Babylon 5 Quotes

You put your right hand in,
You put your right hand out.
You put your whole self in,
And you turn yourself about.
You do the hokey-pokey,
You give a little shout.
That's what it's all about!


TV Show: Babylon 5
It doesn't mean anything! I have been studying it for seven days! I had the computer analyze it! I swear to you, it does not mean a thing!
Delenn: We've come at a bad time, haven't we?

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Sinclair and Ivanova try to retrieve the machine-ensconced alien while the planet quakes around them.]
Ivanova: Commander, we don't have a lot of time. We're cut off from the way we came in, we don't know if we can find another way back to the ship before we run out of air…
Sinclair: We can't leave him like this!
Ivanova: I know, I know. It's a Russian thing. When we're about to do something stupid, we like to catalog the full extent of our stupidity for future reference.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Delenn: The third principle of sentient life is its capacity for self-sacrifice, for a cause…a loved one…for a friend.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Susan Ivanova: Ambassador, do you really want to know what's going on down there right now?
Londo Mollari: Yes, absolutely.
Ivanova: Boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom. BOOM! Have a nice day.
[She walks away with a smile, leaving Londo to stew.]
Londo: Faugh! You can never get a straight answer from anyone around here!

TV Show: Babylon 5
[after Captain Pierce of the EAS Hyperion and an alien ship trade ultimatums]
Ivanova: Worst case of testosterone poisoning I've ever seen.

TV Show: Babylon 5
G'Kar: I was ready... I had the dagger in my hand! And he has the indecency to start dying on his own!

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Franklin brings a message from the ill Emperor to G'Kar, who had planned to kill the Centauri leader.]
G'Kar: How is the poor fellow? I was so looking forward to meeting him and opening up…a dialog.
. . .
[Franklin relays the Emperor's message.]
Stephen Franklin: He said…"We're wrong. The hatred between our people can never end until someone is willing to say, 'I'm sorry'. And try and find a way to make things right again, to atone for our actions."

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Garibaldi receives a recorded message from former boss Jeffrey Sinclair.]
Jeffrey Sinclair: There's a great darkness coming, Michael.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Susan Ivanova: God, I hate mornings.
Jeffrey Sinclair: We noticed. Personally, I find it the best part of the day.
Michael Garibaldi: Ah, me too.
Ivanova: [sighs] We all have our cross to bear.
Sinclair: The time I really learned to appreciate mornings was during the three years I spent being taught by Jesuits. [His voice drops to a near-whisper, and Ivanova starts to nod off.] We used to get up at five o'clock every morning for sunrise mass. Then an hour of meditation before class. We would sit, quiet, at peace. [Her eyelids are getting heavier.] Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out. [She's out cold.] Breathing in, breathing out. [Sinclair winks at Garibaldi, and the chief swaps their just-started breakfasts with dirty, empty dishes, but leaves Ivanova's untouched.]
Garibaldi: Well!
Ivanova: [snapping awake] What?
Garibaldi: Oh, that was great! Boy, just hit the spot! [to Sinclair] I see you cleaned your plate too! Guess I'd better get going.
Sinclair: Me too, it's nearly seven-thirty.
Ivanova: Sev—seven-thirty? I…I didn't even…I slept through breakfast? This isn't fair! It's n…
Sinclair: Something, Lieutenant Commander?
Ivanova: No! Nothing, I'm fine! I'm fine, you'll have to excuse me. [into her link] C&C, this is Ivanova! I realize I'm late, but I'm on my way! [She runs out, and Garibaldi swaps the dishes back.]
Sinclair: I'll notify your next of kin. [picks up his tray and leaves]
Garibaldi: Four…three…two…one…
Ivanova: [out in the corridor, shouting] AUGH! GARIBALDI, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!

TV Show: Babylon 5
Delenn: Summoned, I come. In Valen's name, I take the place that has been prepared for me. I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Major Krantz: What if we take you with us? Put you on trial?
Zathras: Zathras not of this time. You take, Zathras die. You leave, Zathras die. Either way, it is bad for Zathras.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Ivanova barges into Dr. Franklin's illicit free clinic. He is bent over a notepad, distracted.]
Stephen Franklin: [not paying attention] You can start by removing your clothes.
Susan Ivanova: Not without dinner and flowers.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Jeffrey Sinclair: I'm still waiting for an explanation, gentlemen.
Londo Mollari: Yes. And I'm prepared to give you one, Commander, as soon as the room stops spinning.
Sinclair: This station creates gravity by rotation. It never stops spinning.
Londo: Well, you begin to see my problem.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Londo Mollari: But this…this, this, this is like… being nibbled to death by, uh…Pah! What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet…go "quack".
Vir Cotto: Cats.
Londo: Cats! I'm being nibbled to death by cats.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Londo chats with Morden in the garden.]
Londo: There comes a time when you look into the mirror, and you 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.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[in a bar on the Zocalo, after EarthForce 1's destruction]
Kosh: And so it begins.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[speaking to his "associates"]
Morden: Yes. I think he's ready.…Perfect for our needs.…No.…No. He suspects nothing.…When the time is right, Ambassador Mollari will do exactly as we wish.…Destiny is on our side.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[last lines of the season]
Sinclair: Nothing's the same anymore.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Opening credits voiceover.]
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.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Susan Ivanova: [voiceover] Status report, Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova recording. It is now eight days since the death of Earth Alliance President Luis Santiago, and five days since Commander Sinclair was recalled to Earth without explanation. And the whole place has gone straight to hell.
[A transport tube opens to reveal Ivanova addressing a quartet of cowering humans and aliens.]
Ivanova: And as far as I'm concerned, the transports can wait until the SUN EXPLODES! And if you're not happy with the seating arrangements, I will personally order your seats to be moved outside, down the hall, across the station, and into the fusion reactor! Am I absolutely, perfectly clear on this?
[As she leaves them to their bickering, she continues her narration about the chaos on the station after Sinclair's abrupt recall.]
Ivanova: [voiceover] I can only conclude that I'm paying off karma at a vastly accelerated rate.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Dr. Franklin tells Ivanova about Garibaldi's coma.]
Ivanova: Well then, I'll say a prayer for him tonight.
Stephen Franklin: He's agnostic.
Ivanova: Then I'll say half a prayer.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Sheridan's "good luck speech" upon taking command of Babylon 5]
John Sheridan: When I was 21, I visited Tibet. I went to see the new Dalai Lama. Uh, you do that sort of thing when you're 21 and the son of a diplomatic envoy. We had a simple dinner. Rice, raisins, carrots—steamed, not boiled—and green tea. When it was over, he looked at me and said, "Do you understand?" I said no, I didn't. "Good beginning," he said. "You'll be even better when you begin to understand what you do not understand." After reading some of your reports, I begin to understand what I don't understand about Babylon 5. But I couldn't wish for a more capable and skilled group of people to learn from. It was an early Earth President, Abraham Lincoln, who best described our current situation. He said…
[he gets interrupted by a security alarm]
. . .
Sheridan: [delivering the rest of his speech to an empty C&C] It was an early Earth president, Abraham Lincoln, who best described our situation. "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial though which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation. We shall nobly save or meanly lose our last, best hope of Earth." [He looks around with a satisfied smile.] Five minutes to spare.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Londo rants before the Babylon 5 Advisory Council about the missing G'Kar and Delenn.]
Londo Mollari: There, you see! One deserts his post without any explanation, the other one picks the most breathtakingly inconvenient moment possible to explore new career options, like becoming a butterfly!

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Londo finds Morden's suggestions of future attacks against the Narn entertaining.]
Londo: Why don't you eliminate the entire Narn homeworld while you're at it? [chuckles]
Morden: One thing at a time, Ambassador. One thing at a time.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Michael Garibaldi: [waking up from his coma] Oh, God. I'm out of it for a few days, the whole place goes to hell!
John Sheridan: Well, I hope I can prove otherwise. Captain John Sheridan, your new CO.
Garibaldi: I don't know you.
Sheridan: No, but I think we'll get along just fine.

TV Show: Babylon 5
G'Kar: [quoting Yeats' "Second Coming"]Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


TV Show: Babylon 5
[A Technomage uses an illusion of a massive robotic creature to scare Vir away.]
Vir Cotto: [to the illusion] My name is Vir Cotto, diplomatic attache to ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic! My name is Vir Cotto, diplomatic attache to ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic! My name is…
Elric: Stop program. [the illusion pauses, then vanishes] You don't frighten easily.
Vir: I work for Ambassador Mollari. After a while, nothing bothers you.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Elric: There is an old saying: "Do not try the patience of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Dr. Franklin is treating Ivanova's broken foot.]
Stephen Franklin: I can give you something for the pain…
Susan Ivanova: Oh, great. Now you can give me something for the pain.
Franklin: What?
Ivanova: Where were you when I was going through puberty?
[He chuckles.]
Ivanova: No, it's okay; I'll get used to it. If it gets too bad, I'll just…gnaw it off at the ankle.

TV Show: Babylon 5