G'Kar quotes from Babylon 5

G'Kar

Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair, and not me.

G'Kar

The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

G'Kar

Why does the universe hate me?

G'Kar

Take my advice and go back to the time you came from. The future isn't what it used to be.

G'Kar

I was ready... I had the dagger in my hand! And he has the indecency to start dying on his own!

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.

G'Kar

By G'Quan, I can't recall the last time I was in a fight like that! No moral ambiguity, no hopeless battle against ancient and overwhelming forces! They were the bad guys, as you say, and we were the good guys. And they made a very satisfying thump when they hit the floor.

G'Kar

It was the end of the Earth year 2260, and the war had paused, suddenly and unexpectedly. All around us, it was as if the universe were holding its breath...waiting. All of life can be broken down into moments of transition, or moments...of revelation. This had the feeling of both. [...] G'Quan wrote, "There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope. The death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender." The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born...in pain.

G'Kar

It is now seven days since we lost Captain Sheridan and Mr. Garibaldi. In a way I think we have also lost Ivanova. It is as though her heart has been pierced and her spirit has poured out through the wound. She blames herself. It is foolish; it is destructive; it is...human. Ambassador Mollari has returned to Centauri Prime to take up his role as advisor of planetary security. I suppose he is quite happy with his new position. It's what he always wanted: power, title, responsibility. I think he is more alone than anyone else in the universe. Delenn has refused to eat for seven days, fasting, praying, and waiting. Delenn believes; I think she is the only one who does. The Shadows have paused in their pursuit of war and everywhere there is a sense of imminent change. Whether it is a change for good or ill, no one could tell, because no one has answered two very important questions:

G'Kar

Compassion is a rare commodity these days

G'Kar

I have seen what power does, and I have seen what power costs. The one is never equal to the other.

G'Kar

It's bad luck to die on an empty stomach.

G'Kar

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.

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 with him, sees nothing. What we perceive as God, is the byproduct 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.

G'Kar

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away.