Catherine Sakai quotes from Babylon 5

Catherine

Don't touch me unless you mean it.

Catherine Sakai

I don't mean to alarm you, but your pants are talking to you.

Jeffrey Sinclair

I know.

Catherine

Tennyson? Jeff, you've been caught on that one since the Academy! What's it take to drag you into the 23rd century?

Sinclair

We find meaning where we can.

Catherine

Ah, and which are you? "An idle king...doling unequal laws unto a savage race that hoard and sleep and feed and know not you"? Or, "this gray spirit, yearning in desire to follow knowledge like a sinking star"?

Sinclair

I didn't know you'd memorized it!

Catherine

I lived with you for a year. I didn't have much choice.

Catherine Sakai

Just one question: why?

G'Kar

Why not?

Catherine Sakai

That's not an answer.

G'Kar

Oh, yes it is. It's simply not an answer you like, or the answer you expected. There's a difference. Narns, Humans, Centauri, we all do what we do for the same reason: because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Catherine Sakai

While I was out there, I saw something. What was it?

G'Kar

[pointing to a nearby flower] What is this? [upon closer inspection, an insect is visible]

Catherine

An ant.

G'Kar

"Ant"!

Catherine

So much gets shipped up from Earth on commercial transports, it's hard to keep them out.

G'Kar

I have just picked it up on the tip of my glove. If I put it down again [replacing the ant on the flower] and it asks another ant, "What was that?" ...how would it explain? There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless. And if they are aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants...and we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know. We've tried. And we've learned we can either stay out from underfoot, or be stepped on.

Catherine

That's it? That's all you know?

G'Kar

Yes. They are a mystery. And I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe...that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Ms. Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957. They must walk there alone.

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

Ah, Ms. Sakai. I'm pleased to see that you have returned safely from your expedition.

Catherine Sakai

Yes, thanks to you. Just one question. Why?

G'Kar

Why not?

Catherine Sakai

It's not an answer.

G'Kar

Oh yes it is. It's simply not an answer you like or the answer you expected. There's a difference. Narns, humans, Centauri, we all do what we do for the same reason: because it seemed like a good idea at the time. There was no profit, no advantage in letting you fall to an untimely and most uncomfortable death. It would distress the Commander to no good effect. So once again we return to, "Why not?" I told you before you left: no one here is entirely what they appear. If I surprised you, all the better. Good day, Ms. Sakai.