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Babylon 5
Babylon 5 (1993 - 1998) by J. Michael Straczynski
Season 1
- "No. We have to stay here and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu, Einstein, Morobuto, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes .. and all of this .. all of this was for nothing unless we go to the stars." - Commander Sinclair , "Infection "
- "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." - Ambassador Kosh , "Believers "
- "You will resist, I hope?" - Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova
- "She had a voice that could curdle fresh milk." - Ambassador Londo Mollari , "Born to the Purple "
- "Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.' I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance." - Ambassador Londo Mollari , "The War Prayer "
- "What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?" - Ambassador Londo Mollari , to Vir Cotto
- "There are things in the Universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless, and if they are aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know. We've tried and we've learned that we can either stay out from underfoot or be stepped on. They are a mystery and I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the Universe, that we have not explained everything." - Ambassador G'Kar , "Mind War "
- "Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do and the guilty lie because they don't have any other choice." - Commander Sinclair to Garibaldi , "And the Sky Full of Stars "
- "And just one more thing. I need you to look back and take the time to learn the Babylon 5 Mantra. Ivanova is always right! I will listen to Ivanova! I will not ignore Ivanova’s recommendations! Ivanova is God! And, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out. Babylon Control out..." - Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova , "A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I "
- "There comes a time when you look into the mirror and realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors." - Ambassador Londo Mollari , "Chrysalis "
Season 2
- "I'll tell you one thing, if the primates that we came from had known that someday politicians would come out of the gene pool, they'd've stayed up in the trees and written evolution off as a bad idea... I always thought the opposable thumb was overrated." - Captain John Sheridan
- "May the Gods always stand between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk" - Captain John Sheridan quoting an ancient Egyptian blessing
- "So you feel like you're being symbolically cast— in a bad light." - Commander Susan Ivanova , replying to Ambassador Londo Mollari 's complaint about a doll of him having no "attributes"
- Elric: "I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sounds, the sounds of billions of people calling your name..."
Londo: "My followers?"
Elric: "Your victims."
- Ambassador Londo Mollari 's exchange with Elric the technomage
- "So much has been lost, so much forgotten. So much pain, so much blood. And for what, I wonder. The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible inbetween. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment. To choose something better, to make a difference, as you say." - Emperor Turhan of the Centauri, "The Coming of Shadows"
- Turhan: "How will this end?"
Kosh: "In fire." - "The Coming of Shadows"
- "I apologize. I'm… sorry. [pause] I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell. [pause] As with everything else, it's the thought that counts." - Captain John Sheridan , practicing his mandatory public apology to the Centauri government, "The Fall of Night"
- "I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I'd look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange it for me, Mr. Morden?" - Vir Cotto , "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"
- "No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand." - G'Kar to Londo Mollari, "The Long Twilight Struggle"
Season 3
- "I don't want to get killed because of a typo. It would be embarrassing." - Commander Susan Ivanova , "A Day in the Strife"
- "Good luck, captain. I think you're about to go where… everyone has gone before." - Commander Susan Ivanova , holographically observing Sheridan being seduced by an EarthGov representative, "Voices of Authority"
- Delenn: This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection, withdraw or be destroyed!
Captain: Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.
Delenn: Why not?! Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.
- Ambassador Delenn , "Severed Dreams"
- "Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts." - Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"
- Lord Refa: Why should I do as you say?
Londo: Because I have asked you; because your sense of duty to our people should override any personal ambition; and because I have poisoned your drink.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri wins over Lord Refa of the Centauri, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"
- "Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You are finite. Zathras is finite. This… is wrong tool." - Zathras, "War Without End, Part Two"
- "He said he would use any and all means necessary. I respectfully suggest that he intends to go far beyond harsh language." - Lennier , "Grey 17 is Missing"
- "I am a Ranger. We walk in the dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge and no-one may pass. We live for the One, we die for the One." - Marcus Cole , "Grey 17 is Missing"
- "You know, before I got married, Emily used to come by sometimes and help me clean out my apartment. Well, I asked her, 'How come you're so eager to help clean up my place when your place is just as bad?' She said, 'Because cleaning up your place helps me to forget what a mess I've made of mine. And — when I sweep my floor, all I've done is sweep my floor. But, when I help you clean up your place, I am helping you.'" - Reverend Will Dexter to Captain John Sheridan , "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"
- "Love, Love, Overrated." - Londo Mollari
- "You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole to Dr. Stephen Franklin , "A Late Delivery from Avalon"
- "It was the end of the Earth year 2260, and the war had paused, suddenly and unexpectedly. It was as if the universe were holding its breath... waiting. All of life can be broken down into moments of transition, or moments... of revelation. This had the feeling of both. G'Quan wrote: "There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope. The death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender." The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born... in pain." - Ambassador G'Kar , "Z'ha'dum"
Season 4
- "Our thoughts form the universe. They always matter." - G'Kar , "The Hour of the Wolf"
- "I have seen what power does, and I have seen what power costs. The one is never equal to the other." - G'Kar , "Epiphanies"
- "This is a conversation that can only end with a gunshot." - Dr. Stephen Franklin to Marcus Cole , "Atonement"
- "Yes, we've disagreed, even fought, but I would rather have someone who opposes me out of an honest belief in the rightness of his cause than someone who is always on my side because it was expected and required." - Delenn , "Rumors, Bargains and Lies"
- "Being a freedom fighter, a force for good, its a wonderful thing...you get to make your own hours, looks good on a resume, but the pay...sucks." - Bester, "Moments of Transition"
- "Trust Ivanova, trust yourself; anybody else, shoot them." - Commander Susan Ivanova , "No Surrender, No Retreat"
- "Everybody lies."
- "That's a very sad view of the universe, Mr. Garibaldi."
- "Yeah, well, it's the only one I've got. It works for me." - Garibaldi and Edgars , "The Exercise of Vital Powers"
- "You will cooperate with the state, for the good of the state and your own survival. You will confess to the crimes of which you have been accused. You will be released and returned to society a productive citizen if you cooperate. Resistance will be punished. Cooperation will be rewarded." - Recording from "Intersections in Real Time"
- Guard: [in a monotone] "I don't watch TV. It's a cultural wasteland filled with inappropriate metaphors and an unrealistic portrayal of life created by the liberal media elite." - "Between the Darkness and the Light"
- "Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me." - Commander Susan Ivanova , "Between the Darkness and the Light"
- "All love is unrequited, Stephen. All of it." - Commander Susan Ivanova to Dr. Stephen Franklin after the death of Marcus Cole , "Rising Star"
- "It was the end of the Earth year 2261, and it was the dawn of a new age... for all of us. It was end of one chapter, and the beginning of another. The next twenty years would see great changes, great joy, and great sorrow. The Telepath War, and the Drakh War. The new Alliance would waver, and crack... but in the end, it would hold. Because what is built endures, and what is loved endures... and Babylon 5... Babylon 5 endures." - Delenn , "Rising Star"
Season 5
- "… the only way to get pertinent information is by asking impertinent questions." - Ranger Findell, relating Whitestar Captain Montoya's philosophy
- "There are moments when we all become someone else, something other than what we are. It takes only a moment. But we spend the rest of our lives looking back at that moment in shame." - Entil'zha Delenn
- "If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often we assume that the light on the wall is God. But the light is not the goal of the search; it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it! Similarly, someone who does not search, who does not bring a lantern with him, sees nothing. What we perceive as God, is the byproduct of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light, pure and unblemished, not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe. God looks astonishingly like we do! Or we turn to look at our shadow, and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose; which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty... and in all its flaws. And in so doing better understand the world around us." - G'Kar
- "Remember Byron" - Lyta Alexander , in "Phoenix Rising"
- "To Absent Friends - In memory still bright" - Former IA President John Sheridan
- "Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future... and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future, or others would do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we don't, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most... unlikely places. Mostly though, I think it gave us hope - that there can always be new beginnings... even for people like us." - Susan Ivanova , "Sleeping in Light"
Movies
- "If dreams do come true, what of our nightmares?" - Galen, "Babylon 5: A Call to Arms"
Books
- While walking through the capitol city, the newly invested Emperor Londo Mollari was struck by a rock thrown by a young teenage girl, who proceeded to upbraid him for his failings in defence of the Centauri people.
Londo: "...You are quite brave, do you know that?" For a moment the girl seemed taken aback, and then she gathered herself. "I'm not brave. I'm just too tired and hungry and angry to care anymore."
Londo: "Perhaps they are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps bravery is simply apathy with delusions of grandeur." - Legions of Fire - The Long Night of Centauri Prime, by Peter David
See also
External links
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