- [Dr. Crusher is concerned about Wesley not living the life of a teenager]
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: What were *you* doing when you were seventeen?
- Capt. Picard: Probably getting into more trouble than Wesley, I can assure you.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: So was I. Isn't *that* what seventeen's supposed to be?
- [last lines]
- [Dr. Crusher sees Wesley enter Ten Forward with a young girl]
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: See? Now, that is healthy for a boy his age! I mean that as a doctor and not as just a mother. Ah, it is so good to see him having fun for a change! With an attractive young woman, who obviously looks at him with extraordinary affection...
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: [to Guinan, suddenly suspicious] What do you know about this girl?
- Capt. Picard: Dr. Stubbs, if you were a member of my crew, I would...
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: But I am not a member of your crew, sir. I am a representative of the highest command of the Federation, which has directed you to perform my experiment.
- Capt. Picard: If any man, woman or child on this ship is harmed as a result of your experiment, I will have your head before the highest command in the Federation.
- Capt. Picard: Computer, identify malfunction immediately!
- Enterprise Computer: Pawn to bishop 4. Knight to king's rook 3. Bishop to queen's bishop 4. Knight to knight 5...
- Wesley Crusher: [of his experiment with nanites that may have endangered ship and crew] It's just a science project.
- Guinan: You know, a doctor friend once said the same thing to me. Frankenstein was his name.
- Lt. Cmdr. Data: [serving as communicator for the nanites] You are very... strange... looking creatures.
- Capt. Picard: In our travels, we've encountered many other creatures, perhaps even stranger looking than ourselves.
- [Worf has mistakenly detected a Borg ship]
- Lt. Cmdr. Data: It is conceivable that he was viewing a synthetically generated image, sir.
- Commander William T. Riker: Then our computer was daydreaming?
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: [to Wesley] You will never come up against a greater adversary than your own potential, my young friend.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Dr. Stubbs, I know how much this means to you...
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: My dear Counselor. No insult intended; but please turn off your beam into my soul.
- Guinan: Wes, do you think you're gonna get a good grade?
- Wesley Crusher: I always get an A.
- [leaves]
- Guinan: So did Dr. Frankenstein.
- [Wesley is placing devices around Ten Forward]
- Guinan: What's that?
- Wesley Crusher: I'm just setting traps.
- Guinan: I run a clean place.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Your self-portrait is so practiced, so polished.
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: Yes. Isn't it, though?
- Counselor Deanna Troi: It's stretched so tight, the tension fills this room. And if you finally fail - I fear it will snap.
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: A good try, Counselor. But sometimes, when you reach beneath a man's self-portrait - as you so eloquently put it - deep down inside, what you find... is nothing at all.
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: I'm not sure I'd want my mother to be flying through space with me. No, I take that back. I *am* sure. I wouldn't want her.
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: Good Lord! You are talking about machines with a screw loose! Simply turn them off and be done with them.
- Lt. Cmdr. Data: Dr. Stubbs, your own actions have provided evidence to the contrary. When you destroyed the nanites in the core, they responded by interfering with our life support systems. It is difficult to accept these as random actions by machines with loose screws.
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: [about baseball] Once, centuries ago, it was the beloved national pastime of the Americas, Wesley. Abandoned by a society that prized fast food and faster games. Lost to impatience. But I have seen the great players make the great plays.
- Wesley Crusher: Do you recreate them on the holodeck?
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: No!
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: [taps his forehead] In here. With the knowledge of statistics, runs, hits and errors, times at bat, box scores. Men like us do not need holodecks, Wesley. I have played seasons in my mind. It was my reward to myself. For patience. Knowing my turn would come. Call your shot. Point to a star. One great blast and the crowd rises. A brand-new era in astrophysics - postponed 196 years... on account of rain.
- Capt. Picard: [talking to Riker about the nanites infesting the Enterprise] I can't get the story of Gulliver out of my head; overpowered by Lilliputians.
- Capt. Picard: Dr. Stubbs, if you would like to make one final inspection of the unit?
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: Captain, I have been inspecting the "Egg" for the last twenty years. You may lay it when ready.
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: Well, if we do not leave in time, so be it. It's one sure way into the record books, eh?
- [the ship's malfunctions have been caused by nanites]
- Commander William T. Riker: Why would they attack us?
- Dr. Paul Stubbs: Why does a mosquito bite your ear? And who cares? The answer is simple: call an exterminator!