- Data: I want to live, however briefly, knowing that my life is finite. Mortality gives meaning to human life, Captain. Peace, love, friendship, these are precious, because we know they cannot endure.
- Jean-Luc Picard: [quotes the Tempest] We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
- Jean-Luc Picard: It says a great deal about the mind of Commander Data that, looking at the human race with all its violence and corruption and willful ignorance, he could still see kindness, immense curiosity, and the greatness of spirit. He wanted, more than anything else, to be part of that. To be a part of a human family.
- Elnor: Would the XBs be better off dead? Everyone hates them, they have no home. They don't belong anywhere.
- Seven of Nine: Am I better off dead? I'm an XB, I have no home, I don't belong anywhere. Why don't I just put a phaser to my head and get it over with?
- Elnor: Because I'd miss you.
- Jean-Luc Picard: I always wished I could have said I was sorry that it was you and not me.
- Data: Captain, do you regret sacrificing your life for Soji and her people?
- Jean-Luc Picard: Not for an instant.
- Data: Then why would you imagine I regret sacrificing mine for yours?
- Soji: Picard, try to see this from our point of view. You choose if we live, you choose if we die. You choose! We have no choice! You organics have never given us one.
- Jean-Luc Picard: To say you have no choice is a failure of imagination.
- Will Riker: Acting Captain Will Riker, in command of the U.S.S. Zheng He.
- Commodore Oh: And?
- Will Riker: And it is my duty to inform you that the United Federation of Planets has designated planet Ghulion IV in the Vayt sector under the protection of Starfleet, according to the terms of the Treaty of Algeron.
- Commodore Oh: Too late! Our claim to this world takes precedence. Move aside.
- Will Riker: Afraid not.
- [plays Picard's transmission]
- Jean-Luc Picard: I have a priority request to open diplomatic negotiations and protection for the inhabitants of Ghulion IV.
- Will Riker: General, or Commodore, or whatever you're calling yourself, right now, I'm on the bridge of the toughest, fastest, most powerful ship Starfleet has ever put into service. And I've got a fleet of them at my back. We've got our phasers locked on your warp cores. And nothing would make me happier than you giving me an excuse to kick your treacherous Tal Shiar ass. But instead, I'm going to ask you one time... to stand down.
- [Seven is fighting Narissa on the Artifact to prevent her from killing Picard]
- Narissa: Sad queen Annika. Six years old and all she got for her birthday was assimilated.
- [They continue to fight until Seven has Narissa by the throat]
- Narissa: Why didn't you just put a phaser to your head and get it over with?
- Seven of Nine: Because I still had this to live for.
- [shoves Narissa toward a ledge]
- Seven of Nine: This
- [kicks her over]
- Seven of Nine: is for Hugh!
- [Narissa lets out a scream as she falls to her death, punishing her once and for all]
- [Riker contacts Picard after the Romulans retreat from Ghulion IV]
- Jean-Luc Picard: Will! How the h...
- Will Riker: When I heard you sent an SOS, I asked for temporary reassignment. Just because I didn't try to talk you out of it didn't mean I was going to let you go it alone. I'm supposed to sit around in the woods making pizza while you have all the fun?
- [Picard chuckles]
- Will Riker: Admiral Picard, I leave this situation in your capable hands.
- Jean-Luc Picard: Thank you, Will, for always having my back.
- Will Riker: I learned from the best.
- Jean-Luc Picard: I've got it from here.
- Will Riker: I'll see you around, my friend. Riker out.
- [transmission ends]
- Jean-Luc Picard: Adieu.
- Dr. Agnes Jurati: They've left us behind, Picard! They're generations beyond us!
- Jean-Luc Picard: In one sense, yes, but in another, as you said, they are children. And until now, the only teachers that they've had are a couple of hermits, and the fear of extermination. But fear is an incompetent teacher. Yes, they have life. But no one is teaching them what it's for. To be alive is a responsibility, as well as a right.
- Dr. Agnes Jurati: How are they supposed to learn that lesson in six minutes and eleven seconds?
- Jean-Luc Picard: The way that children learn most things: by example.
- Sutra: I am glad you could see the reason behind my actions.
- Dr Altan Soong: Yes. But reason isn't everything. How could you kill your sister like that? I thought you would be a superior being.
- [deactivates Sutra]
- Dr Altan Soong: Turns out, you're no better than we are.
- [Dr. Jurati has just reestablished contact with Soji at Picard's request]
- Soji: Picard...
- Jean-Luc Picard: Soji, please. Power down the beacon. Show them how profoundly wrong they are about you. That you're not the enemy. You're not the destroyer. If that doesn't convince them, then they will have to answer to the Federation.
- Soji: The same Federation that banned us and threw us on the scrap heap?
- Jean-Luc Picard: If we wanted to destroy you, Soji, we would've joined forces with the Romulans. We would be training our phasers on you right now. We aren't. We won't! You know why? Because we trust you to make the right choice. I trust you, Soji. I know you. I believe in you. That's why I saved your lives. So that you could save ours in return. That's the whole point. That's why we're here. To save each other.
- Cristóbal Rios: I said I would never do it again, and then I fucking did it again.
- Seven of Nine: Same.
- Cristóbal Rios: Never again do what?
- Seven of Nine: So many things. But in this instance, never again kill somebody just because it's what they deserve, just because it feels wrong for them to still be alive. You?
- Cristóbal Rios: Never again let another self-righteous, hard-assed, old starship captain into my heart. Never again have to stand there and watch him die.
- Seven of Nine: Was there anything you could have done to prevent it?
- Cristóbal Rios: No, I guess there wasn't.
- Seven of Nine: Hmmm. Then I win.
- Jean-Luc Picard: You don't remember your death? I can't forget it.
- Data: Apparently I ended my existence in the hope of prolonging yours.
- Jean-Luc Picard: That's right. Before I had even grasped the nature of our situation, you had conceived, and executed it. I was furious.
- Data: My apologies, Captain. But I am not certain I could have done otherwise.
- Jean-Luc Picard: True. That might have been the most Data thing you ever did.
- [the Romulans stand down after Soji destroys the beacon]
- Will Riker: Now prepare to be escorted out of Federation space.
- Commodore Oh: That won't be necessary.
- Will Riker: Really, it's no trouble at all.
- Jean-Luc Picard: Soji, I want you to reconsider your present course of action, and power down the beacon.
- Soji: You know that's not going to happen.
- Jean-Luc Picard: I have something I want to give you and your people. And I hope it will change your mind.
- Soji: And what's that?
- Jean-Luc Picard: My life. Picard out.
- Data: [to Picard] Knowing that you loved me formed a small, but statistically significant part of my memories.
- Jean-Luc Picard: Data... am I dead?
- Data: Yes, Captain. Do you remember dying?
- Jean-Luc Picard: I think I do. Something in my head seemed to just go away... like a child's sand castle collapsing.