Citizen G'kar: Musings on Earth

Quotes From G'Kar



“Babylon 5: The Long,
Twilight Struggle (#2.20)”
 (1995)

“No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms
forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom.
Against that power tyrants and dictators cannot stand.”
Babylon 5: Survivors(1994)

“The universe is run by the complex
interweaving of three elements: Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest. “

“Our thoughts form the universe. They are always important.”
“Babylon 5: Meditations
on the Abyss (#5.14)”
 (1998)

If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on
the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often, we
assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the
search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the
search, the brighter the light on the wall.
 The
brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing
it.
 Similarly, someone who does not search – who does not bring a
lantern – sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search
for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light… pure and
unblemished… not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in
front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe – God
looks astonishingly like we do – or we turn to look at our shadow and assume
that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the
purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all
its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world
around us.
Babylon 5: In the Beginning
(1998)

It is said that the future is always born in pain. The history of war is the
history of pain. If we are wise, what is born of that pain matures into the
promise of a better world, because we learn that we can no longer afford the
mistakes of the past.
“Babylon 5: Objects in
Motion (#5.20)”
 (1998)

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile,
and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. “

I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part
of us remains. Go anywhere in the station when it is quiet, and just listen.
After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought
and word we’ve exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in
these walls for as long as this place remains. But I will admit that the part
of me that is going will very much miss the part of you that is staying.”

“All my life I have been responsible only for myself. When I risked, I
risked alone to avoid making others pay the price for my mistakes. They want me
to show them another way. What if I show them the wrong way? What if they come to
me not because of the lesson but because of the teacher? I worry, Ta’Lon, that my shadow may become greater than the message.”
“But we can’t be free, until we learn to laugh at ourselves. Once you look
in the mirror and see just how foolish we can be, laughter is inevitable. And
from laughter comes wisdom.”
“Babylon 5: Z’ha’dum (#3.22)” (1996)
G’Quon wrote, “There is a greater darkness
than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way.
The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos
and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of
dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us,
waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one
knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it
is always born in pain.”
Declaration of Principles for the Interstellar Alliance
“The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice. The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri, or Gaim or Minbari. It speaks in the language of hope; It speaks in the language of trust; It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul. But always, it is the same voice. It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us, And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born. It is the small, still voice that says: We are one. No matter the blood; No matter the skin; No matter the world; No matter the star; We are one. No matter the pain; No matter the darkness; No matter the loss; No matter the fear; We are one. Here, gathered together in common cause. we agree to recognise this singular truth, and this singular rule: That we must be kind to one another, because each voice enriches us and ennobles us, and each voice lost diminishes us. We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future. We are one.”