Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)

In the Hands of the Prophets (1993)

Avery Brooks: Commander Benjamin 'Ben' Sisko

Photos 

Quotes 

• Vedek Bareil : I'm sorry, Commander; the Vedek assembly will not see you.

  Commander Sisko : Why not?

  Vedek Bareil : Some fear you as the symbol of the Federation they view as godless. Some fear you as the Emissary who walked with the Prophets. And some fear you because Vedek Winn told them to. Oh, we're all very good at conjuring up enough fear to justify whatever we want to do.

• Vedek Winn : You live without a soul, Commander. You and your Federation exist in a universe of darkness, and you would drag us in there with you. But we will not go!

  Commander Sisko : You have just made your first mistake, Vedek.

  Vedek Winn : Have I?

  Commander Sisko : The Bajorans who have lived with us on the station, who have worked with us for months, who helped us move this station to protect the wormhole, who joined us to explore the Gamma Quadrant, who have begun to build the future of Bajor with us, these people know that we are neither the enemy nor the devil. We don't always agree. We have some damn good fights in fact. But we always come away from them, with a little better understanding and appreciation of each other. You won't succeed here. The school will reopen, and when your rhetoric gets old, the Bajoran parents will bring their children back.

  Vedek Winn : We'll see.

• [last lines] 

  Major Kira : Commander... I heard what you said to Vedek Winn at the school. I just wanted you to know, you were right what you said about the Bajorans - at least about me. I don't think that you're... the devil.

  Commander Sisko : Maybe we have made some progress after all.

• [Jake is questioning the 'stupidity' of the Bajoran beliefs, comparing it with the inquisition during the Middle Ages] 

  Commander Sisko : You've got to realize something, Jake: for over fifty years, the one thing that allowed the Bajorans to survive the Cardassian occupation was their faith. The prophets were their only source of hope and courage.

  Jake Sisko : But there were no prophets; they were just aliens that you found in the wormhole.

  Commander Sisko : To those aliens, the future is no more difficult to see than the past. Why shouldn't they be considered prophets?

  Jake Sisko : Are you serious?

  Commander Sisko : My point is, it's a matter of interpretation. It may not be what you believe, but that doesn't make it wrong. If you start to think that way, you'll be acting just like Vedek Winn, only from the other side. We can't afford to think that way, Jake. We'd lose everything we've worked for here.

• Vedek Bareil : I was five, the first time one of the monks grabbed my ear. He was a stern old crow who could virtually squeeze the pod of you with his thumb and forefinger. And as a chronic misbehaver, I was his favorite victim. I swore one of my life's goals would be to do away with that archaic ritual.

  Commander Sisko : You can count on the Federation's support.

• Vedek Bareil : Today I am only a vedek. If the Prophets will it, someday I may be Kai. And I can be a better friend to you then.

  Commander Sisko : In other words, being my friend now might hurt your chances?

  Vedek Bareil : The Prophets teach us patience.

  Commander Sisko : It appears they also teach you politics.

• Commander Sisko : Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever find the common ground we need to bring Bajor into the Federation.

• [some Bajoran crewmen have reported sick for dubious reasons] 

  Commander Sisko : [to Kira]  You tell our sick Bajoran crewmen they'd better get well immediately, or they'll recover on the way to their next assignment.

• [the school has been blown up, but no one has come to harm] 

  Vedek Winn : The Prophets have been kind today.

  Commander Sisko : The Prophets had nothing to do with what happened here today. This was the work of a disturbed and violent mind, who listened to your voice, not the Prophets'.

  Vedek Winn : Is the Emissary holding *me* responsible for this act of terrorism?

  Commander Sisko : The Commander of this station is.

  Vedek Winn : May the Prophets forgive you for abandoning them.

• Commander Sisko : It's easy to look back seven centuries and judge what was right or wrong.

  [In response to Jake's comment on the Catholic Church's inquisition of Galileo Galilei's teaching that the Earth revolves around the Sun] 

• Commander Sisko : My philosophy is that there is room for all philosophies on this station.