Losses

It's the losses that keep you up at night.

- Henry Reagan in Blue Bloods - 4x11 - Little Fish

Decisions

It's a funny thing about decisions. You don't seem to need to have to talk yourself into the right ones.

- Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods - 1x10 - After Hours

Simulation

Let's talk about love. How does love rewire the brain? When we meet somebody new and exciting, they invade our synapses like a virus, triggering neurochemicals that feed into attraction, arousal, even obsession. We get distracted. We think about that special someone all the time, even in the middle of a brilliantly stimulating lecture. But we're not just thinking about them. We're building an internal model, a simulation that helps us predict what they'll think or how they'll feel. Of course, relationships get into trouble when simulation meets reality, which begs the question: Do we ever really fall in love with another person or just with our idea of who they are?

Why do we bother with relationships? Neuropsychiatrists say that we're hardwired to crave intimate connections. We long for love. Of course, the reality is, it usually ends in heartache, leaving our delicate psyches bruised, if not completely shattered. Why do we even bother playing those odds? I guess because we only have to get it right once. And when it's right, we know it. Even the memory of a fulfilling relationship can sustain us, and remind us that although we may be feeling down at this particular moment, we're never truly alone.

- Dr. Daniel Pierce in Perception - 2x02 - Alienation

Normal

What is normal? If you feel sad, do you just have a case of the blues, or are you suffering from a neurochemical imbalance? The vast majority of the case studies we've been looking at involve patients whose brains are anything but normal, and there's no question they suffer. But...is it all bad? For some, their neurological states might actually protect them from painful truths that no one would want to think about. Others develop a cheerful disposition that may help them cope with situations the rest of us would find disturbing. And if we are to establish a baseline, then we also have to ask ourselves how the brains of even so called "normal" people respond to certain stimuli. And if we're able to treat those people living with neurological disorders, restore them to "normalcy," well of course we're helping them. But might we sometimes also be stripping away what makes them unique? Robbing them of an essential part of who they are?

- Dr. Daniel Pierce in Perception - 1x01 - Pilot

Do Something

You will be shocked, kids, when you discover how easy it is in life to part ways with people forever. That's why when you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it.

- Ted in How I Met Your Mother - 9x21 - Gary Blauman

Regret

...the deepest, most painful regret of them all: the regret that comes from letting something amazing pass you by.

- Voiceover in Grey's Anatomy - 10x13 - Take It Back

Now

Seize the time, Meribor. Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.

- Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x25 - The Inner Light

Who Else

Who else are you going to fight with if not your friends?

- Lwuxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x20 - Cost of Living

Too Late

Laren: "Well, you're not like any bartender I ever met before."
Guinan: "And you're not like any Starfleet officer I've ever met before. But that sounds like the beginning of a very interesting friendship."
Laren: "I don't stay anywhere long enough to make friends."
Guinan: "Too late. You already did."

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x03 - Ensign Ro

Logical Conclusions

Guinan: "I think you enjoy it."
Laren: "Enjoy it?"
Guinan: "Well, you work so hard at torturing yourself, I can only think you must enjoy it."

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x03 - Ensign Ro

Incapable

Guinan: It's not good to advise people about their first love affairs. That's kind of something people have to figure out for themselves.

Data: But I am not capable of love.
Guinan: Then it's going to be a very unique experience.

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x25 - In Theory

Limited

Perhaps it is a human failing, but we are not accustomed to these kind of changes. I can't keep up.... I can't live with that kind of uncertainty. Perhaps someday our ability to love won't be so limited.... I do love you. Please remember that.

- Dr. Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x23 - The Host

Accept the Love

Accept the love.

- Counselor Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x23 - The Host

Risk

"You can't be open to love if you don't risk pain."
"I don't care. I'd give anything not to feel the way I do now."

- Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x23 - The Host

Whisper

Governor Leka Trion: "Listening is a skill which seems to have evaporated with the heat of argument."
Ambassador Odan: "Speak softly, governor. Those who cannot hear an angry shout may strain to hear a whisper."

-  Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x23 - The Hos

You

I want to live because I see in you how much I have to live for. You make me realize that my life still has value.

- Dr. Timicin in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x22 - Half a Life

Alone

I always preferred working alone. That way, if something went wrong, I didn't have to go far for the cause.

- Admiral Satie in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x21 - The Drumhead

Lopsided

My father taught me to avoid partnerships. Most of them are woefully lopsided.

- Admiral Satie in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x21 - The Drumhead

Afterwards

Troi: "You know, almost everyone has a moment in their lives when they exceed their own limits, achieve what seems to be impossible."
La Forge: "The tricky part is what happens afterwards."
Troi: "You almost always feel a sense of loss. But it is possible to carry something of that experience through the rest of your life, in ways that you aren't even aware of now."

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x19 - The Nth Degree

Horrific

Now, she's probably done the most horrific thing one person can do to another -- not live up to your expectations. So I'd take a good long look at her, La Forge, see her for who she is, not for what you want her to be.

- Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x16 - Galaxy's Child

Klingon Philosophy - Words

Words come later. It is the scent that first speaks of love.

- Lieutenant Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 3x25 - Transfiguration

Belonging

Data: "I witnessed something remarkable. Individually, they were both so..."
Troi: "Wounded. Isolated."
Data: "Yes. But no longer. Through joining, they have been healed. Grief has been transmuted to joy, loneliness to belonging."

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 3x20 - Tin Man

Purpose

Tam: "When Gomtuu had no one left to care for, it no longer had a reason to exist."
Data: "Is that the purpose of existence? To care for someone?"
Tam: "It is for me."

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 3x20 - Tin Man

Martyr

Don't you know? A dead martyr is worth ten posturing leaders.

- Kyril Finn in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 3x12 - The High Ground

Capacity

It seems that some creatures have the capacity to fill spaces you never knew were empty.

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 2x15 Pen Pals

Follow

Just because a girl runs out, doesn't mean she doesn't want you to follow.

- Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 2x10 - The Dauphin

Funeral

"Sir, the purpose of this gathering confuses me."
"Oh? How so?"
"My thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking how empty it will be without her presence. Did I miss the point?"
"No, you didn't, Data. You got it."

- Lieutenant Commander Data and Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x23 - The Skin of Evil

Explorer and Poet

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, I wish I could say you've been like a father to me, but I've never had one so I don't know what it feels like. But if there was someone in this universe I could choose to be like, someone who I would want to make proud of me, it's you -- you who have the heart of an explorer and the soul of a poet. So, you'll understand when I say: Death is that stage in which one exists only in the memory of others, which is why it is not an end.

- Lieutenant Tasha Yar - Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x23 - The Skin of Evil

Evil

"Do you want to try to find those who left you here?"
"She told you about them?"
"[Yes.] How long have you been here?"
"Since they left. A very long time."
"A long time to be alone."
"Save your compassion. It's revolting. You offer it like a prize, when in fact it's an insult."
"Because you feel unworthy."
"You overrate your gift. You humans are puny, weak."
"But our spirit is indomitable."
"And still you die from a flick of my power."
"A great poet once said, 'All spirits are enslaved that serve things evil.'"
"You do not understand. I do not serve things evil. I am evil."
"Oh, no, you're not."
"I am a skin of evil, left here by a race of titans, who believed if they rid themselves of me, they would free the bonds of destructiveness."
"Yes, so here you are, feeding on your own loneliness, consumed by your own pain, believing your own lies. You say you are true evil, but I'll tell you what true evil is -- it is to assimilate to you, 'tis when we surrender our freedom, our dignity, instead of defying you."
"I will kill you, and those in there."
"But you will still be here, in this place, forever, alone, immortal. That's your real fear -- never to die, never again to be united with those who left you here."

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Armus in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x23 - The Skin of Evil

Rage

"We've been monitoring the energy field that surrounds the shuttle. When the creature is here, the field weakens. Do you know why?"
"The creature is filled with rage, undirected, unfocused rage. When he confronts it, his guard goes down, because he's feeling it instead of suppressing it. Acknowledging his needs makes him vulnerable."
"What caused the rage?"
"He was left here, abandoned."

- Captain Picard and Counselor Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x23 - The Skin of Evil

Life vs Living

Langor: "The Onarans provide us with everything we need, in exchange for this."
Data: "Fascinating. Your society -- dedicated exclusively to the production of a single product."
Picard: "A product for which you have no use, but which the Onarans cannot live without."
Langor: "One of life's little ironies, Captain."
Sobi: "But one which we'd be fools not to take advantage of. It's mutually beneficial."
Langor: "The Onarans provide us with the necessities of life. And we provide them with the necessities of living. It is a fair exchange."
Picard: "Interesting relationship."

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x22 - Symbiosis

Age and Wisdom

"The quest for youth, number one, so futile. Age and wisdom have their graces, too."
"I wonder if one doesn't have to have age and wisdom to appreciate that, sir."
"I hope not, number one."

- Captain Picard and Commander Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x16 - Too Short a Season

Once

"What of them? Shall I destroy them?"
"Then they will learn nothing."
"A most interesting conclusion. But what if they never learn, Riker?"
"Is this a test also?"
"Hmm. In life, one is always tested."
"I see them much as we were several hundred years ago; but possessing the technology they now have, they're very dangerous.... But we can hardly hate what we once were. They may grow, and learn."
"And learn ways to destroy you?"
"Well, our values require us to face that possibility."

- Commander Riker and Portal in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x05 - The Last Outpost

Justice

The question of justice has concerned me greatly of late, and I say to any creature that may be listening, there can be no justice as long as laws are absolute. Even life itself is an exercise in exceptions.

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x08 - Justice

Separate

"That space and time and thought aren't the separate things they appear to be? I just thought the formula you were using said something like that."
"Boy, don't ever say that again, especially at your age, in a world that's not ready for such...such dangerous nonsense."

- Wesley Crusher and The Traveller - Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1x06 - Where No One Has Gone Before

Extreme

We humans tend to take a rather balanced approach towards life -- never too much, never too little. And it's very nice to find a culture that is willing to take an experience to its furthest extreme.

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation - 7x02 - Liaisons

Please You

A famous monk once said, "I don't always know what to do, my lord, but I think the fact that I want to please you pleases you."

- Isaac Jaffey in Sports Night - 2x08 - The Reunion