23
%%
    "The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace: a
self-contained world five miles long located in neutral territory,
a place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans
and aliens, a shining beacon in space, all alone in the night.
    It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, the year the Great
War came upon us all.
    This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year
is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5."
        -- Captain John Sheridan's opening narrative, Season Two
%%
"General, with all due respect, the last time I made 'personal contact'
with a Minbari warship, I sent it straight to Hell."
  -- Sheridan, "Points of Departure"
%%
"As far as I'm concerned, the transports can wait until the sun explodes.
 And if you're not happy with the seating arrangements, I will personally
 order your seats moved outside, down the hall, across the station, and
 into the fusion reactor. Am I absolutely, perfectly clear on this?"
        -- Ivanova, "Points of Departure"
%%
"I can only conclude that I'm paying off karma at a vastly accelerated rate."
        -- Ivanova, "Points of Departure"
%%
"It's amazing what two years on the rim can do to you."
        -- Sheridan, "Points of Departure"
%%
"Ambassador Delenn is in a cocoon."
'A cocoon? As in a moth or a butterfly?'
"Yes, sir. About yea high."
        --  Ivanova and Sheridan, "Points of Departure"
%%
"I'll say a prayer for him tonight."
'He's agnostic.'
"Then I'll say half a prayer."
        -- Ivanova and Dr. Franklin (re: Garibaldi), "Points of Departure"
%%
"The day that a man such as yourself is given a position of this
 importance is a dark day indeed. We lost many of our best warriors
 because of you. And we do not soon forget such things. If there is
 a doom on this station, it is because you brought it here."
        -- Hedronn (to Sheridan), "Points of Departure"
%%
"They're a prideful people and the BLACKSTAR was their flagship."
'That's why it make a good target.'
        -- Ivanova and Sheridan (re: the Minbari), "Points of Departure"
%%
"She was huge, monstrous.  We tried everything, but none of our weapons would
lock on to their ships.  Some kind of stealth technology.  So, I hit on the
idea of mining the asteroid field between Jupiter and Mars.  A fusion bomb
doesn't have to lock on to anything if it's close enough.  We took out the
Black Star and three of their heavy cruisers before they could escape.  It
was the only real victory we had in the whole damned war and I am not about
to apologize for it."
  -- Sheridan, "Points of Departure"
%%
"If you are going to kill me, then do so. Otherwise I have considerable
 work to do."
        -- Lennier (to Kalain), "Points of Departure"
%%
"Everyone knows Minbari do not kill Minbari."
'Then why are you here?'
"Perhaps everyone is wrong." 
        -- Kalain and Sheridan, "Points of Departure"
%%
"They fight bravely. They cannot harm our ships, but they continue to try."
'Whether they fight or not, they know they will die anyway. So really, is
    this bravery or simple desperation?'
"Perhaps they are the same thing."
        -- Delenn and Hedronn, "Points of Departure"
%%
"It is our belief that every generation of Minbari is reborn in each
 following generation. Remove those souls, and the whole suffers. We are
 diminished. Over the last two thousand years, there have been fewer
 Minbari born into each generation. And those who are born do not seem
 equal to those who came before. It almost as if our greater souls have
 been disappearing. At the Battle of the Line, we discovered where our
 souls were going. They were going to you. Minbari souls are being reborn,
 in part or in full, in human bodies." 
        -- Lennier, "Points of Departure"
%%
'So you stopped the war in order to avoid harming your own souls?'
"Yes, but the Council knew that our people, and yours, were not ready for
    this information. It could unravel our entire society. So we could not
    tell our generals the reason for the surrender. We had all memory of
    the examination erased from Sinclair's mind, and we let him go. It has
    been our secret. Now it is yours. It must be kept." 
        -- Lennier and Ivanova, "Points of Departure"
%%
"Then why break the silence now? Why tell us?" 
'Because changes are coming. Commander Sinclair was the first. There
    will be more.'
        -- Ivanova and Lennier, "Points of Departure"
%%
"After three years, the holy war that began when our leader was killed by an
Earth Explorer division was almost over.  To avenge Dukat's death we had
pursued your forces all the way back to your homeworld.  The few surviving
Earth ships that were ordered to defend your world at any cost were not an
obstacle."
  -- Lenier, "Points of Departure"
%%
"Changes are coming.  Commander Sinclair was the first.  There will be more."
  -- Lenier, "Points of Departure"
%%
"The war has already begun, Captain. All that remains now is honor
    and death." 
        -- Deeron, "Points of Departure"
%%
"And I thought I was a pessimist."
        -- Ivanova, "Points of Departure"
%%
"I told them, Delenn, as I was ordered. I only wish I could have told
 them the rest - about the great enemy that is returning and the prophecy
 that the two sides of our spirit must unite against the darkness or be
 destroyed. They say it will take both of our races to stop the darkness.
 I am told that the Earthers will discover all this, soon enough, on their
 own. I hope they are right. Because if we are wrong, no one will survive
 our mistake."
        -- Lennier, "Points of Departure"
%%
"It was an early earth president, Abraham Lincoln, who best described our
 situation. 'The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
 present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to
 the occasion. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of
 ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in
 honor or dishonor, to the last generation. We shall nobly save, or meanly
 lose, or last best hope for Earth.'"
        -- Sheridan, "Points of Departure"
%%
"Come on, Babylon control, give us a break here.  If we're not allowed to
fire we're dead."
  -- Lt. Keffer, "Points of Departure"