and Subcommander T’Pol, about helping an alien civilisation on their home planet, in “Enterprise”
“A farm?”
“It’s remote and sparsely populated. If you’re exposed, there’s a reduced risk of cultural contamination.”
“This must be why aliens are always landing in cornfields.”
Archer and T’Pol, pick a landing site for the first visit on an alien planet, in “Enterprise”
“On this site, a powerful engine will be built … an engine that will someday let us travel a hundred times faster than we can today. Imagine it. Thousands of inhabited planets at our fingertips. And we’ll be able to explore those strange new worlds … and seek out new life and new civilizations. This engine will let us go boldly … where no man has gone before.”
Zefram Cochrane’s dedication speech for the Warp 5 Research Complex in “Enterprise”
And yup, there are many, many more. 🙂
