- Sisko: [letting off steam pummeling a punch bag] He worked under me for a year and a half. I saw him almost every day, read his reports, had him for dinner. I even took him to a baseball game in a holosuite once, and I never saw it! It's my job to be a good judge of character, and what did I do? Not only did I not see it, I put him up for a promotion.
- [shouts angrily]
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: He played his hand well.
- Sisko: He played me all right. And what is my excuse? Is he a Changeling? No! Is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? No! Is he a wormhole alien? No! He's just a man, like me - arrgh! And he beat me!
- Sisko: "Les Misérables" isn't about the policeman. It's about Valjean - the victim of a monstrous injustice, who spends his entire life helping people, making noble sacrifices for others. That's how Eddington sees himself: he is Valjean, he's Robin Hood, he's a romantic, dashing figure, fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds.
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: The secret life of Michael Eddington.
- [Eddington has sent Sisko a copy of "Les Misérables" to read]
- Michael Eddington: Pay close attention to the character of Inspector Javert - the French policeman who spends twenty years chasing a man for stealing a loaf of bread. Sound like anyone you know?
- Sisko: Why don't you beam over and we'll discuss it?
- Michael Eddington: Mr. Cing'ta won't be joining us. His shuttle had an accident on the way to this rendezvous.
- Sisko: Is he dead?
- Michael Eddington: You just don't understand the Maquis, do you, Captain? We're not killers. Mr. Cing'ta's accident has marooned him on a particularly nasty planet in the Badlands. But I assure you, he's very much alive.
- Sisko: How merciful. You condemned him to a slow death.
- Michael Eddington: It's more than he deserved. He was going to sell us out to you. He betrayed us.
- Sisko: Now, there's a subject *you* know a lot about.
- [to provoke Eddington, Sisko has just poisoned the atmosphere of a Maquis planet]
- Michael Eddington: Can't you see what's happening to you? You're going against everything you claim to believe in. And for what? To satisfy a personal vendetta?
- Sisko: *You betrayed your uniform*!
- Michael Eddington: And you're betraying yours, *right now*! The sad part is, you don't even realize it. I feel sorry for you, Captain. This obsession with me - look what it's cost you.
- Sisko: *Major! Shut that thing off! Commander Worf*! Prepare to launch torpedoes!
- Michael Eddington: *Wait*! If... you call off your attack, I'll hand over all our biogenic weapons.
- Sisko: Not enough!
- Michael Eddington: All right, Javert. I'll give you what you want... me.
- Sisko: Is the new holo-communicator ready?
- Major Kira: The Chief's had online for six hours now. I think he's eager for someone to give it a try.
- Sisko: Always like to please the Chief.
- Chief O'Brien: With most of the bridge control functions offline, all orders to Engineering will have to be relayed. In the interest of clarity, I thought it best that those messages be relayed with one voice:
- Chief O'Brien: [indicates Nog] Mr. Academy here. I figured you'd want somebody who could hear you while the bridge is exploding all around you.
- Nog: [alarmed] Exploding?
- Sisko: We may be going into a combat situation. Do you think you're ready for that, Cadet?
- Nog: Sir, yes, sir! Absolutely, sir!
- Sisko: I'm glad to hear it. Report to the bridge.
- Nog: Aye, sir.
- Nog: [walks off despondently]
- [under his breath]
- Nog: Exploding?
- Odo: I remembered something that Eddington once said to me: the best place to hide something is in plain sight.
- Captain Sanders: [talking about Eddington] Do me a favor.
- Sisko: Of course.
- Captain Sanders: Save of me a seat at his court martial.
- Michael Eddington: Tell me, Captain - what is it that bothers you more, the fact that I left Starfleet to fight for a higher cause? Or the fact that it happened on your watch?
- Michael Eddington: Look at them, Captain. They're humans - just like you and me. And Starfleet took everything away from them. Remember that the next time you put on that uniform. There's a war out there, and you're on the wrong side.
- Sisko: You know what I see out there, Mr. Eddington? I see victims. But not of Cardassia or the Federation. Victims of you, the Maquis.
- Sisko: All right, say it.
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: What?
- Sisko: That I have lost all perspective, that I'm turning this into a vendetta between me and Eddington, and that I am putting the ship, the crew, and my entire career at risk, and if I had any brains at all, I'd go back to my office, sit down, and read Odo's crime reports.
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: I wasn't going to say that.
- Sisko: But that's what you were thinking, right?
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: No. Actually, what I was thinking is... you're becoming more like Curzon all the time.
- Sisko: I don't know how to take that.
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Consider it a compliment. And the next time *I* go off, half-cocked on some wild-eyed adventure, think back to this moment, and be a little more understanding.
- Sisko: Eddington is the hero of his own story. That makes me the villain. And what is it that every hero wants to do?
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Kill the bad guy.
- [Sisko and Sanders are trying out the new holo-communicator]
- Captain Sanders: Are you receiving my image, Captain?
- Sisko: Yes, and you?
- Captain Sanders: You appear to be sitting on my bridge. May take me a while to get used to this; I'm not fond of uninvited guests.
- Sisko: I'll try not to overstay my welcome.
- [last lines]
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Benjamin, I'm curious. Your plan to poison the Maquis planets - you didn't clear it with Starfleet first, did you?
- Sisko: I knew I'd forgotten to do something.
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Big gamble.
- Sisko: That's what it takes to be a good villain.
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: You know, sometimes I like it when the bad guy wins.