Leonard McCoy quotes from Star Trek: The Original Series

McCoy

His brain is gone.

McCoy

There's no hurry, Mr. Spock. The antidote probably doesn't concern you. Vulcans are probably immune. So just take your time.

McCoy

I'm a doctor, not a coal miner.

McCoy

You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him. Because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries. The broken rules. The desperate chances. The glorious failures, and the glorious victories. All of these things you'll never know, simply because the word "love" isn't written into your book.

Leonard McCoy

I'm a doctor, not a ______________!

Spock

Our spectro-readings showed no contamination, no unusual elements present.

Scotty

At least none your tricorders could register.

Spock

Instruments register only those things they're designed to register. Space still contains infinite unknowns.

McCoy

We're doing everything that's possible!

Kirk

Bones, I want the impossible checked out too!

Spock

We have here an unusual opportunity to appraise the human mind, or to examine, in Earth terms, the roles of good and evil in a man-- his negative side, which you call hostility, lust, violence, and his positive side, which Earth people express as compassion, love, tenderness.

McCoy

Are you aware it's the captain's guts you're analyzing?

Spock

Yes, and what makes one man an exceptional leader? We see indications that it's his negative side which makes him strong, that his evil side, controlled and disciplined, is vital to his strength. Your negative side removed from you, the power of command begins to elude you.

McCoy

Jim, you can't risk your life on a theory!

Spock

Being split in two halves is no theory with me, Doctor. I have a human half, you see, as well as an alien half, submerged, constantly at war with each other. Personal experience, Doctor. I survive it because my intelligence wins out over both, makes them live together. Your intelligence would enable you to survive as well.

Spock

Interesting. You Earth people glorify organized violence for forty centuries, but you imprison those who employ it privately.

McCoy

And, of course, your people found an answer.

Spock

We disposed of emotion, Doctor. Where there's no emotion, there's no motive for violence.

Kirk

What did you say your name was?

My name? My name is--aah! [struggling] Simon... Van Gelder! I was the director of-- director-- at the Tantalus colony. I was a graduate of...of...I was assistant to...Doctor...Doc--ah! [Sobbing] I knew... I knew. But they've erased it.

McCoy

Erased?

Edited... adjusted... subverted me! But I won't forget! I won't forget!

McCoy

Assuming we get out of this, Captain...

Kirk

Nobody's given up yet.

McCoy

Well, then about Bailey. Let me enter it in my medical records as simple fatigue.

Kirk

That's my decision, Doctor.

McCoy

And your mistake. You overworked him, pushed him, expected too much from him.

Kirk

I'm ordering you to drop it! I have no time for you, your theories, your quaint philosophies.

McCoy

I intend to challenge your actions in my records. I'll state that I warned you about Bailey's condition. Now that's no bluff.

Kirk

Any time you can bluff me, Doctor!

Three minutes.

Kirk

All right, Doctor. Let's hope we have time to argue about it.

Kirk

[thinks for a moment] Not chess, Mister Spock--poker. Do you know the game?

McCoy

This is the first time in a week I've had time for a drop. Would you care for a drink, Mr. Spock?

Spock

My father's race was spared the dubious benefits of alcohol.

McCoy

Oh. Now I know why they were conquered. What are you worried about? Jim generally knows what he's doing.

Spock

It was illogical for him to bring those players aboard.

McCoy

Illogical? Did you get a look at that Juliet? That's a pretty exciting creature. Of course your, uh, personal chemistry would prevent you from seeing that. Did it ever occur to you that he might like the girl?

Spock

It occurred. I dismissed it.

McCoy

You would.

McCoy

What if you decide he is Kodos? What then? Do you play God, carry his head through the corridors in triumph? That won't bring back the dead, Jim.

Kirk

No. But they may rest easier.

Spock

If Romulans are an offshoot of my Vulcan blood, then attack becomes even more imperative.

McCoy

War is never imperative.

Spock

It is for them, Doctor. Vulcan, like Earth, had its aggressive colonizing period, savage even by Earth standards. If Romulans retain this martial philosophy, then weakness is something we dare not show.

McCoy

Mr. Spock, remind me to tell you that I'm sick and tired of your logic.

Spock

That is a most illogical attitude.