Babylon 5 Quotes

Year One Quotes

Ivanova: "And just one more thing. On your way back, I'd like you to 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. … Civilians." [Looks at ceiling.] "Just kidding about that God part. No offence."

Sinclair: "A poem: a story in meter or rhyme."
Delenn: "Ahh. 'There once was a man from Nantucket...'"
Sinclair: "You've been talking to Garibaldi again, haven't you?"

Sinclair: "The last time I gave an interview they told me to just relax and say what I really felt. Ten minutes after the broadcast I got transferred to an outpost so far off the starmaps you couldn't find it with a hunting dog and an ouiji board."
Garibaldi: "Don't sweat it. Just be that charming, efflorescent commander we've all come to know and love. What's the worst that could happen? They fire you, ship you off to the Rim and I get promoted to Commander. I don't see a problem here."

Ivanova: "I know, I know. It's a Russian thing. When we're about to do something stupid, we like to catalogue the full extent of our stupidity for future reference."

Major Kemmer: "I demand you open a channel to Earth at once."
Ivanova: "I'm a Lieutenant Commander on Earth Force, Major. I don't take demands. If you have a request, I will consider it."
Major Kemmer: "Very well, then. I request that you open a channel to Earthdome."
Ivanova: "Request denied. Have a nice day."

Londo: "Now, landing thrusters... landing thrusters. Hmm. Now if I were a landing thruster, which one of these would I be?"

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."

Vir: "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 favours come with too high a price. I want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave, like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

"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."

Sheridan: "I apologise. I'm sorry. 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. As with everything else, it's the thought that counts."

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?"

Year Three Quotes

Ivanova: "The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope for victory. The year is 2260. The place: Babylon 5."

Kosh: "It was… necessary."
Sheridan: "Well, as answers go, short, to the point, utterly useless, and totally consistent with what I've come to expect from a Vorlon."
Kosh: "Good."
Sheridan: "You know, I just had a thought. 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: "I really hate it when you do that."
Kosh: "Good."

Ivanova: "With all due respect, that was grade-A stupid. I mean, what if the guy would have gone for it? I mean, what if he would have just blown your brains all over the place? What if he…" [Looking at something Sheridan is twirling around in his fingers.] "What's that?"
Sheridan: "Energy cap. I palmed it when I shoved the gun in his pocket."
Ivanova: "You are going to give me an ulcer."
Sheridan: "Okay, okay, next time I'll give him a live gun. You really do want that promotion, don't you?"

Delenn: "This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, or be destroyed."
Captain Drake: "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."

Garibaldi: "You know, I've been stuck in this tin can for three years. I haven't taken a vacation… Okay, okay, my fault, I had the leave coming, I just didn't take it. Now, the pay sucks, I knew that when I signed on, and nobody said I'd survive the job. Now, I'll give you all that, but where in my contract does it say I have to eat the same food for breakfast every day for three years?"
Sheridan: "Paragraph 47, subsection 19, clause 9a. You can find in the index under S.U.A.E.I."
Garibaldi: "S.U.A.E.I.?"
Sheridan & Ivanova: "Shut Up And Eat It!"

Garibaldi: "They got called away on urgent business."
Mr. Endawi: "What kind of business?"
Garibaldi: "I'm not authorised for that kind of information."
Mr. 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, you've tried most of the other Ambassadors, why don't you speak with G'Kar, maybe he knows something about this ship."
Mr. Endawi: "Under the terms of our recent treaty, I'm not authorised 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."
Mr. Endawi: "Because you won't tell yourself about it?"
Garibaldi: "I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble."
Mr. Endawi: "This is a very strange place you have here, Mr. Garibaldi."
Garibaldi: "Thank you."

Londo: "Lyta Alexander! As I live and breathe!"
Lyta: "I suggest you remove your hand, Ambassador, or you won't be doing either for much longer."

Londo: "Yes, you can help me. Two hours ago. Two hours ago I called you. I told you that there is .. a bug, an insect in my quarters."
Maintenance Worker: "Well, we've been a little busy."
Londo: "Now, listen to me. I do not like insects. I do not like little brown things with eight legs. I do not like anything with eight legs. Well, except for the Vinzini, but only because they are terrible at cards. Something to do with compound eyes, I think. I want this thing dead!

Londo: "I swear they are evolving right before my eyes." [To Vir] "If you see anything this big with eight legs coming your way, let me know. I have to kill it before it develops language skills."

Marcus: "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!"

Sheridan: "How long before that probe detonates?"
Ivanova: "Six hours."
Sheridan: [To Corwin.] "Tell the Transport Pilots Association we'll re-convene in seven hours." [To Ivanova.] "If that thing blows, at least it'll save me from one more annoying conversation."
Ivanova: "Always finding the good in every situation, eh Captain?"
Sheridan: "Absolutely. If I didn't, I might end up like you."
Ivanova: "Hey, what's that supposed to mean? Did anybody else hear that?" [To Corwin.] "Did you hear that?"
Corwin: "No, Commander."
Ivanova: "Good. I swear, if we live through this, somebody's going to find their automatic shower preferences re-programmed for ice water."

7 hours later…

Sheridan: "Aw, nuts."
Ivanova: "What's wrong? I mean, we survived."
-Sheridan: "Right. Which means now I have to go back to that stupid Transport Association meeting."
Ivanova: "If I live through this job without completely losing my mind, it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions."
Corwin: "Well, there goes my faith in the Almighty."

Zathras: "Zathras also honoured to meet you .. for other reasons."
Sheridan: "Oh, such as?"
Zathras: "Oh, no, Draal give Zathras list of things not to say. This was one. No, not good. Not supposed to mention one, or the One or .. You never heard that."
Sheridan: "What else is on this list of things you are not supposed to mention?"
Zathras: "Zathras does not remember. But if Zathras remember later, Zathras tells you."

Sheridan: "Delenn, the question of who stole Babylon 4 is the biggest mystery of the last decade. Now you're telling me it was me? Uh, is me, is going to be me? You can't be serious." 

Sinclair: "Ready?"
Delenn: "Why do your people always ask if someone is ready right before you're going to do something massively unwise?"
Sinclair: "Tradition."

Ivanova: "Come on, come on, find what you need and let's get out of here, we're running out of time."
Zathras: "Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You are finite, Zathras is finite, this… is wrong tool."

Marcus: "He's quite mad, you know. He actually thinks that Sheridan's going to materialise in there."
Ivanova: "Marcus, we're stealing a station to fight in a war that was over a thousand years ago. We're all mad."

Zathras: "No one ever listens to Zathras. 'Quite mad', they say. It is good that Zathras does not mind. Has even grown to like it, oh yes."

Year Four Quotes

Lennier: "It was the year of fire."
Zack: "The year of destruction."
G'Kar: "The year we took back what was ours."
Lyta: "It was the year of rebirth."
Vir: "The year of great sadness."
Marcus: "The year of pain."
Delenn: "And a year of joy."
Londo: "It was a new age."
Franklin: "It was the end of history."
Ivanova: "It was the year everything changed."
Garibaldi: "The year is 2261."
Sheridan: "The place: Babylon 5."

Ivanova: "Lennier, get us the hell out of here."
Lennier: "Initiating 'Getting the Hell Out of Here' manoeuvre."

Sheridan: "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: "In that case, we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths."
Sheridan: "Thank you, I feel so much better now."

Franklin: "I will not support murder. We can not kill him."
Ivanova: "Can we wound him? Just a little?"

Delenn: "Strange. The galaxy seems somehow smaller now that the First Ones are gone forever."
Sheridan: "It feels like the magic's gone."
Delenn: "No, not gone. Now we make our own magic. Now we create our own legends. Now we build the future. Now we stop..."
Sheridan: "Being afraid of Shadows."

Sheridan: "Commander. Did you threaten to grab a hold of this man by the collar and throw him out an airlock?"
Ivanova: "Yes I did."
Sheridan: "I'm shocked. Shocked and dismayed. I'd remind you that we are short on supplies here. We can't afford to take perfectly good clothing and throw it out into space. Always take the jacket off first, I told you that before. Sorry, she meant to say striped naked and thrown out an airlock. I apologise for any confusion this may have caused."

Londo: "Minister, I have met Cartagia three times before, twice when he was an infant. He drooled most of the time, I wonder if he's continued the habit, and again when he was 15 trying to peek up the dresses of some young women. I promise you, I will be just as impressed by him now as I was then. Yes?"

Cartagia: "Ah, Mollari. It's wonderful to see you again."
Londo: "And you, Majesty. I could swear you have not changed since the last few times I saw you."

Zack: "Well, I didn't think we'd be seeing you again anytime soon, Ambassador."
Londo: "Yes, I gathered that from the look of unvarnished joy on your face when you saw me. Perhaps you would like to sit before you are overcome by ecstasy."
Zack: "Thanks, I'm fine. So, what happened? They got tired of you back home?"
Londo: "Tired? Of course not, don't be absurd. The Emperor himself said I would only be allowed to leave over his dead body. I said: 'Well, how strange, Mr. Allan said I would only be allowed back on to Babylon 5 over his dead body.' With my very busy schedule I can only accommodate so many requests. I know it's a burden, but you will simply have to wait your turn."

Zack: "The only reason that guy is still alive is that half the time I don't know what the hell he's talking about. The other half, I wish I didn't. But that's why it's important to check in on customs on a regular basis. You never know who's gonna walk in that.."

Bester: "Just a guess, Mr. Allan, but I suggest the word you are looking for is 'door'. Now, please notify the captain that I'm here, I need to meet with him and the rest of the command staff ASAP. I assume my usual quarters in the brig are available. I have grown so attached to the place."
Zack: "For you Mr. Bester, always."

G’Kar: "... sometimes I even sing."
Garibaldi: "I know, we got a petition."
G’Kar: "For or against?"
Garibaldi: "Based on the sound, they think we're torturing you in here."

Franklin: "Is this really the best ship you could find?"
Marcus: "Yes."
Franklin: "Smells like the inside of a Martian pleasuredome on Sunday morning."
Marcus: "I wouldn't know anything about that."
Franklin: "Don't make me come over there and take that thing from you."
Marcus: "It helps me relax."
Franklin: "Marcus, this is the kind of conversation that can only end in a gunshot."
Marcus: "Would you like me to sing instead?"
Franklin: "No"
Marcus: "You haven't heard me."
Franklin: "Marcus please."

Delenn: "John, it pleases me that you care for what I have become. Never forget who I was, what I am, and what I can do."

"Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andre 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."

Year Five Quotes

Kosh: "And so it begins."
Minbari Assassin: "There is a hole in your mind."
Morden: "What do you want?"
G’Kar: "No one here is exactly what he appears."
Sinclair: "Nothing's the same anymore."
"Commander Sinclair ... is being reassigned."
Londo: Why don't you eliminate the entire Narn homeworld while you're at it?"
Elric: "I see a great hand reaching out of the stars."
"Who are you?"
ISN Reporter: "President Clark has signed a decree today declaring martial law."
Sheridan: "These orders have forced us to declare independence."
"Weapons supplies."
Sheridan: "Unless your people get off their encounter-suited butts and do something."
Zathras: "You are the one who was."
Kosh: "If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die."
Lorien: "Why are you here?"
Lorien: "Do you have anything worth living for?"
Delenn: "I think of my beautiful city in flames."
Sheridan: "Like giants in a playground."
Sheridan: "Get the hell out of our galaxy!"
Sheridan: "We are here to place President Clark under arrest."

Ivanova: "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 will do it for us. It showed us that we have 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."

Various Quotes

(If you know when they come from please e-mail me.)

Marcus: "Oh, for the record, if they kill me, this was not a good idea on my part."

Ivanova: "Does the phrase 'No way in hell.' ring a bell?"