2nd most-quoted character in Battlestar Galactica (2003): in 49 of its 302 quotes Most scenes with: Virtual Six (16), Laura Roslin (9), William Adama (3)
And then what? What would you do if we really just left you here? You'd live out your lives in peace and never trouble yourselves with thoughts of us again? Or would you raise your children with stories of the Cylon, the mechanical slaves who once did your bidding, only to turn against you? Killers who committed genocide against your race, the occupiers of this city until we just ran away? Would you tell them to tell the story to their children, and to their children's children, and nurse a dream of vengeance down through the years so that one day they could just go out into the stars and hunt the Cylon once more?
[Baltar talks religion with D'Anna while she takes a short break from torturing him.]
Baltar
I'm a scientist. And as a scientist, I believe if God exists, our knowledge of him is imperfect. Why? Because the stories and myths we have are the products of men, the passage of time. The religion you practice is based on a theory, impossible to prove. Yet you bestow it with absolutes like, "There is no such thing as coincidence."
DAD'Anna/Number Three
It's called faith.
Baltar
Absolute belief in God's will means there's a reason for everything. Everything! And yet you can't help ask yourself how God can allow death and destruction. And then despise yourself for asking. But the truth is, if we knew God's will, we'd all be gods, wouldn't we??
Well, you know, I take that as a particular compliment. I don't know about you, but I've always founds the Aerelon dialect to be particularly hard on the ears. [affects a Yorkshire accent] Something about the consonants that scrape the back of the throat. [murmurs] Of course, I should know an awful lot about my native tongue; I spent hours on end trying to overcome it. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a ten-year-old boy to change the way he speaks? To unlearn everything he ever learned so that one day, one day there might be the small hope that he might be considered as not comin' from Aerelon? Maybe... I don't know... [switches back to Received Pronunciation.] Caprica. Caprican. Oh, to be Caprican. The seat of politics, culture, art, science, learning. And what was Aerelon, just a drab, ugly rock condemned to be the food basket for the Twelve Worlds. And that's how we were treated: like servants, like laborers, like working class. You know, you'd have fitted right in there, Chief. Lots of men who [switches back to Yorkshire accent] liked to work with their hands and, grab a pint down t'pub, and finish off the evening with a good old-fashioned fight.[switches back to Received Pronunciation] Oh yes, I left Aerelon after my eighteenth birthday. I turned my back on my family, on my heritage. All of them. 'Course it doesn't matter, that. They're all dead now.
[Baltar and Lampkin are discussing the upcoming trial]
Baltar
Caprica Six. I'm worried about her. She's the key. They can use her to completely destroy me. We need to get to her. We need to know what she's thinking. We need to.. talk to her. Tell her.. Tell her that I love her very much. I am thinking about her a lot.
Yesterday you were facing execution. Today, you're free. Why the long face?
Baltar
Oh, gee, I don't know. From President of the Colonies to this... King of fools. Probably best to be hated by everyone than loved by this lot, doomed to live out the rest of my life in this looney bin. I don't know, that might have something to do with my rather savage mood swings.
I gave the access codes to the Cylons. They wiped out most of humanity. Of course I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. And when I realized what I had done, the magnitude, in that moment I was saved. I was loved, by God. Looking back, I think I was rewarded.
Pythia talks about a flood. Wiped out most of humanity. Nobody blames the flood. Flood is a force of Nature. Through Flood mankind is rejuvenated, born again. I was another Flood. You see, I blamed myself. I blamed myself. But God made the man that made that choice. God made us all perfect. And in that thought, all my guilt flies away. Flies away like a bird.
Essentially, for not murdering me. That can't have been an easy decision to make. But I love living. I love living, and I wanted to thank you for saving my life.
I suppose a long time ago, it was... architecture. There was a year there where I scribbled floor plans on everything. Dining room table, patio tiles, rare books... drove my parents crazy.
I dunno. Uh, eight, maybe? Nine? [chuckles] I tell you one thing, though. I had some pretty frakking amazing ideas. Restaurants shaped like food. Hm? [chuckles again] Oh, gods, there'd be buildings and stairways... everything, everything had to have a stairway. [refills Baltar's cup of coffee] Spoils of war. [sighs] When I was older, then it became medicine, engineering, photography. Think I would've made a better architect than any of those, though. And then I discovered science and I... thought I was really, really good at it. Until I met you.
[shakes his head] No. And please, no religion. [pauses] I'm fine with how things have worked out. Really, Gaius, I am. I... I just hope... I hope that... people realize, eventually, who I am.
Battlestar Galactica (2003) · 302 quotes
Gaius Baltar
