Babylon 5 Quotes
A space station in neutral territory is the focus of a unique five year saga.
Mr. Morden: What do YOU want?
Ambassador Vir Cotto: 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 want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this.
[waves]
Ambassador Vir Cotto: Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
Ambassador Vir Cotto: 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 want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this.
[waves]
Ambassador Vir Cotto: Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
Citizen G'Kar: 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 - sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product 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.
Captain John Sheridan: You know, I just had a thought. You've been back and forth to your world so many times since you got here. How do I know you're the same Vorlon? Inside that encounter suit you could be anyone.
Kosh Naranek: I have *always* been here.
Captain John Sheridan: Oh, yeah? You said that about me too.
Kosh Naranek: Yes.
[starts to walk away]
Captain John Sheridan: I really *hate* it when you do that.
Kosh Naranek: [turns around] Good!
Kosh Naranek: I have *always* been here.
Captain John Sheridan: Oh, yeah? You said that about me too.
Kosh Naranek: Yes.
[starts to walk away]
Captain John Sheridan: I really *hate* it when you do that.
Kosh Naranek: [turns around] Good!
Citizen G'Kar: [to Londo after they discover the Centauri are still building warships during peace time] Well, with everyone now on the same side, perhaps you're planning to invade yourselves for a change. I find the idea curiously appealing. Once you've finished killing each other, we can plow under all the buildings and plant rows of flowers that spell out the words, "Too annoying to live" in letters big enough to be seen from space.
Lennier: [Lennier and Vir do not make eye contact during this conversation] Sometimes I get so close and yet it feels like I'm shut out of the important things.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: It's a useless feeling. The Ambassador is definitely going through some changes. He even looks different.
Lennier: Indeed. And now with the military starting to stampede over everyone and everything...
Ambassador Vir Cotto: People coming and going and secret meetings...
Lennier: You never know what it's all about until later when it's too late.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: And they never listen to us.
Ambassador Vir Cotto, Lennier: Makes me nervous.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: [they finally look at each other] Same time tomorrow?
Lennier: Sure.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: It's a useless feeling. The Ambassador is definitely going through some changes. He even looks different.
Lennier: Indeed. And now with the military starting to stampede over everyone and everything...
Ambassador Vir Cotto: People coming and going and secret meetings...
Lennier: You never know what it's all about until later when it's too late.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: And they never listen to us.
Ambassador Vir Cotto, Lennier: Makes me nervous.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: [they finally look at each other] Same time tomorrow?
Lennier: Sure.
G'Kar: 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. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
Marcus Cole: [noticing Ivanova's not paying attention to his report] There's always the threat of an attack by say, a giant space dragon. The kind that eats the sun once every 30 days. It's a nuisance, but what can you expect from reptiles? Did I mention that my nose is on fire? And that I have 15 wild badgers living in my trousers?
[Ivanova glares at him]
Marcus Cole: I'm sorry would you prefer ferrets?
[Ivanova glares at him]
Marcus Cole: I'm sorry would you prefer ferrets?
Citizen G'Kar: I believe that when we leave a place a part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in these halls, when it is quiet and just listen. After a while you will hear the echoes of all of our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains. But I will admit that the part of me that going will very much miss the part of you that is staying.
[Opening narration, season 4]
Lennier: It was the year of fire,
Zack Allan: The year of destruction,
Citizen G'Kar: The year we took back what was ours.
Lyta Alexander: It was the year of rebirth,
Ambassador Vir Cotto: The year of great sadness,
Marcus Cole: The year of pain,
Delenn: And a year of joy.
Ambassador Londo Mollari: It was a new age.
Dr. Stephen Franklin: It was the end of history.
Susan Ivanova: It was the year everything changed.
Michael Garibaldi: The year is 2261.
Captain John Sheridan: The place, Babylon 5.
Lennier: It was the year of fire,
Zack Allan: The year of destruction,
Citizen G'Kar: The year we took back what was ours.
Lyta Alexander: It was the year of rebirth,
Ambassador Vir Cotto: The year of great sadness,
Marcus Cole: The year of pain,
Delenn: And a year of joy.
Ambassador Londo Mollari: It was a new age.
Dr. Stephen Franklin: It was the end of history.
Susan Ivanova: It was the year everything changed.
Michael Garibaldi: The year is 2261.
Captain John Sheridan: The place, Babylon 5.
[Opening narration, season 1]
Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
[Opening narration, season 2]
Captain John Sheridan: The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace, a self-contained world five miles long located in neutral territory, a place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens, a shining beacon in space, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, the year the great war came upon us all. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Captain John Sheridan: The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace, a self-contained world five miles long located in neutral territory, a place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens, a shining beacon in space, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, the year the great war came upon us all. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Lorien: We've lived too long, seen too much. To live on, as we have, is to leave behind joy, love, and companionship because we know it to be transitory; of the moment. We know it will turn to ash. Only those whose lives are brief can believe that love, is eternal.
[pause]
Lorien: You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.
[pause]
Lorien: You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.
Captain John Sheridan: In breaking away from Earth, we have begun a difficult and uncertain journey, and none of us can see its end, but our cause remains a just one. That truth honours and sanctifies our fallen comrades who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might carry on the work that is ahead of us. We are gathered here today to honour their memory and their names.
[an Earth Gov battle fleet have been prevented from seizing Babylon 5]
Delenn: Your Government will think twice before engaging a Minbari fleet.
Marcus Cole: They're not *my* government! Back on the colony, Earth was just a place that sent us books and vids, and took 30% of our income. Should have given them the boot years ago!
Delenn: Your Government will think twice before engaging a Minbari fleet.
Marcus Cole: They're not *my* government! Back on the colony, Earth was just a place that sent us books and vids, and took 30% of our income. Should have given them the boot years ago!
