- Chief Miles O'Brien: You choose your enemies; you choose your friends. But family - that's in the stars.
- [Riker and O'Brien are seeing Dr. Pulaski and Riker's father in deep embrace]
- Commander William T. Riker: [surprised] They know each other.
- Chief Miles O'Brien: No kiddin'. I know her too; but we don't do *that*.
- [Will has to decide whether to take the command of the Aries or to stay on the Enterprise]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I can spell out for you, albeit crudely, what you're choosing between. As the First Officer of the Enterprise, you have a position of distinction, prestige, even... glamor of a sort. You are the second in command of Starfleet's flagship; but still second in command. Your promotion will transfer you to a relatively insignificant ship in an obscure corner of the galaxy. But it will be your ship; and, being who you are, it will... soon be vibrant with your authority, your style... your vision. You know... there really is no substitute for holding the reins.
- [Kyle Riker has challenged Will to an anbo-jyutsu match]
- Counselor Deanna Troi: In spite of human evolution, there are still some traits that are endemic to gender.
- Doctor Pulaski: You think that they're going to knock each other's brains out because they're men?
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Human males are unique. Fathers continue to regard their sons as children even into adulthood, and sons continue to chafe against what they perceive as their fathers' expectations of them.
- Doctor Pulaski: It's almost as if they never really grow up at all, isn't it?
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Perhaps that's part of their charm, and why we find them so attractive.
- Wesley Crusher: I was just talking to Worf.
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Yeah?
- Wesley Crusher: He's really eccentric at times.
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: That's one word for it.
- Kyle Riker: I may have something of a reputation for excellence.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: And false humility.
- Kyle Riker: My guess is that Will finds you pretty fascinating. Candor seems to be a trait he admires.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Honesty is the trait he admires most. And you should honestly consider why you're so competitive with your own son.
- Lt. Commander Data: [of the holographic Klingons at the Ascension ceremony] These images have been specifically programmed for Ascension Rites.
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Cute bunch.
- Doctor Pulaski: Poor guy. Picked up the flu virus at our last stop at Nasreldine.
- Kyle Riker: Sounds nasty. What's the therapy?
- Doctor Pulaski: Tryptophan-lysine distillate, with a generous dose of PCS.
- Kyle Riker: PCS?
- Doctor Pulaski: "Pulaski's chicken soup".
- Kyle Riker: I came here to bury the hatchet with my son, only to find out that the ground was frozen solid.
- Doctor Pulaski: Did he ever tell you why he never remarried?
- Commander William T. Riker: What woman would have him, with an ego like that?
- Doctor Pulaski: I would have, in a cold minute.
- Kyle Riker: I came here thinking we could talk this out. But maybe you're right. Maybe I am no father, and you are no son; and this fight is all we have left.
- [Riker has decided to stay on board the Enterprise]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Any particular reason for this change of heart?
- Commander William T. Riker: Motivated self-interest. Right now, the best place for me to be is here.
- Doctor Pulaski: [on seeing Kyle Riker after, as it seems, a very long time] This is more than a surprise; it's total shock.
- Kyle Riker: You mean you didn't bake me a cake?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: Those are Klingon painstiks. I once saw one of them used against a two-ton Rectyne monopod. Poor creature jumped five meters at the slightest touch. Finally died from excessive cephalic pressures.
- Wesley Crusher: You mean...?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: That's right. The animal's head exploded like...
- Doctor Pulaski: I think that's enough, Chief O'Brien.
- Kyle Riker: Why do I get the feeling that this is a set-up?
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Because you're intelligent, wise and quite correct.
- Kyle Riker: Well, I've never been set up better, that's for sure.
- Kyle Riker: I thought about you a lot.
- Doctor Pulaski: Kyle, I don't need to hear what you don't need to say.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: I'm supposed to know how everyone feels, but... I can't read you right now.
- Commander William T. Riker: Perhaps your own feelings are getting in the way.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: My job is to help others sort out *their* emotions. My own feelings are beside the point.
- Commander William T. Riker: Not to me. Our feelings are what make us all human.
- Kyle Riker: I've come here to help Will prepare for his first task as captain.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Are you sure he'll accept such a dangerous assignment?
- Kyle Riker: He'll accept it just because it is dangerous.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: How can you be so sure?
- Kyle Riker: Because I would. And we aren't so different, Will and I.
- Doctor Pulaski: [to Will Riker] You know, if I were you, going out on the Aries, I'd jettison the emotional baggage you're still carrying around.
- Kyle Riker: You know... it's funny. I can talk to a whole roomful of admirals about anything in the galaxy. But I can't talk to you about how I feel.
- Commander William T. Riker: [to his father, when he discovers why he could never beat him at Anbo-Jyutsu as a child] You cheated me!
- Kyle Riker: It's a funny thing about being a parent. There aren't any tech manuals. No quick read-outs to get you to the next set of variables. You just got to wing it from day to day.