# Favorite Babylon 5 lines **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2006, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918 "2006-07-02T05:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/1 "2006-07-02T05:25:14Z")
So, we were hanging out in the [Favorite Star Trek Line](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=377382&page=1&pp=50) thread, and **carnivorousplant** made the excellent suggestiont that there should also be a thread for our favorite Babylon 5 lines as well (a very open-minded suggestion coming from the Trekkie 😉 ) So anyhow, rules of the game, short exchanges of dialogue allowed, otherwise monologues, one-liners, and quips only please. You can quote Babylon 5, Crusade, Legend of the Rangers, or any of the movies, but let’s not be so geeky as to quote the novels and the comic books, OK? 😃 I’ll start it off with a classic… “No Boom today, Boom tommorow. There’s ALWAYS a Boom tommorow. BOOM!” --Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivonova ;j ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/2 "2006-07-02T05:35:29Z")
Yay, a B5 Thread! (Chair boogie ensues) Impossible to pick a single favorite line, I’ll likely add several as I remember. A classic, when Molari is complaining to Ivanova about his doll not being anatomically correct… - So you feel you’ve been symbollically cast…in a bad light\* Others: _Either way, is a bad day for Zathros_ _If you go to Za’ha’dum, you will die_–Kosh _I have always been here_-Kosh ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/3 "2006-07-02T05:40:24Z")
“There is always time. Time is infinite. You are finite, Zathras is finite, this…is wrong tool.” “Zathras have sad life, but will probably have sad death, so at least there is symmetry.” ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/4 "2006-07-02T05:42:24Z")
Oh, too many to list, but here are some that pop up around the house: Everybody’s cute! --Molari You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. --Marcus “Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You, are finite. Zathras, is finite. This, is wrong tool.” --Zathras (Well, pretty much everything Zathras ever said, really) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/5 "2006-07-02T06:21:35Z")
“Delenn tells me that you are going to try contacting the First Ones. It is a magnificent idea. A daring, and splendid idea. In doing so you will see things no human has seen before. It will be fun. Assuming you are not vaporised, dissected, or otherwise killed in an assortment of supremely horrible and painful ways. Exciting, isn’t it?” – Draal to Sheridan in Babylon 5: _Voices of Authority_ “Good luck, Captain. I think you are about to go where **everyone** has gone before.” – Ivanova to Sheridan in Babylon 5: _Voices of Authority_ “I can only conclude that I’m paying off karma at a vastly accelerated rate.” –Ivanova, _Points of Departure_ ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/6 "2006-07-02T06:25:36Z")
Dr. Franklin, to Garibaldi, as he eyes the bagna cauda he is about to be served: _I can feel my arteries hardening just being in the same room with it._ G’kar, to “King Arthur”, about the baddies they had vanquished: _And they made a very satisfying thump as they hit the floor!_ I can’t pick out favorite lines actually, there are so many I like. It was my favorite TV show ever. But the above I liked and were humorous as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/7 "2006-07-02T06:42:57Z")
Delenn: "He was the best of us! They struck without provocation, there was no _reason_…Animals! Brutal…they deserve no mercy! Strike them down! Follow them to their base and … and kill them, all of them! All of them! _No mercy!"_ That one came to mind, a bit under five years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Monkey\_Chews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@Monkey\_Chews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkey_Chews)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/8 "2006-07-02T07:40:13Z")
“Only one human Captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behinid me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.” – Delenn, _Severed Dreams_ “Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sofie 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.” – Ivanova, _Between the Darkness and the Light_ “The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us… and our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between.” – Centauri Emperor Turhan, _The Coming of Shadaows_ ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/9 "2006-07-02T09:29:19Z")
“Well, look at that, the sun’s coming up.” Captain John Sheridan _Sleeping in Light._ ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/10 "2006-07-02T09:46:09Z")
## So many good ones . . .some I’ve collected : ## You will know pain, and you will know fear, and then you will die. ``` "I want 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 at too high a price. And I want to wave - like this. Can you arrange that for me, Mr. Morden" ``` * * * ``` "IMPUDENT!" -Ambassador Kosh, to Captain Sheridan "Up Yours!" -Captain Sheridan's response ``` * * * ## The avalanche has already begun, it is too late for the pebbles to vote - Kosh ## “Okay, we made a mistake. I’m sorry. Here, open my wrist.” “Centauri don’t have major arteries in their wrist.” “Of course we don’t. What do you think, I’m stupid?” Londo and Garibaldi - “Midnight on the Firing Line” ``` Sinclair: Morning, Lieutenant Commander. Problem sleeping? Ivanova: Sleeping is not the problem. Waking up - that is the problem. I've always had a hard time getting up when it's dark outside. Sinclair: But in space it's always dark. Ivanova (with feeling): I know. I know. ``` * * * ## “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_.” ``` If all the Narn came together, in one place, and hated, all at the same time, that hatred would fly across the stars and reduce Centauri Prime to a ball of ash. That is how much they hate us. I will confess I look forward to the day when we have clensed the universe of the Centauri and carved their bones into flutes for Narn children. It is a dream I have. ``` * * * ``` Londo, "Mass drivers. They have been outlawed by every civilized planet!" Lord Refa, "These are uncivilized times." Londo, "We have treaties." Lord Refa, "Ink on a page." ``` * * * ``` G'kar, "You forget the terms of our surrender. The penalty for the killing of any Centauri, by any Narn, will be the death of five hundred Narns, including perpetrators own family! But I don't have to kill you. (laughing) I don't have to do anything and I still get to watch you die. I find this most appealing." ``` * * * ``` Lord Refa, "Why would I abandon them?" Londo, "Because I have asked you too, and because your loyalty to our people would be greater than your ambition, and because I have poisoned your drink." ``` * * * ## Elric: As I look at you,Ambassador Mollari, I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sounds - the sounds of billions of people calling your name. Londo: My followers? Elric: Your victims. ``` "You are a creature that has received pain and given pain and taken too much joy in its application. You have aspired to dreams and been disappointed because you are not strong enough or worthy enough or right enough so you lash enough at anyone who believes they can make a difference because it reminds you of your own failure, you have to prove they are just as bad, just as far as you are. Am I close Mr Sebastian?" - Delenn to Jack. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/11 "2006-07-02T10:18:39Z")
> [@](#): > > “Next time, my way.” > “Is there something you want to tell me, Lieutenant?” There’s no way I can remember Ivanova’s whole speech earlier in the episode, but, if I could, I’d quote that, too. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/12 "2006-07-02T11:51:26Z")
There a snippet of dialogue that’s stuck with me - it has no relevance whatsoever, I just find it adorable: > [@](#): > > Sheridan: Why is it every time you finally get things calmed down and everything’s going great life decides to kick you in the butt? > Dellen: But what? > Sheridan: What? > Dellen: You said that life decides to kick you, but… > Sheridan: No! it’s umm… it’s, it’s a part of the body. It’s ahhh… oh you have the damndest gaps in your vocabulary! > Dellen: In preparing to come here I was not taught the more colorful aspects of your language. It was considered inappropriate for one of the religious cast. > Sheridan: Yeah, well, you’re missing out on a lot. > Dellen: So I gather…[mumbles to herself] Butt…butt…I butt you butt he or she butts… > Sheridan: No. it’s a… > Dellen: Butt butt, butt butt > Sheridan: You sound like a motorboat. > Dellen: Motorbutt? I do not think I like the sound of that. > Sheridan: Well, I don’t blame you. I’m against the whole idea. > Dellen: Then we’re in agreement. > Sheridan: Absofrigginlutley. " ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/13 "2006-07-02T13:53:24Z")
“What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?” -Londo to Vir ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/14 "2006-07-02T15:14:01Z")
“Ivanova is God.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/15 "2006-07-02T15:15:29Z")
[hijack] Check out [this awesome filk song by Tom Smith!](http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/five_years.htm) (To the tune of _One Week,_ by the Barenaked Ladies.) [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/16 "2006-07-02T15:18:12Z")
Can’t believe no one has posted this yet . . . MORDEN: What about you? What do **you** want? VIR: I want to live juuuuust long enough to be there when they cut off your head, and stick it on a pole as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I want to look into your dead eyes and waaaave! [waves] Do you think your associates could arrange that for me, Mr. Morden? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/17 "2006-07-02T15:36:26Z")
“This isn’t some deep space franchise, this station is _about_ something!” “Not the one.” “Zathrus used to being beast of burden to other people’s needs. Very sad life. Probably have very sad death. But at least there is symmetry.” Sheridan: So, how did you find out about all of this? Bester: I’m a telepath. Work it out! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/18 "2006-07-02T15:44:18Z")
Actually, **BrainGlutton** > [@Der Trihs](#): > > “I want 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 at too high a price. And I want to wave - like this. Can you arrange that for me, Mr. Morden” ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/19 "2006-07-02T15:56:42Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [hijack] > > Check out [this awesome filk song by Tom Smith!](http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/five_years.htm) (To the tune of _One Week,_ by the Barenaked Ladies.) > > [/hijack] [double hijack] Tom Smith is the music Guest of Honor at our local convention, [InConJunction XXVI](http://www.inconjunction.org) coming up July 7-9, 2006 (next weekend) [/dh] And now, the quotes: “Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it.” Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I “And now I have to go back to the Council and explain to them that in the interest of peace the Centauri government will agree to give quadrant 37 to the Narns. I think I will stick my head in the station’s fusion reactor. It would be quicker. And I suspect, after a while I might even come to enjoy it. But this – this, this, this is like being nibbled to death by … what are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet … go ‘quack’ …” “Cats.” “Cats. I’m being nibbled to death by cats.” Londo and Vir, Chrysalis “Oh, great, _now_ you can give me something for the pain. Where were you when I was going through puberty?” Ivanova to Franklin, The Geometry of Shadows “Do not thump the book of G’Quan. It is disrespectful.” – G’Kar in Babylon 5:“Ship of Tears” “I was doing fine until you showed up with that … thing in hand.” “It’s a Minbari fighting pike, several hundred years old. You are just jealous because you don’t have one. Bad case of pikal envy, if you ask me.” G’Kar and Marcus, Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918/20 "2006-07-02T15:57:16Z")
“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 offense.” – 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… What’s that?” “Energy cap. I palmed it when I shoved the gun in his pocket.” “You are going to give me an ulcer.” “Okay, okay, next time I’ll give him a live gun. You really do want that promotion, don’t you?” – Ivanova and Sheridan “If I live through this job without completely losing my mind, it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions.” “Well, there goes my faith in the Almighty.” – Ivanova and Lt. Corwin Susan got most of the good lines. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-babylon-5-lines/362918.md?page=2)