Babylon 5 Quotes

[At a Universe Today vendor station, Delenn haughtily dismisses humans' fascination with the press.]
Delenn: Back home, when there is something you need to know, you are told just what you require and no more.
. . .
Delenn: … Minbari respect the privacy of others by not prying into their affairs. To express undue curiosity—
Newsvendor Computer: Unable to insert "Eye on Minbari" section. Do you wish to accept edition anyway?
Delenn: Uh… yes, yes I do.
John Sheridan: "Eye on Minbari"?
Delenn: It is good to know what your people are thinking and saying about my people. And, uh…[grins] I often learn things about my own world before I'm told "what I need to know and no more".

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Lyta has tested all high- and medium-ranking station personnel — but one — for the traitor's psychic trigger.]
Lyta Alexander: The further you go from the center of power, the less likely it is we're going to find the person that we're looking for.
[She pointedly turns and looks at Ivanova.]
Susan Ivanova: I suggest you move those eyes somewhere else…while you still have them.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Lyta pays Kosh a visit.]
Lyta: I'm back. I can't stay. The Captain's made sure I can get away before the Psi Cops get here, but—I had to see you again, before my ship leaves. I never told them. I never told anyone. I hid it all away in the smallest, tiniest corner of my mind. They could've killed me and they still wouldn't have found it! Only at night, alone, would I open that small door in my mind where I kept the memory of you and listen to your voice—listen to you sing me to sleep. I hope I can come back again, but I don't know. Until then—Kosh—I want to see you again, just one more time before I go.
[Kosh's suit opens, and Lyta is bathed in bright white light.]

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Londo learns of Refa's plan to use mass drivers to assault the Narn homeworld.]
Londo Mollari: Mass drivers? They have been outlawed by every civilized planet!
Lord Antono Refa: These are uncivilized times.
Londo: We have treaties!
Lord Refa: Ink on a page!

TV Show: Babylon 5
[The White Star struggles to escape Jupiter's pull]
Sheridan: Full power! Give me everything you've got!
Lennier: If I were holding anything back, I would tell you.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Draal tells Delenn and Sheridan about what he's discovered using the Great Machine.]
Draal: Since taking up residence in the heart of this machine, I have explored its secrets, learned, and discovered that I can look into distant worlds, see and hear things you cannot begin to imagine! Along the way, I've learned some things about you, Captain! The loss of your wife—I know Delenn has told you about the coming darkness. And lately I've learned about your role in, shall we say, a "conspiracy of light" aimed at your own government?
John Sheridan: I don't know what you're talking about.
Draal: Yes, you do! Please, Captain, don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. They would have to dig down three miles into the surface of this planet to learn what I know, and no one who tried would survive the attempt! And now I have seen enough! I said a year ago that this place was to be left alone until the time was right. That time has arrived. Now that I know the full capabilities of this place, I am prepared to place them at your disposal!
Sheridan: Are you proposing an alliance?
Draal: One of the first! There will be more to come. This has been a hard and trying year for you, Captain Sheridan. It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone, and that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Londo demands that "Citizen" G'Kar be removed from further Council meetings. G'Kar rises to go.]
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.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Sebastian, the Vorlons' Inquisitor, surveys the Zocalo]
Sebastian: Nothing changes. Corruption, immorality, chaos.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[after a grueling interrogation of Delenn, Sebastian turns his attention on Sheridan]
Sebastian: You said you didn't have to answer any of my questions. But there's no reason to exclude you from our deliberations. You're linked at the hip, just as bad as she is. But you're not just a dreamer. You're a soldier! How far are you prepared to go? How much are you prepared to risk? How many people are you prepared to sacrifice for victory? Are you willing to die friendless, alone, deserted by everyone? Because that's what may be required of you in the war that is to come!
John Sheridan: Go to Hell!
Sebastian: This is Hell, Captain, and you are its chief damned soul. What about the people you work with, the people you call friends? Are you willing to sacrifice them? What about your family?[He zaps Sheridan with his cane.] What about your God?[Another zap.] What about truth?[Zap.] What about blood?[Zap.] What about right?[Zap.] What about wrong?[Zap.] What about your future?[Zap.] What about faith?[Zap.] What about sin?[Zap.] What about Hell?[Zap.] What about death?[Zap.] What about etern
Delenn: ENOUGH! Your quarrel is with me! You were sent to investigate me! Let him go! If you want to take someone, then take me!

TV Show: Babylon 5
Delenn: If I fall, another will take my place, and another, and another.
Sebastian: But your great cause!
Delenn: This is my cause--Life! One life or a billion, it's all the same!
Sebastian: Then you make the sacrifice willingly? No fame. No armies or banners or cities to celebrate your name. You will die alone and unremarked and forgotten.
Delenn: This body is only a shell. You cannot touch me, you cannot harm me. I'm not afraid.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[after Delenn offers to sacrifice herself for Sheridan, who's being tortured by Sebastian]
Sebastian: You can go. You've passed, both of you.
Delenn: Passed what?
Sebastian: How do you know the Chosen Ones? "No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother." Not for millions…not for glory…not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see. I have been in the service of the Vorlons for centuries, looking for you. Diogenes with his lamp, looking for an honest man willing to die for all the wrong reasons. At last, my job is finished. Yours is just beginning. When the darkness comes, know this: You are the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

TV Show: Babylon 5
Sheridan: Mr…Sebastian, I did a little digging, based on what you told me. The records confirm you lived on Earth in the year 1888. The records also indicate that you vanished, suddenly, without a trace on November 11th, 1888. That's a very interesting date, Mr. Sebastian. The morning after the last of a string of murders in the East End.
Sebastian: The city was drowning in decay. Chaos. Immorality. A message needed to be sent, etched in blood for all the world to see. A warning. In the pursuit of my holy cause, I…did things. Terrible things. Unspeakable things. The world condemned me, but it didn't matter because I believed I was right and the world was wrong. I believed I was the divine messenger. I believed I was…
Sheridan: Chosen?
Sebastian: [after a pause] I was…found by the Vorlons. They showed me the terrible depth of my mistake, my crimes, my…presumption. I have done four hundred years of penance and service, a job for which they said I was ideally suited. Now, perhaps, they will finally let me die.
Sheridan: I think that might be wise.
Sebastian: [turning to board a Vorlon transport] Good luck to you in your holy cause, Captain Sheridan. May your choices have better results than mine. Remembered not as a messenger, remembered not as a reformer, not as a prophet, not as a hero…not even as Sebastian. Remembered only…as Jack.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[At a bar on the Zocalo]
Lennier: Sometimes I get so close, and yet it seems I'm shut out of the important things.
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…
Vir: People coming and going and secret meetings!
Lennier: You never know what it's all about. Until later, when it's too late.
Vir: And they never listen to us.
Vir, Lennier: [in unison] Makes me nervous!
[They turn and look at each other, then back to the bar again]
Vir: Same time tomorrow?
Lennier: Sure.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Keffer is describing a Shadow vessel to a fellow pilot, who has seen the same thing.]
Lt. Warren Keffer: It was jet black. A shade of black so deep your eye just kinda slides off it. And it shimmered when you looked at it. A spider big as death and twice as ugly. And when it flies past, it's like you hear a scream in your mind.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Lantze surprises the B5 staff with the true purpose of his visit.]
Frederick Lantze: I'm here to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Centauri. Before I leave here, there will be an Earth-Centauri alliance that will guarantee peace for Earth. We will, at last, know peace in our time.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Sheridan is told that the Joint Chiefs have ordered him to apologize to the Centauri.]
John Sheridan: I suppose this…apology is already written?
Mr. Welles: No need. You can phrase the apology any way you see fit. As with everything else, it's the thought that counts.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Sheridan practices his apology to the Centauri government before a mirror.]
Sheridan: I apologize. I'm…sorry. [sighs] 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! [pauses] As with everything else, it's the thought that counts.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[last lines of the season]
Susan Ivanova: It was the end of the Earth year 2259, and the war was upon us. As anticipated, a few days after the Earth-Centauri treaty was announced, the Centauri widened their war to include many of the Non-Aligned Worlds. And there was another war brewing closer to home. A personal one whose cost would be higher than any of us could imagine. We came to this place because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259, we knew that it had failed. But in so doing, it became something greater. As the war expanded, it became our last, best hope for victory. Because sometimes peace is another word for surrender…and because secrets have a way of getting out.
[ISN news shows Lt. Keffer's recordings of a Shadow vessel]
Newscaster: When our ship encountered a distress beacon attached to an EarthForce recording device, these images, released exclusively to ISN, were found on that recording. Strategic analysts in Earth Dome have indicated they don't know who this new race might be, but promise to find out.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Opening credits voiceover.]
Susan Ivanova: The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope…for victory. The year is 2260. The place, Babylon 5.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Sheridan approaches Kosh to thank him for saving his life.]
John Sheridan: You've been back and forth to your homeworld 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: I have always been here.
Sheridan: Oh yeah? You said that about me too.
Kosh: Yes.
Sheridan: [slightly unnerved] I really hate it when you do that.
Kosh: Good.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Ivanova chides Sheridan on his impatience over an arriving VIP on a mysterious mission.]
Susan Ivanova: Leave it to you to try and take all the fun out of life. I mean, come on, where's your sense of mystery, of adventure?
Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No, sir! Wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good! I hate being cheered up. It's…depressing.
Ivanova: So, in that case…we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you. I feel so much better now.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Ivanova preempts Sheridan's belated revelation of the Rangers by detailing what he was going to say.]
Ivanova: Captain, the day something happens around here and I don't know about it, worry.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Marcus shows off a brand-new ship to Sheridan and Ivanova.]
Sheridan: My God! It's beautiful!
Marcus Cole: Her name is the White Star. And she's yours, Captain.

TV Show: Babylon 5
David Endawi, EarthForce Intelligence: This is quite irregular, Mr. Garibaldi! I was assured that Captain Sheridan or Commander Ivanova would be available!
Michael Garibaldi: They got called away on urgent business.
Endawi: What kind of business?
Garibaldi: I'm not authorized for that kind of information.
Endawi: But…you're the head of Security.
Garibaldi: And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know? [I mean,] I know what I know because I have to know it, and if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me, either. Now look, we've tried most of the other ambassadors. Why don't you speak to G'Kar? Maybe he knows something about this ship.
Endawi: Under the terms of our recent treaty, I am not authorized to have any official conversation with the Narn without Centauri approval.
Garibaldi: So you'll ask unofficially. And I can give you reasonable assurances that the head of Security will not report you for doing so.
Endawi: [slowly] Because you won't tell yourself about it.
Garibaldi: I try never to get involved in my own life. Too much trouble.
Endawi: [confused] This is a very strange place you have here, Mr. Garibaldi.
Garibaldi: Thank you.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[The White Star is fleeing a Shadow ship in hyperspace, and Sheridan has an idea for beating it.]
Sheridan: Tell me, Commander…have you ever wondered what would happen if you opened a jump point while inside a jump gate?
Ivanova: No! And neither should you! EarthForce experimented with the idea during the Minbari War. They called it the Bonehead Maneuver. [to Lennier] No offense.
Lennier: [more curious than offended] None taken.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[A clandestine trio on Earth consider the premature leak of a Shadow ship sighting.]
Morden: Your government can dismiss this as an isolated incident.
Psi Cop: I don't know. There's something about this idea of a threat to planetary security I find very appealing. As long as we keep the real truth to ourselves, there's no reason we can't use this situation to speed up the program here at home.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Drazi missionaries ask a distracted Garibaldi about the recent sighting of their holy figure Droshalla.]
Michael Garibaldi: Zack, do me a favor and explain the missionary, uh… position to these folks.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Lennier is in the arrivals area, stuck between two humans--one drunk, one sleeping on his shoulder.]
Drunk: I said "Sheila," "Sheila," I says, "you change that vid channel one more time and I'm outta here, you got it?" Well, she did, I did, and here I am! You shoulda seen the look on her face, let me tell you! But it's great! I get to meet all kinds of people! I mean, look! Me sitting next to you, a Minbari! You know, us in that war and all. But I don't hold a grudge, no sir! You know what? I say live and let live! You know, look, I got hair, you got a bone! So where you goin'?
Lennier: Home. I have been diagnosed with Netter's Syndrome. Since I have only seven days to live, I thought I would return home to put my affairs in order before the end.
Drunk: Netter's Syndrome? I've had a few syndromes, but I've never heard of that one.
Lennier: Neither had I. Apparently it's spread by physical contact.
[The drunk realizes he's still got Lennier by the shoulder.]
Drunk: Uh, I gotta make a call. [He gets up and walks away, while the sleeping human rolls off of Lennier's shoulder.]
Lennier: [to himself] I will do penance later.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Ivanova has recruited Brother Theo and his monks to help locate a bomber.]
Garibaldi: May I be the first to say that this is the nuttiest idea you've ever had.
Susan Ivanova: Thank you.

TV Show: Babylon 5
[Lennier wakes from a coma after saving Londo and Delenn's lives in a bombing.]
Delenn: Welcome back! How do you feel?
Lennier: As though a great many heavy objects had fallen on me. But I suspect I will live.

TV Show: Babylon 5