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More excerpts from Quotable Star Trek (by Jill Sherman). Because Jojie asked earlier today, if I had Star Trek words of wisdom for her on the unfortunate fate of her laptop. This is for you Joj:
Chapter 4: Human Nature
"Do you know that you're one of the few predator species that preys even on itself?"
- Trelane to Kirk. TOS / "The Squire of Gothos"
"Your violent intent and actions demonstrate that you are not civilized."
- Metron to McCoy. TOS / "Arena."
"Jim, madness has no purpose... or reason. but it may have a goal."
- Spock to Kirk. TOS / "The Alternative Factor"
"Humans do have an amazing capacity for believing what they choose and excluding that which is painful."
-Spock to Kirk. TOS / "And the Children Shall Need"
"... To many humans, a mystery is irresistible. It must be solved."
- Picard to Troi/Paxan. TNG / "Clues"
"Curious. I've never understood the human compulsion to emotionally bond with inanimate objects. this vessel has 'done' nothing. It's an assemblage of bulkheads, conduits, tritanium. Nothing more."
"Oh, you're wrong. It's much more than that... this ship has been our home... it's kept us together... it's been part of our family. As illogical as this might sound... I feel as close to Voyager as I do to any other member of the crew. It's carried us, Tuvok, even nurtured us... and right now, it needs one of us."
- Tuvok and Janeway. VGR / "Year of Hell, Part II"
"Sometimes you've got to look back, in order to move forward."
- Janeway to Seven of Nine. VGR / "Hope and Fear"
Chapter 8: Good and Evil
"Does not your sacred book promise that good is stronger than evil?"
"Yes, it is written. Good shall always destroy evil."
- Kirk and Sirah. TOS / "The Omega Glory"
"Spock, I've found that evil usually triumphs... unless good is very, very careful."
- McCoy to Spock. TOS / "The Omega Glory"
"Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth."
"Or by misleading the innocent."
- Spock and McCoy. TOS / "And the Children Shall Lead"
"Captain, one of the things I've learned on these voyages and on this ship and from you... is that most life-forms act out of an instinct for survival - not out of malice."
- Riker to Picard. TNG / "Shades of Gray"
"You cannot explain away a wantonly immoral act because you think that it is connected to some higher purpose."
- Picard to Alkar. TNG / "Man of the People"
"Everyone has their reasons. That's what's so frightening. People can find a way to justify any action, no matter how evil."
- Kira to Tora Ziyal. DS9 / "By Inferno's Light"
"Without the darkness... how would we recognize the light?"
- Tuvok to Kes. VGR / "Cold Fire"
Chapter 15: Courtesy and Respect
"If you respect our customs and we see that respect, we will be friends..."
- Lutan to Picard. TNG / "Code of Honor"
"Good manners, Madam, are never a waste of time. Civility, gentlemen. Always civility."
- Cyrus Redblock to Beverly. TNG / "The Big Good-bye"
"Dismissed. That's a Starfleet expression for 'get out...'"
- Janeway to Neelix. VGR / "The Cloud"
"The two hundred and ninety-ninth Rule of Acquisition: 'Whenever you exploit someone, it never hurts to thank them.' That way, it's easier to exploit them the next time."
- Neelix to Arridor, Making up a new Rule of Acquisition. VGR / "False Profits"
Chapter 17: Justice and Law
"You already know if you punish him without reason, it won't mean anything. And you already know vengeance isn't enough."
- Dax to Kira, on Aamin Marritza, a suspected war criminal. DS9 / "Duet"
"Cardassian rules, Bajoran rules, Federation rules... they're all meaningless to you... because you have a personal code that's always mattered more... and I'm sorry to say you're in slim company..."
- Odo to Kira. DS9 / "The Circle"
"Stupidity is no excuse."
- Zek to Quark, on the law. DS9 / "Rules of Acquisition"
"I think you can't judge people by what they think or say... only by what they do."
- Kira to Ziyal. DS9 / "By Inferno's Light."
"You know the rules, Tom. We can't pick and choose which laws we'll respect and which we won't..."
- Janeway to Paris. VGR / "Random Thoughts"
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here's more. ansipag nya magtype noh? haha.
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Chapter 10: Parents, Children, and Family
(There are chapters on Human Nature, The Quality of Life, Humour, and other interesting ones, but since I'm a teacher, this chapter takes the top spot)
"I think children have an instinctive need for adults. They want to be told right and wrong."
- Kirk to Rand. The Original Series / "Miri"
"The Horta is intelligen, peaceful, mild. She had no objection to sharing this planet with you till you broke into her nursery and started destroying her eggs. Then she fought back in the only way she knew how. As any mother would fight when her children are in danger."
- Kirk to Chief Engineer Vanderberg. TOS / "The Devil in the Dark"
"Parents like stupid things."
"Oh, I don't know about that. Parents like children."
- Don Linden and Chapel. TOS / "And the Children Shall Lead."
"Youth doesn't excuse everything, Doctor McCoy."
- Kirk/Lester to McCoy. TOS / "Turnabout Intruder"
"My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned."
- Sarek to High Priestess T'Lar. The Search for Spock.
"Our children are not for sale at any price."
- Beverly to Radue. The Next Generation / "When the Bough Breaks."
"You are trifling with the primal instincts of our species. I must warn you that human parents are quite willing to die for their children."
- Picard to Radue on the kidnapping of the Enterprise children. TNG / "When the Bough Breaks."
"Dad, I want to be an artist. But I don't want to take calculus anymore."
"You can be anything you want, Harry. Anything. But you still have to take calculus."
- Harry Bernard, Jr. and Dr. Bernard. TNG / "When the Bough Breaks."
"The most dangerous animal is a mother protecting her young."
- Picard to Troi. TNG / "The Dauphin."
"You choose your enemies... you choose your friends... but family... that's in the stars."
- O'Brien to Riker. TNG / "The Icarus Factor."
"It's a funny thing about being a parent. There aren't any tech manuals, no quick read-outs to get your thought the next set of variables. You've just got to wing it from day to day..."
- Kyle Riker to Will Riker. TNG / "The Icarus Factor."
"You can't guide someone into adulthood. the experiences are unique to each person. Whether Wes succeeds of fails, he will learn from the experience."
- Troi to senior staff, on Wesley. TNG / "Pen Pals."
"A mother shapes her child in ways she doesn't even realize. Sometimes just by listening."
- Guinan to Beverly. TNG / "Evolution."
"Mother, look. Perhaps some day I will marry. But you have to let me make my own choices... live my own life, and not the life that you would choose for me."
- Troi to Lwaxana. TNG / "Menage a Troi."
"Young children are sometimes frightened of the world. That doesn't mean that their parents should let them stay in their cribs."
- Barclay to Troi. TNG / "The Nth Degree."
"We raise them, we care for them, we suffer for them, we keep them from harm their whole lives... now eventually, it's their turn to take care of us."
- Lwaxana to Timicin, on children's responsibilities to aging parent. TNG / "Half a Life."
"No parent should expect to be paid back for the love they've given their children."
- Timicin to Lwaxana. TNG / "Half a Life."
"Children don't have the experience to handle emotional crises. Instead of dealing with their feelings, they act on them."
- Troi to Worf. TNG / "New Ground."
"One day you're going to be glad your father cared enough about you to insist on rules. It may be hard to imagine right now... but eventually, most children come to appreciate their parents."
- Troi to Alexander. TNG / "Cost of Living."
"Well of course he's unreasonable; he's a child. And such a child. you know, making little boys reasonable only gives them pimples."
- Lwaxana to Worf, on Alexander. TNG / "Cost of Living."
"Children are a lot stronger than you think. As long as they know you love them... they can handle just about anything life throws at them, you know?"
- La Forge to Ensign Sutter. TNG / "Imaginary Friend."
"As adults, we don't always stop to consider how everything we say and do shapes the impressions of young people. But if you're judging us as a people by the way we treat our children... and I think there can be no better criterion... then you must understand how deeply we care for them. When our children are young, they don't understand what might be dangerous. Our rules are to keep them from harm. Real or imagined. And that's part of the continuity of our human species. When Clara grows up, she will make rules for her children... to protect them... as we protect her."
- Picard to Isabella. TNG / "Imaginary Friend."
"I always believed that I didn't need children to complete my life... now, I couldn't imagine life without them."
- Picard to Eline, on their children. TNG / "The Inner Light."
"You know, I don't think anyone is born knowing how to be a parent. You just sort of figure it out as you go. But the one quality that tends to be a requirement for parenthood is patience."
- Beverly to Picard. TNG / "Bloodlines."
"The sound of children playing. What could be more beautiful...?"
- Benjamin Sisko to Jennifer Sisko. Deep Space 9 / "Emissary."
"Going through my own adolescence was difficult enough. Surviving my son's is going to take a miracle."
- Sisko to Dax. DS9 / "The Nagus."
"Seems just yesterday he was five years old... clinging to me because he'd just scraped his knee and I was the only one int the world who could make it better. I remember sometimes getting up in the middle of the night and slipping into his room just to make sure he was all right... and I'd sit there and watch him sleep... and I'd think to myself that no matter what, I wasn't going to let anything bad happen to this child. Now he's a sector away, in a war zone, and there's nothing I can do to protect him."
- Sisko to Odo, on Jake. DS9 / "Nor the Battle to the Strong."
"It's always nice to have someone around to help change the diapers."
- Sisko to Odo. DS9 / "The Begotten."
"What are you telling me, my baby's just... sad?"
"Perhaps he's become prematurely aware of life's existential isolation."
"You're sure it's not a rash?"
"Look at the bright side: he'll probably be a great poet."
- O'Brien and Bashir, on Kirayoshi's constant crying. DS9 / "Business as Usual."
"Family. You understand."
"Not really. I was cloned."
- Quark and Yelgrum. DS9 / "The Magnificent Ferengi."
"I am a Klingon warrior and a Starfleet officer. I have piloted starships through Dominion mine fields, I have stood in battle against Kelvans twice my size, I courted and won the heart of the magnificent Jadzia Dax. If I can do these things... I can make this child go to sleep."
- Worf to Dax, on babysitting Kirayoshi. DS9 / "Time's Orphan."
"Well if you're going to do something, do it right - that's what my father used to say."
"Every father says that. Even I say that."
"That's why you're such a good parent - you know all the cliche's by heart."
- Kasidy Yates and Sisko. DS9 / "The Sound of Her Voice."
"I don't have anything to teach a daughter..."
"Why would it be any different from what you would teach a son?"
- Neelix and Tuvok. Voyager / "Elogium."
"But isn't that why we have minds? To look beyond biological urges... to consider their consequences? If I'm going to ask myself to look at those consequences... then I have to ask myself some questions. Am I really ready to have a child? Am I prepared to give that child the attention and devotion it deserves? Am I capable of taking on such a huge responsibility? There's so much I haven't done... there's so much I want to study and learn. I'm not sure I'm finished growing... How could I help a child grow?"
- Kes to the Doctor. Voyager / "Elogium."
"I have never understood the practice in some cultures of describing ferocious creatures in an attempt to lull children to sleep."
- Tuvok to Corin. Voyager / "Innocence."
Chapter 23: Humor
(Because I'm not in the mood for serious talk or mushiness. Haha.)
"I was making a little joke, sir."
"Extremely little, Ensign."
- Chekov and Spock. TOS / "The Trouble with Tribbles."
"You were saying you'll have no trouble explaining it..."
"My friend is obviously... Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain..."
"Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child..."
"The unfortunate accident he had as a child... He caught his head in a mechanical... rice-picker. But fortunately there was an American... missionary living close by who was actually a... skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life..."
- Spock and Kirk, trying to explain Spock's appearance to a human policeman in the year 1930. TOS / "The City on the Edge of Forever."
"I don't understand their humor either."
- Worf to Data on humans. TNG / "The Naked Now."
"I simply want to know what is funny. I want to involve myself in other people's laughter. I wish to 'join in.'"
- Data to the Comic. TNG / "The Outrageous Okona."
"I've noted that some people use humor as a shield... they talk much yet say little."
"Whereas others take a simpler approach - say nothing."
- Worf and L'Ehleyr. TNG / "The Emissary."
"Well after six years in a place like this, you either learn to laugh... or you go insane. I prefer to laugh."
- Ee'Char to O'Brien, on incarceration. DS9 / "Hard Time."
"I have a sense of humor. On the Enterprise, I was considered to be quite amusing."
"That must've been one dull ship."
"That is a joke. I get it. It is not funny, but I get it."
- Worf and Dax. DS9 / "Change of Heart."
"You keep working on that sense of humor, Commander Vulcan. You'll get it one of these days."
- Neelix to Tuvok. VGR / "Before and After."
"I understand the concept of humor. It may not be apparent... but I am often amused... by human behavior."
- Seven of Nine to Kim. VGR / "Revulsion."
"Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the latter half of the twentieth century."
- Spock to Kirk / The Voyage Home.
"If I were human, I believe my response would be... 'Go to Hell.' If I were human."
- Spock to Kirk, on being ordered to return to spacedock to be decommissioned. The Undiscovered Country.
Chapter 11: Love
"Love sometimes expresses itself in sacrifice."
- Kirk to McCoy. TOS / "Metamorphosis"
"Too much of anything, Lieutenant, even love, isn't necessarily a good thing!"
- Kirk to Uhura. TOS / "The Trouble with Tribbles"
"On Earth, we select our own mate, someone we care for. On Earth, men and women live together, help each other, make each other happy."
- Kirk to Shahna. TOS / "The Gamesters of Triskelion"
"The sooner our happiness together begins, the longer it will last."
- Miramenee to Kirk. TOS / "The Paradise Syndrome"
"HUMANS... YOUNG HUMAN MALES PARTICULARLY... HAVE DIFFICULTY SEPARATING PLATONIC LOVE AND PHYSICAL LOVE."
- Troi to Riker. TNG / "Haven"
"What about love?"
"The act or the emotion?"
"They're both the same."
"I believe that statement to be inaccurate, sir."
- Okona and Data. TNG / "The Outrageous Okona"
"There'll be others - but every time you feel love, it'll be different. Every time it's different."
"Knowing that doesn't make it any easier."
"It's not supposed to."
- Guinan and Wesley, on parting from the girl he loves. TNG / "The Dauphin"
"Who needs rational when your toes curl up...?"
- Beverly to Troi, on Troi's irrational relationship with Devinoni Ral. TNG / "The Price"
"I fell in love in a day. It lasted a week. But WHAT a week."
- Beverly to Troi, on a whirlwind romance. TNG / "The Price"
"... YOU CAN'T BE OPEN TO LOVE IF YOU DON'T RISK PAIN..."
- Troi to Beverly. TNG / "The Host"
"DATA, WHEN YOU GET INVOLVED WITH ANOTHER PERSON, THER'RE ALWAYS RISKS. OF DISAPPOINTMENT. OF GETTING HURT."
- Riker to Data. TNG / "In Theory"
(I think I shall call you DATA from now on, Anna)
"Relationships with coworkers can be fraught with consequences."
- Picard to Troi. TNG / "Lessons"
"THE POINT IS SOMETIMES WE DON'T SEE TRUE LOVE EVEN WHEN IT'S STARING US RIGHT IN THE FACE."
- Dax to Odo. DS9 / "Shadowplay"
"That's the thing about love. No one really understands it, do they?"
- Garak to Quark. DS9 / "Profit and Loss"
"And it's been my observation that you humanoids have a hard time giving up the things you love... no matter how much they might hurt you."
- Odo to Kira. DS9 / "Heart of Stone"
"Everyone is trying to... look out for us. Protect us from ourselves. But in the end, all that matters is how we feel... and what we do about it. Because either way, we're the ones who have to live with the consequences."
- Dax to Dr. Lenara Kahn, on their relationship, forbidden in Trill society. DS9 / "Rejoined"
"You humanoids. You're all obsessed with these convoluted mating rituals."
- Odo to Garak. DS9 / "Broken Link"
"I... am a fool."
"You're in love. Which I suppose is the same thing."
- Worf and Dax, on his behavior with Grilka. DS9 / "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places"
"But you can't go through life trying to avoid getting a broken heart. If you do, it'll break from loneliness, anyway. So you might as well take a chance. If you don't, she'll move on, and you'll never know what you might have had. And living with that is worse than having a broken heart, believe me."
- Bashir to Odo. DS9 / "A Simple Investigation"
"The way I see it, people are either meant to be together or they're not."
- Kira to Dax. DS9 / "Children of Time"
"We are not accorded the luxury of choosing the women we fall in love with. Do you think Sirella is anything like the woman I thought that I'd marry? She is a prideful, arrogant, mercurial woman who shares my bed far too infrequently for my taste. And yet... I love her deeply. We Klingons often tout our prowess in battle, our desire for glory and honor above all else... but how hollow is the sound of victory without someone to share it with. Honor gives little comfort to a man alone in his home... and in his heart."
- General Martok to Worf. DS9 / "You Are Cordially Invited..."
"Commander... I don't think you can analyze love. It's the greatest mystery of all. No one knows why it happens, or doesn't. Love is a chance combination of elements... Any one thing might be enough to keep it from igniting... a mood, a glance, a remark. And if we could define love... predict it... it would probably lose its power."
- Neelix to Chakotay. VGR / "Unforgettable"