Benjamin Sisko quotes from Deep Space Nine

Benjamin Sisko

Major, I gave you a direct order.

Kira Nerys

Court-martial me.

Benjamin Sisko

I can't. You're not in Starfleet.

Jadzia Dax

If I were your superior officer, I'd court-martial both of you.

Benjamin Sisko

Cheer up, Doctor. If you do well, it could help your career.

Julian Bashir

Another hour with them could destroy my career!

Benjamin Sisko

It's a simple job—just keep them happy, and away from me.

Julian Bashir

Simple? Nothing makes them happy! They are dedicated to being UN-happy, and to spreading that unhappiness wherever they go! They are the Ambassadors of Unhappy!

Benjamin Sisko

All of us have had these assignments, Doctor.

Julian Bashir

Have you, sir?

Benjamin Sisko

As a matter of fact, Curzon Dax used to take perverse pleasure in assigning me to take care of VIP guests.

Julian Bashir

Ah, and now you take the same perverse pleasure in doing it to me.

Benjamin Sisko

Exactly.

You live without a soul, Commander. You and your Federation exist in a universe of darkness and you would drag us in there with you. But we will not go.

Sisko

You have just made your first mistake, Vedek.

Have I?

Sisko

The Bajorans who have lived with us on this station, who have worked with us for months, who helped us move this station to protect the wormhole, who joined us to explore the Gamma Quadrant, who have begun to build the future of Bajor with us—these people know that we are neither the enemy nor the devil. We don't always agree. We have some damn good fights, in fact. But we always come away from them with a little better understanding and appreciation of the other. You won't succeed here. The school will reopen. And when your rhetoric gets old, the Bajoran parents will bring their children back.

Kira

Commander, I heard what you said to Vedek Winn at the school. I just wanted you to know you were right what you said about the Bajorans, at least about me. I don't think you're the devil.

Sisko

Maybe we have made some progress after all.

Jadzia Dax

I've been a mother three times and a father twice.

Benjamin Sisko

Which was easier?

Jadzia Dax

Actually, I wasn't very successful either way.

I'd die for my people, but…

Benjamin Sisko

Sure, you would. Dying gets you off the hook. Question is, are you willing to live for your people? Live the role they want you to play? That's what they need from you right now.

Don't be ridiculous, you're not going to shoot me.

Commander Benjamin Sisko

What makes you so sure?

This is Dax you're talking to, Benjamin. We both know that if you shoot me, even on stun, you risk killing the symbiont.

Commander Benjamin Sisko

If I let you go, Jadzia dies.

But Dax will live. What's one girl's life compared to eight lifetimes of knowledge and experience? [smirks] You're not going to shoot me. You know that, and so do I. Goodbye, Benjamin. [he walks past Sisko into the shuttle]

Commander Benjamin Sisko

Verad! [Verad turns around as Sisko raises his phaser] Don't call me Benjamin! [Sisko shoots Verad]

Benjamin Sisko

Do you know what the trouble is?

Kira Nerys

No.

Benjamin Sisko

The trouble is Earth.

Kira Nerys

Really?

Benjamin Sisko

On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well, it's easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there, in the demilitarized zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints. Just people. Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with the Federation approval or not.

Bashir

Try not to yell at any more admirals for a while.

Sisko

I wasn't yelling. I was expressing my opinion loudly.

Sisko

We've got ships from here to New Bajor looking for the two of you. Where have you been?

Kira

Through the looking glass, Commander.

Quark

I think I figured out why humans don't like Ferengi.

Benjamin Sisko

Not now, Quark.

Quark

The way I see it, humans used to be a lot like Ferengi: greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We're a constant reminder of a part of your past you'd like to forget.

Benjamin Sisko

Quark, we don't have time for this.

Quark

But you're overlooking something. Humans used to be a lot worse than Ferengi: slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see? We're nothing like you; we're better.

A Ferengi and a human. I was hoping the first race I'd meet from the other side of the anomaly would be the Klingons.

Benjamin Sisko

I'm sorry to disappoint you.

It's too late for apologies. The Dominion will no longer stand by and allow ships from your side to violate our territory.

You can't be serious! Commander, if I were allowed on Cardassia, do you really think I'd be living here?

Sisko

Which brings up an interesting point. There're certain ministers in the Bajoran government who are concerned about your presence on the station; in fact, they want you removed. Right now, I see no alternative but to honor their request, unless of course... I can show them how you might be valuable to us.

Odo

Rescuing Kira would go a long way toward improving your standing with the Bajoran government.

Why should I care what the Bajoran government thinks of me?

Sisko

I don't know. But it seems to me, if someone were in trouble with the Cardassian Central Command, a Bajoran space station under Federation control might just be the safest place in the galaxy.

Commander, this is extortion.

Sisko

Hmm...yes, it is.

Sisko

[angry] You bought a child?!

Quark

I just thought that I was buying some wreckage. How was I supposed to know that there was a baby in there?

Sisko

Maybe you should inspect the merchandise before you make the deal. Or isn't there a Rule of Acquisition for that?

Quark

There is, and usually I do.