A star captain's most solemn oath is that he will give his life, even his entire crew, rather than violate the Prime Directive.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
The infection resembles one developed by Earth during their bacteriological warfare experiments in the 1990s. Hard to believe we were once foolish enough to play around with that.
CWCloud William
Freedom?
Spock.
Yes, I heard, Captain.
CWCloud William
It is a worship word, Yang worship. You will not speak it.
Well, well, well. It is... our worship word, too.
SSirah
Yes, it is written. Good shall always destroy evil.
Spock, I've found that evil usually triumphs...unless good is very, very careful.
This was not written for chiefs. (general consternation) Hear me! Hear this! Among my people, we carry many such words as this from many lands, many worlds. Many are equally good and are as well respected, but wherever we have gone, no words have said this thing of importance in quite this way. Look at these three words written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since. Tall words proudly saying 'We the People'. That which you call Ee'd Plebnista was not written for the chiefs or the kings or the warriors or the rich and powerful, but for all the people! Down the centuries, you have slurred the meaning of the words, 'We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution.' These words, and the words that follow, were not only meant for the Yangs, but for the Kohms as well!
CCloud
The Kohms?
They must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing!
Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, a starship also runs on loyalty to one man, and nothing can replace it or him.
RDRichard Daystrom
When a child is taught, it's programmed with simple instructions, and at some point, if its mind develops properly, it exceeds the sum of what it was taught, thinks independently.
We're all sorry for the other guy when he loses his job to a machine. But when it comes to your job -- that's different. And it always will be different.
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. Did Einstein, Kazanga or Sitar of Vulcan produce new and revolutionary theories on a regular schedule? You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
Compassion: that's the one things no machine ever had. Maybe it's the one thing that keeps men ahead of them.
[The M5 computer has just vaporized one of Scotty's engineering crewmen]
That wasn't a simulation!! That wasn't a robot ship!! That thing just murdered one of my crew and now you tell me you can't turn it off!!
RDRichard Daystrom
It wasn't a deliberate act! M-5... needed a new power source. The Ensign -- simply got in the way.
And how long before all of us simply get in the way?
The games have always strengthened us. Death becomes a familiar pattern. We don't fear it as you do.
MGMaster of the Games
You bring this station ratings down Flavius and we'll do a special on You!
[to Spock] I'm trying to thank you, you pointy-eared hobgoblin!
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Star Trek: The Original Series pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.