Jean-Luc Picard quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Geordi La Forge

Relinquishing command, Captain.

Jean-Luc Picard

As you were, Lieutenant!

Geordi La Forge

Sir?

Jean-Luc Picard

Mr. La Forge, when I left this ship, it was in one piece. I would appreciate your returning it to me in the same condition. Do you concur, Number One?

William Riker

Absolutely, sir.

Everything's just kind of... you know... dead, I guess. It's all... you know... shut down.

Jean-Luc Picard

That's a little vague. What's the computer analysis?

Uh, the computer's not working very well.

Picard

Rest In Peace, Natasha...This gathering is concluded.

Data

Sir, the purpose of this gathering...confuses me.

Picard

How so?

Data

My thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking how empty it will feel without her presence. Did I miss the point?

Picard

No, you didn't, Data. You got it.

(fencing with Picard) Interesting move. What technique was that?

Jean-Luc Picard

The technique of a desperate man.

There's no trace of my money. My office is gone. What will I do? How will I live?

Picard

This is the twenty fourth century. Material needs no longer exist.

Then what's the challenge?

Picard

The challenge, Mister Offenhouse, is to improve yourself. To enrich yourself. Enjoy it.

What is death?

Jean-Luc Picard

Oh, is that all. Data, you're asking probably the most difficult of all questions. Some see it as a changing into an indestructible form, forever unchanging. They believe that the purpose of the entire universe is to then maintain that form in an Earth-like garden which will give delight and pleasure through all eternity. On the other hand there are those who hold to the idea of our blinking into nothingness with all of our experiences and hopes and dreams merely a delusion.

Which do you believe sir?

Jean-Luc Picard

Considering the marvelous complexity of the universe, its clockwork perfection, its balances of this against that... matter, energy, gravitation, time, dimension, I believe that our existence must be more than either of these philosophies. That what we are goes beyond euclidean or other 'practical' measuring systems... and that our existence is part of a reality beyond what we understand now as reality.

Ten seconds to auto-destruct.

Captain?

Jean-Luc Picard

Abort auto-destruct sequence.

Riker, William T. Do you concur?

Yes, absolutely I do indeed concur, wholeheartedly!

Auto-destruct cancelled.

Jean-Luc Picard

A simple "yes" would have sufficed Number One.

I didn't want there to be any chance of a misunderstanding.

[regarding the human race] You seem to find no tranquility in anything. You struggle against the inevitable. You thrive on conflict. You are selfish yet you value loyalty. You are rash, quick to judge, slow to change. It's amazing you've survived. Be that as it may, as species, we have no common ground. You are too aggressive. Too hostile. Too militant.

Jean-Luc Picard

During this period, you, too, have been evaluated. It would seem that we have at least one thing in common.

Oh?

Jean-Luc Picard

Curiosity.

La Forge

Well, Doctor Pulaski and I had a discussion about whether Data could solve an original Holmes-type mystery.

Picard

Which you asked the computer to provide?

La Forge

Yes, with a worthy opponent.

Picard

Worthy of Holmes?

La Forge

...Oh my God...I asked for a Holmes-type mystery with an opponent capable of defeating...Data! That's gotta be it!

Picard

(under his breath) Merde...

Jean-Luc Picard

(to Okona) Now please, follow Commander Riker's commands so our ship can go back to its normal routine.

Jean-Luc Picard

Something funny?

Well, the unexpected is our normal routine.

Jean-Luc Picard

If we were not surrounded by all these people, you know what I would like to do?

Phillipa Louvois

Bust a chair across my teeth, probably.

Jean-Luc Picard

After that.

Phillipa Louvois

Oh, ain't love wonderful?

Guinan

Well consider that, in the history of many worlds, there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do, because it's too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable... "Here's their leader, you don't have to think about their welfare, you don't think about how they feel." Whole generations of disposable people.

Jean-Luc Picard

You're talking about slavery.

Guinan

Oh, I think that's a little harsh.

Jean-Luc Picard

I don't think that's a little harsh, I think that's the truth. But that's a truth that we have obscured behind comfortable, easy euphemism. 'Property.' But that's not the issue at all, is it?

Jean-Luc Picard

Your Honor, a courtroom is a crucible. In it, we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a pure product: the truth, for all time. [points to Commander Maddox] Now sooner or later, this man, or others like him, will succeed in replicating Commander Data. Now, the decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of people we are, what he is destined to be. It will reach far beyond this courtroom and this one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him and all who will come after him to servitude and slavery? Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. [points to Data] Well, there it sits! Waiting. You wanted a chance to make law. Well, here it is. Make a good one.

Phillipa Louvois

[after a long pause] It sits there looking at me, and I don't know what it is. This case has dealt with metaphysics, with questions best left to saints and philosophers. I am neither competent nor qualified to answer those. I've got to make a ruling, to try to speak to the future. Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We have all been dancing around the basic issue. Does Data have a soul? I don't know that he has. I don't know that I have. But I have got to give him the freedom to explore that question himself. It is the ruling of this court that Lieutenant Commander Data has the freedom to choose.

Data

Blue, amber, amber, red.

Jean-Luc Picard

That's the launch sequence? [Data gives a jerky nod.] How do I override the doors?

Data

Blue, blue, blue

Jean-Luc Picard

I hope that is not a stutter.

Worf

Captain, you will be killed.

Jean-Luc Picard

I'll go through the gate.

Worf

But where will you end up?

Jean-Luc Picard

Very shortly anywhere will be preferable to this room.