Lazarus quotes from Doctor Who

Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance - that's inspired.

You understand the theory, then?

Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables.

No experiment is entirely without risk.

I find that nothing's ever exactly like you expect. There's always something to surprise you. "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act--"

"Falls the Shadow."

: So the mysterious Doctor knows his Eliot. I'm impressed.

I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus, what with you being busy defying the laws of nature and all.

You're right, Doctor. One lifetime's been too short for me to do everything I'd like. How much more I'll get done in two or three or four.

It doesn't work like that. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person.

But if it's the right person, what a gift that would be.

Or what a curse. Look at what you've done to yourself.

Who are you to judge me?

I came here before, a lifetime ago. I thought I was going to die then. In fact, I was sure of it. I sat here, just a child, the sound of planes and bombs outside...

The Blitz.

You've read about it.

I was there.

You're too young.

So are you.

[chuckles, then groans in agony as his bones crack and contort] In the morning, the fires had died, but I was still alive. I swore I'd never face death like that again. So... defenceless. I would arm myself, fight back, defeat it--

That's what you were trying to do today.

That's what I did today.

What about the other people who died?!

They were nothing. I changed the course of history.

Any of them might have done too. You think history's only made with equations?! Facing death is part of being human; you can't change that.

No, Doctor. Avoiding death, that's being human! It's our strongest impulse: to cling to life with every fibre of being! I'm only doing what everyone before me has tried to do. I've simply been more... successful. [groans as his bones crack again]

Look at yourself! You're mutating! You've got no control over it, and you call it a success?!

I call it progress! I'm more now than I was... more than just an ordinary human...

There's no such thing as an ordinary human.

You're so sentimental, Doctor. Maybe you are older than you look.

I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone.

That's a price worth paying.

Is it?