...Please, spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse, or galaxies to explode. To be blunt...You're important, but you're not that important.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
Attention on deck, Ensign Picard!
Q.
That's Captain Q to you, young man!
You cheated, Picard? I'm impressed!
There are many parts of my youth that I'm not proud of. There were loose threads - untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads, it unraveled the tapestry of my life.
NLNausicaan Leader
...Cowards! Like all Starfleet, you talk and talk, but you have no guramba!
What? We talk and talk, but we have no what!?
NLNausicaan Leader
I said, you have no guramba. No courage!
[cold and deadly] That's what I thought you said. [He staggers the Nausicaan with a punch, and the fateful brawl erupts. Corey and Marta are soon dropped, while Picard is stabbed through the heart from behind. He laughs with relief.]
You mortals are so obtuse! Why do you persist in believing that life and death are such static and rigid concepts? Why I can take your life and give it back to you again with the snap of a finger!
I can't live out my days as that person! That man is bereft of passion... and imagination! That is not who I am!
Au contraire! He's the person you wanted to be. One who was less arrogant and undisciplined in his youth? One who was less like me? The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be -- the one who did not fight the Naussicans -- had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face-to-face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is...or how important each moment can, and should, be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted for much of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away team on Milica 3 to save the ambassador, never took charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed; and no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe...and he never, ever, got noticed by anyone.
You're right, Q. You gave me the opportunity to change, and I took it. But I see now that doing so was a mistake.
Are you asking me for something, Jean-Luc?
Only for a chance to make things as they were before, the way I now realize they must be.
Before, you died it Sickbay. Is that what you want?
I would rather die as the man I know is truly within me -- with a full life, a real life, behind me -- than have my name on the biography I just listened to.
[Dressed as a delivery boy] Flowers! Is there a John Luck Pickird here?
There is no room in my heart for shame.
TTokath
I give you one last chance to accept our way of life.
Those are eloquent words, Tokath, but the truth is, I am being executed because I brought something dangerous to your young people-- knowledge.
Knowledge of their origins, knowledge of the real reasons you are here in this camp.
The truth is a threat to you.
TTokath
Enough!
Jean-Luc Picard The Kurlan civilization believed that an individual is a community of individuals. Inside us are many voices, each with its own desires, its own style, its own view of the world.
[After Nu'Daq arm wrestles and head-butts Data]
My upper spinal support is a poly-alloy designed to withstand extreme stress. My skull is composed of cortenide and duranium.
You are attempting to bribe me.
N-Not at all.
You suggested a plan that would work to your advantage. One that I would be capable of executing. You then implied a reward. Clearly you were...
Commander..., never mind.
What?! You incompetent toppa'
GOGul Ocett
He's right. For all we know, this might just be a recipe for biscuits!
BISCUITS?! If that is what you believe, then go back to Cardassia. I will send you my mother's recipe.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Star Trek: The Next Generation pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.