- Mr. Morden: What do YOU want?
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: 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 favors come with too high a price. I want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this.
- [waves]
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
- Captain John Sheridan: I swear, the next person around here who acts irrationally, I'm going to shoot myself in the head.
- Delenn: [Delenn enters fuming] Bastards!
- Dr. Stephen Franklin: Did she just...
- Captain John Sheridan: She did!
- Dr. Stephen Franklin: I'll go get the gun.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you!
- Citizen G'Kar: If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth... for understanding. Too often, we assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search - who does not bring a lantern - sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light... pure and unblemished... not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe - God looks astonishingly like we do - or we turn to look at our shadow and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world around us.
- Captain John Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
- Susan Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
- Captain John Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up.
- Susan Ivanova: In that case we're all going to die slow, agonizing deaths.
- Captain John Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: 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'...
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: Cats.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Cats. Being nibbled to death by cats.
- Zathras: Zathras is 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.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Only an idiot would fight a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts.
- 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.
- Lord Refa: Why should I do as you say?
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Because I have asked you; because your sense of duty to our people should override any personal ambition; and because I have poisoned your drink.
- Citizen G'Kar: [to Londo after they discover the Centauri are still building warships during peace time] Well, with everyone now on the same side, perhaps you're planning to invade yourselves for a change. I find the idea curiously appealing. Once you've finished killing each other, we can plow under all the buildings and plant rows of flowers that spell out the words, "Too annoying to live" in letters big enough to be seen from space.
- Citizen G'Kar: The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.
- Lennier: [Lennier and Vir do not make eye contact during this conversation] Sometimes I get so close and yet it feels like I'm shut out of the important things.
- Ambassador 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...
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: People coming and going and secret meetings...
- Lennier: You never know what it's all about until later when it's too late.
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: And they never listen to us.
- Ambassador Vir Cotto, Lennier: Makes me nervous.
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: [they finally look at each other] Same time tomorrow?
- Lennier: Sure.
- Captain John Sheridan: If more of our so-called leaders would walk the same streets as the people who voted them in, live in the same buildings, eat the same food instead of hiding behind glass and steel and bodyguards, maybe we'd get better leadership and a little more concern for the future.
- Citizen G'Kar: I believe that when we leave a place a part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in these halls, when it is quiet and just listen. After a while you will hear the echoes of all of our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains. But I will admit that the part of me that going will very much miss the part of you that is staying.
- Susan Ivanova: Vakar Ashok, our gun arrays are now fixed on your ship and will fire the instant you come into range. You will find their power quite impressive... for a few seconds.
- Delenn: We may be able to get the Pak'ma'ra on board to help, but they're going to need something in exchange.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Oh, offer them my body. Another 10 minutes of this, I'll be dead anyway!
- Citizen G'Kar: [Without looking up] I second the motion!
- Captain John Sheridan: You know, I just had a thought. You've been back and forth to your world 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 Naranek: I have *always* been here.
- Captain John Sheridan: Oh, yeah? You said that about me too.
- Kosh Naranek: Yes.
- [starts to walk away]
- Captain John Sheridan: I really *hate* it when you do that.
- Kosh Naranek: [turns around] Good!
- Lt. Corwin: Do we trust no-one then?
- Cmdr. Susan Ivanova: No, trust Ivanova, trust yourself, anybody else, shoot'em.
- [Opening narration, season 1]
- Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
- [a telepathic implant prevents Garibaldi from shooting Bester]
- Michael Garibaldi: What have you done to me?
- PsiCop Alfred Bester: I've hit you with an Asimov.
- Delenn: The third principle of sentient life is the capacity for self-sacrifice, the conscious ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Fools to the left of me, feeders to the right... I need to find a real job.
- Marcus Cole: [noticing Ivanova's not paying attention to his report] There's always the threat of an attack by say, a giant space dragon. The kind that eats the sun once every 30 days. It's a nuisance, but what can you expect from reptiles? Did I mention that my nose is on fire? And that I have 15 wild badgers living in my trousers?
- [Ivanova glares at him]
- Marcus Cole: I'm sorry would you prefer ferrets?
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Six months ago hardly anyone knew my name. Now everyone wants to be my friend. I wanted respect. Instead I have become a wishing well with legs.
- Sinclair: They say God works in mysterious ways.
- Michael Garibaldi: Maybe so, but He's a con-man compared to the Vorlon.
- Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair: Mr. Garibaldi was right. He said this was going to be trouble.
- Susan Ivanova: There's nothing more annoying than Mr. Garibaldi when he's right.
- [Opening narration, season 3]
- 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.
- [Opening narration, season 4]
- Lennier: It was the year of fire,
- Zack Allan: The year of destruction,
- Citizen G'Kar: The year we took back what was ours.
- Lyta Alexander: It was the year of rebirth,
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: The year of great sadness,
- Marcus Cole: The year of pain,
- Delenn: And a year of joy.
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: It was a new age.
- Dr. Stephen Franklin: It was the end of history.
- Susan Ivanova: It was the year everything changed.
- Michael Garibaldi: The year is 2261.
- Captain John Sheridan: The place, Babylon 5.
- Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair: Everyone lies, Michael. The innocent lie because they don't want to be blamed for something they didn't do and the guilty lie because they don't have any other choice.
- Susan Ivanova: So the next time we find out where the Shadows plan to strike, we can mine the area, and as soon as they come out of hyperspace...
- Citizen G'Kar: Then, as you so concisely say, Boom!
- Lorien: The universe began with a word. But which came first: the word or the thought behind the word? You can't create language without thought, and you can't conceive a thought without language, so which created the other, and thus created the universe?
- Susan Ivanova: Ambassador, do you really want to know what's going on down there?
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Yes, absolutely!
- Susan Ivanova: Boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom. Boom! Have a nice day!
- [Opening narration, season 2]
- Captain 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.
- Captain John Sheridan: Delenn, I have been working up a good mad all day and I am NOT about to let you ruin it by agreeing with me!
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: I would remind the Drazi Ambassador that the Centauri have already signed the declaration.
- Citizen G'Kar: And if the Centauri can sign it, anybody can sign it!
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Right!
- Susan Ivanova: If I live through this without completely losing my mind, it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions.
- Lt. Corwin: [aside] Well, there goes my faith in the Almighty.
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: As Mr. Garibaldi would say, it's been one hell of a day.
- Lennier: Yes. A hell of a day.
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: And a hell of a year.
- Lennier: A hell of a five years.
- Ambassador Vir Cotto: Hell of a life.
- Lennier: You win.
- Citizen G'Kar: The Earthers have a saying: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." I believe they stole it from us.
- Delenn: I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light.
- Captain John Sheridan: [Bester has just revealed information he's uncovered] So, how did you find out about all of this?
- PsiCop Alfred Bester: I'm a telepath. Work it out!
- Ambassador Londo Mollari: Vir, stay. If you go, as a matter of honor, I will have to go with you, and if I am forced to leave this place, with all its marvelous opportunities, I will have to kill you... What are friends for?