Northern Exposure (TV Series)

The Body in Question (1991)

Barry Corbin: Maurice J. Minnifield

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Quotes 

• Maurice J. Minnifield : As far as I'm concerned, after a hundred years carrion becomes memorabilia.

• Dr. Joel Fleischman : Yeah, I hate to say this, but I think Maurice may be right. Now, Pierre has yielded a new truth to the world, and however ludicrous and personally unsettling and regardless of its impact, I think we have an obligation to tell that truth.

  Maggie O'Connell : Why?

  Dr. Joel Fleischman : Because the truth belongs to everyone. What would've happened if Newton had decided to keep the law of gravity to himself? The truth initiates events whose impact we can't foresee. It's our responsibility to just tell it and get out of the way.

  Maurice J. Minnifield : There you go, ladies and gentlemen. That's the opinion of a New York doctor. A *Jewish* New York doctor.

• Chris Stevens : Maurice, I applaud the amount of imagination you've put into this thing-- Build a Hyatt, they will come--I think we all agree on that, right? But, Maurice, tonight I'm troubled.

  Maurice J. Minnifield : Chris, we're not gonna do anything to destroy the beauty of Cicely. That's why we're putting all the parking underground.

  Chris Stevens : I understand that, Maurice. It's not the leveling of a sleepy, little town into a commercial eyesore that bothers me.

  Maurice J. Minnifield : Then what is it?

  Chris Stevens : The metaphysical implications. Unleashing Pierre changes history, and that's heavy-duty trampling on the karma of the collective unconscious. Are we ready to accept responsibility for that?

  Maurice J. Minnifield : You wanna find your coordinates, son? You're losing me here.

  Chris Stevens : Maurice, thousands of the old French Guard died at Waterloo. Thousands of British and Prussians died stopping them. You take Napoleon out of that loop, and what's left? Haven't we stripped the meaning of those deaths? Made a mockery of the bloodshed? Our lives are fragile things, built on creaky foundations. You chip away at the edifice of history, and... well, you weaken one of the few spiritual timbers we have left. Did George Washington really chop down that cherry tree? Did Davy Crockett kill a bear when he was only three? It's pretty unlikely. It makes our lives a little easier, though, doesn't it? I mean, it's nice to think that. I'm just saying that... revealing Pierre's secret might trigger a maelstrom of self-doubt, releasing untold psychic devastation. A metaphysical tsunami, if you will.

• Chris Stevens : Well, Joel, let's distinguish paradox from contradiction. Can something be more than one thing at the same time? Father, Son and Holy Ghost? We digress. I offer the poet's vision of the ancient urn: Truth is beauty, beauty truth.

  Dr. Joel Fleischman : We can serve and volley semantics all night, Chris. The point is, if...

  Maurice J. Minnifield : Gentlemen. Gentlemen, that's quite enough. Let's, uh, get on with the business at hand, shall we?