Leoben quotes from Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Leoben

What is the most basic article of faith? This is not all that we are. The difference between you and me is, I know what that means and you don't. I know that I'm more than this body, more than this consciousness. A part of me swims in the stream. But in truth, I'm standing on the shore. The current never takes me downstream.

Leoben

I have a soul. I see patterns. I know you, you're damaged. You were born to a woman who believed that suffering was good for the soul, so you suffered. Your life is a testament to pain. Injuries. Accidents. Some inflicted upon others, others inflicted upon yourself. It surrounds you like a bubble. But it's not real, it's just... It's just something she put in your head. It's something that you want to believe because it means you're the problem, not the world that you live in. You want to believe it because it means that you're bad luck. You're like a cancer that needs to be removed. Because you hear her voice every day and you want her to be right.

Now, if you were human, you'd be just about ready to start offering up some false information about the location of the nuke. Some tiny thing that might get you a reward and maybe spare you a few minutes of this. But then I keep forgetting, you're not human. You're a machine.

I am more than you could ever imagine. I am God.

[stifles laugh] I'm sorry, you're God? Wow... nice to meet ya. That's good, that's good. We'll give you a couple of minutes for that.

Leoben

It's funny, isn't it? We're all God, Starbuck. All of us. I see the love that binds all living things together.

Love? You don't even know what the word means.

Leoben

I know that God loved you more than all other living creatures and you repaid His divine love with sin, with hate, corruption, evil. So then He decided to create the Cylons.

The gods had nothing to do with it. We created you. Us. It was a stupid, frakked-up decision, and we have paid for it. You slaughtered my entire civilization. That is sin. That is evil. And you are evil.

Leoben

Am I? I see the truths that float past you in the stream.

Tell me where the warhead is.

Leoben

This is not your path, Starbuck. You have a different destiny.

Don't interrupt me. You see, I'm gonna dazzle you with my poor human brain. You see, I think that you're afraid. You're afraid that we're a long way from home. What if you don't transfer all the way back? What if, when you die here, you really die? It's your chance to find out if you're really god or just a bunch of circuits with a bad haircut.

Leoben

I'm not afraid of dying.

Somebody's programmed you with a fairy tale of God and streams and life ever after but, somewhere in that hard drive that you call a brain is a beeping message: "Error, error, does not compute. I don't have a soul, I have software. If I die, I'm gone."

Leoben

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

Don't quote scripture. You don't have the right to use those words.

Leoben

You kneel before idols, and ask for guidance and you can't see that your destiny's already been written. Each of us plays a role. Each time a different role. Maybe last time I was the interrogator and you were the prisoner. The players change, the story remains the same. And this time, this time, your role is to deliver my soul unto God. Do it for me. It's your destiny. And mine.

What do you want from Kara?

Leoben

The same thing I've always wanted. For her to understand her destiny.

That's not good enough.

Leoben

It's good enough for her. What is the most basic article of faith? That this is not all that we are. [Starts laughing] C-Bucs rule.

What did you just say?

Leoben

Forward guard, right? I saw a couple of games. You were good. Yet after all the celebrity and acclaim, what were you? Just another face selling magazines, another piece of scoreboard trivia. You always knew you were destined for more. You were just waiting for your singular moment of clarity.

The humans are never going to allow us to have the Final Five and go our own way.

Are you sure of this?

Not entirely. I'd rather be wrong but we need insurance.

Trust has to begin somewhere.

Not with us. It's our ship. When we jump, we take control of it with the Centurions. We carry out the mission as promised. But when we return, we take hostages. The humans on this ship will stay on this ship until we have the Five. We've changed but the humans haven't. We've come too far to risk everything on their trust.

When I spoke to the Quorum, I could feel it. The contempt.

Then you were right. They're not ready to trust us.

No, I was wrong. We're not ready. We're deceiving them.

For protection. For necessity.

Out of suspicion and fear. Why haven't the Final Five come forward? What if they're watching, judging us by our actions? We're about to resort to violence and coercion. What if they refuse to come with us? We can't do this.

It's too late.

We have to order the Centurions to stand down.

It's too late. They're committed.

Then we have to tell the humans the truth.

No! You can't do that! They'll never trust us again. They already know the coordinates. They'll just go and destroy everything.

Leoben

Go. Stall for time. Talk to Adama. Tell him anything. Anything but the truth. I'll deal with the Centurions.

If you've got an explanation for this, now's the time.

Leoben

I don't have one. I was wrong...about Earth.

Kara

Your Hybrid told me something. Said that I was the harbinger of death, that I would lead us all to our end.

Leoben

She told you that? [Leoben runs away]

Is it true? Is it true? If that's me lying there, then what am I?? What am I?! What am I?

I'm telling you. She flew a Raider. Learned how to control it from the inside. Nobody taught her how. Kara Thrace plucked that knowledge from the stream...

I don't care if she plucked puppies from God's ass!