Jean-Luc Picard

Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise.

Jean-Luc Picard (13 July 2305–) is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe, the captain of the USS Enterprise-D and the Enterprise-E. He was played by British actor Patrick Stewart in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the subsequent films and the streaming television series Star Trek: Picard.

Quotes

Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived.

That is what it is to be human. To make yourself more than you are.

There can be no justice so long as laws are absolute. Even life itself is an exercise in exceptions.

Seize the time... Live now! Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.

Things are only impossible until they're not!

Shall I tell you what true evil is? It is to submit to you. It is when we surrender our freedom, our dignity instead of defying you.

Trust requires time and experience.

Communication is a matter of patience, imagination.

There is a way out of every box, a solution to every puzzle; it's just a matter of finding it.

The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy ... and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.

We are what we are, and we're doing the best we can. It is not for you to set the standards by which we should be judged!

I prefer to look on the future as something which is not written in stone.

And the sky's the limit.

The past is written, but the future is left for us to write, and we have powerful tools: openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity.

Seize today for we know nothing of tomorrow.

There are moments in our lives we fear to relive and others we long to repeat. While time cannot give us second chances, maybe people can.

• Make it so.
  • Catchphrase first used in "Encounter At Farpoint" (28 September 1987) by Gene Roddenberry

• Engage.
  • Catchphrase first used in "Encounter At Farpoint" (28 September 1987) by Gene Roddenberry

• Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
  • Catchphrase first used in "Encounter At Farpoint" (28 September 1987) by Gene Roddenberry

• Part of having feelings is learning to integrate them into your life, Data, ...learning to live with them. No matter what the circumstances ... Sometimes it takes courage to try, Data. Courage can be an emotion too.
  • Star Trek Generations (1994) story by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and Rick Berman

• Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all, Number One, we're only mortal.
  • Star Trek Generations (1994) story by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and Rick Berman

• Reports of my assimilation are greatly exaggerated.
  • Star Trek: First Contact (1996) story by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and Rick Berman
  • Derivative of the statement "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" attributed to Mark Twain, paraphrasing his remark: "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

• The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force of our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.
  • Star Trek: First Contact (1996) story by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and Rick Berman

• The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!
  • Star Trek: First Contact (1996) story by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and Rick Berman

• Patience. Diplomacy is a very exacting occupation. We will wait.
  • Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) story by John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner; On Equality and Peace

• If there is one ideal that the Federation holds most dear, it is that all men, all races can be united.
  • Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) story by John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner; On Equality and Peace

• Buried deep within you, beneath all the years of pain and anger, there is something that has never been nurtured: the potential to make yourself a better man. And that is what it is to be human. To make yourself more than you are. Oh, yes — I know you. There was a time you looked at the stars and dreamed of what might be.
  • Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) story by John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner

Star Trek: The Next Generation

• Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!
  • Introduction spoken during the opening credits of each episode, derived from the introduction to the original Star Trek series. Both versions are by Gene Roddenberry and reused for Star Trek Beyond.

• If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are.
  • "Encounter At Farpoint" (28 September 1987) by Gene Roddenberry

• Sometimes, Riker, the best way to win a fight is not to be there.
  • "The Last Outpost" (19 October 1987) Story by Richard Krzmeien and Teleplay by Herbert Wright

• There can be no justice so long as laws are absolute. Even life itself is an exercise in exceptions.
  • "Justice" (9 November 1987) by Worley Thorne and Ralph Wills

• Things are only impossible until they're not!
  • "When the Bough Breaks" (15 February 1988) by Hannah Louise Shearer; On persistence

• The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy ... and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.
  • "Symbiosis" (18 April 1988) by Robert Lewin

• You say you are true evil? Shall I tell you what true evil is? It is to submit to you. It is when we surrender our freedom, our dignity instead of defying you.
  • "Skin of Evil" (25 April 1988) by Joseph Stefano

• No being is so important that he can usurp the rights of another.
  • "The Schizoid Man" (23 January 1989) by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler

• Your Honour, the courtroom is a crucible. In it we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a pure product, the truth for all time.
  • "The Measure of a Man" (13 February 1989) by Melinda M. Snodgrass

• It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.
  • "Peak Performance" (10 July 1989) by David Kemper

• 'A matter of internal security.' The age-old cry of the oppressor.
  • "The Hunted" (8 January 1990) by Robin Bernheim

• Being first at any cost is not always the point.
  • "Tin Man" (23 March 1990) by Dennis Putman Bailey and David Bischoff

• Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise.
  • Statement to the entire crew in the alternate timeline towards the end of "Yesterday's Enterprise" (19 February 1990) story by Trent Christopher Ganino, Eric A. Stillwell Ira Steven Behr, Richard Manning, Hans Beimler, Ronald D. Moore

• There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders. You acknowledge their sentience, but ignore their personal liberties and freedom. Order a man to turn his child over to the state? Not while I'm his captain.
  • "The Offspring", (12 March 1990) by René Echevarria

• You may test that assumption at your convenience.
  • "Sins of the Father" (19 March 1990) by Drew Deighan

• Imprisonment is an injury, regardless of how you justify it.
  • "Allegiance" (26 March 1990) by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler

• I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile.
  • "The Best of Both Worlds (18 June 1990) by Michael Piller

• Trust requires time and experience.
  • "First Contact" (29 April 1991) with story by Marc Soctt Zicree and teleplay by Dennis Bailey & David Bischoff and Joe Menosky & Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller. See also: End of Youtube Video "Captain Picard demonstrates diplomacy." (06.10.2013) by user "SkaIathrax".

• You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.
  • "The Drumhead" (29 April 1991) by Jeri Taylor

• The road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think.
  • "The Drumhead" (29 April 1991) by Jeri Taylor

• Jean-Luc Picard: We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, is all ancient history. Then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly, it threatens to start all over again.

Worf': I believed her. I... helped her. I did not see her for what she was.

Jean-Luc Picard: Mr. Worf, villains who twirl their moustache are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camouflaged.

Worf: I think... after yesterday people will not be so ready to trust her.

Jean-Luc Picard: Maybe. But she, or someone like her, will always be with us. Waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness. [...] Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we must continually pay.

• "The Drumhead" (29 April 1991) by Jeri Taylor

• I'd be delighted to offer any advice I have on understanding women. When I have some, I'll let you know.
  • "In Theory" (3 June 1991) by Joe Menosky and Ronald D. Moore

• In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe these are qualities we have in sufficient measure.
  • "Darmok" (30 September 1991) by Joe Menosky and Phillip LaZebnik. See also: Beginning of Youtube Video "Beginning Scene From the Episode Darmok" (04.10.2021) by user "April 5, 2063".

• The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform!
  • "The First Duty" (March 30, 1992) by Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar

• Seize the time... Live now! Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.
  • "The Inner Light" (1 June 1992) by Morgan Gendel and Peter Allan Fields

• There are four lights!
  • "Chain of Command" (21 December 1992) by Frank Abatemarco

• No, I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe the afterlife is run by you. The universe is not so badly designed!
  • "Tapestry" (15 February 1993) by Ronald D. Moore

• There is a way out of every box, a solution to every puzzle; it's just a matter of finding it.
  • "Attached" (8 November 1993) by Nick Sagan

• I prefer to look on the future as something which is not written in stone. A lot of things can happen in 25 years.
  • "All Good Things..." (23 May 1994) by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore

• We are what we are, and we're doing the best we can. It is not for you to set the standards by which we should be judged!
  • "All Good Things..." (23 May 1994) by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore

• Now, this will put the ship at risk. Quite frankly, we may not survive. But I want you to believe that I am doing this for a greater purpose, and that what is at stake here is more than any of you can possibly imagine. I know you have your doubts about me, about each other, about this ship. All I can say is that although we have only been together for a short time, I know that you are the finest crew in the fleet. And I would trust each of you with my life. So, I am asking you for a leap of faith — and to trust me.
  • "All Good Things..." (23 May 1994) by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore

• So, five-card stud, nothing wild. And the sky's the limit.
  • "All Good Things..." (23 May 1994) by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore

Star Trek: Picard

Raffi Musiker: But you remember what we used to say back then?

Jean-Luc Picard: One impossible thing at a time.

• • Absolute Candor (February 13, 2020) by Michael Chabon

• But murder is not justice. There is no solace in revenge. You have had your humanity restored to you. Don't squander it now.
  • Stardust City Rag (February 20, 2020) by Kirsten Beyer

• Changed? The Borg? They coolly assimilate entire civilizations, entire systems, in a matter of hours. They don't change! They metastasize.
  • The Impossible Box (February 27, 2020) by Nick Zayas

William Riker: That time you were flying off to Romulus, to plan the Great Supernova Rescue. Do you remember what I said?

Jean-Luc Picard: 'So you want to be ass-deep in Romulans for the rest of your life?'

William Riker: I believe I also reminded you of Newton's Fourth Law of Thermodynamics.

Jean-Luc Picard: No good deed goes unpunished.

• • Nepenthe (March 5, 2020) by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon

William Riker: Classic Picard arrogance. You get to make the decisions about who gets to take the chances and who doesn't, and who's in the loop and who's out of the loop, and, naturally, it always ends up with you. And that's fine on the bridge of your starship, captain, but now you're dealing with a teenager, more or less. That can be an extremely humbling experience. Frankly, not sure you're up to it.

Jean-Luc Picard: Perhaps I'm not.

William Riker: There you go. Baby steps.

Jean-Luc Picard: Baby steps.

• • Nepenthe (March 5, 2020) by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon

Kirsten Clancy: That's a hell of a report.

Jean-Luc Picard: And you thought I was a desperate old man. Quixotic, paranoid, possibly senile…

Kirsten Clancy: Let's just leave it at quixotic.

Jean-Luc Picard: And now the windmills have turned out to be giants.

• • Broken Pieces (March 12, 2020) by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon

• The past is written, but the future is left for us to write, and we have powerful tools, Rios: openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy, and fear, and fear is the great destroyer, Rios.
  • Broken Pieces (March 12, 2020) by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon

• Data's capacity for expressing and processing emotion was limited. I suppose we had that in common.
  • Broken Pieces (March 12, 2020) by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon

• There's a difference between killing an attacking enemy and watching a wounded one die.
  • Et En Arcadia Argo, Part 1 (March 19, 2020) by Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman & Akiva Goldsman

• To be alive is a responsibility. As well as a right.
  • Et En Arcadia Argo, Part 2 (March 26, 2020) by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman

• It says a great deal about the mind of Commander Data that, looking at the human race with all its violence and corruption, willful ignorance, he could still see kindness, the immense curiosity, and greatness of spirit. And he wanted, more than anything else, to be part of that, to be part of the human family.
  • Et En Arcadia Argo, Part 2 (March 26, 2020) by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman

• Seize today for we know nothing of tomorrow.
  • The Star Gazer (March 3, 2022) by Akiva Goldsman & Terry Matalas

• We often refer to space as the final frontier. But the older I get, the more I come to believe that the true final frontier is time. In command, as in life, what we do in crisis often weighs upon us less heavily than what we wish we had done, what could have been. Time offers many opportunities, but it rarely offers second chances. And as steps forward go I would like to acknowledge your classmate the first fully Romulan cadet at Starfleet Academy: Elnor. May you all go boldly into a future freed from the shackles of the past. I stand before you the last Picard. My ancestor captained the second ship, behind Jacques Cartier. A great-great cousin Renee Picard was instrumental in early exploration of this solar system. Yet I choose to leave you with the words of my mother, who was no explorer at all. When I was a boy she would point to the night sky and say, "Look up, Jean-Luc, and let's see what's out there".
  • The Star Gazer (March 3, 2022) by Akiva Goldsman & Terry Matalas

• Guinan! Don't leave the Earth just yet. I know you're done with listening, but you're not done with humanity. Change always comes later than we think it should.
  • Watcher (March 24, 2022) by Juliana James & Jane Maggs (Teleplay) as well as by Travis Fickett & Juliana James (Story)

• There are moments in our lives we fear to relive and others we long to repeat. While time cannot give us second chances, maybe people can.
  • Farewell (May 5, 2022) by Christopher Monfette and Akiva Goldsman

• Y’know, there will be a time when you will need to remember that no matter how bleak or unwinnable a situation, as long as you and your crew remain steadfast in your dedication, one to another, you are never ever without hope.
  • No Win Scenario (March 9, 2023) by Terry Matalas & Sean Tretta

• You’re only ever really as good as those around you. Your crew become a part of you. Complete you. They lift you up to accomplish the things you never could do alone.
  • No Win Scenario (March 9, 2023) by Terry Matalas & Sean Tretta

• Fate has a way of surprising us.
  • The Bounty (March 23, 2023) by Christopher Monfette

• You don't leave the doors open if you want to keep the wolves out.
  • The Last Generation (April 20, 2023) by Terry Matalas

William Riker: Hope you're feeling lucky, Jean-Luc.

Jean-Luc Picard: You know, Will, I've come to believe that the stars have always been in my favor.

• • The Last Generation (April 20, 2023) by Terry Matalas

Quotes about Picard

Jean-Luc Picard! Chief contact with the Q Continuum. Arbiter of succession for the Klingon Empire. Savior of Earth from Borg invasion. Captain of the Enterprises D and E. The man even worked alongside the great Spock. ~ Santiago Cabrera

The bridge of the Enterprise, under the moderate and controlled command of Captain Picard, is a locus of "enlightened understanding." ~ Rosemarie Garland Thomson

Alphabetized by author

• Jean-Luc Picard taught me how to speak. I’m pretty sure that I already knew how to say words by the time that I was watching ‘’Star Trek: The Next Generation’’ with my parents, but Patrick Stewart’s captain is how I remember learning that words and communication are noble and important. That you can be strong without imposing yourself physically on others. That making an effort to unite yourself with other people is powerful as well as merely desirable.
  • George Ankers, “50 years on, we need Star Trek’s optimism more than ever”, ‘’Medium’’, (Jul 27, 2016)

• Captain Picard, is the exact opposite of a Hollywood action-hero.
  • Dirk Baecker, in Inclusion/ Exclusiom (2002), p. 76

• Jean-Luc Picard! Chief contact with the Q Continuum. Arbiter of succession for the Klingon Empire. Savior of Earth from Borg invasion. Captain of the Enterprises D and E. The man even worked alongside the great Spock.
  • Emergency Hologram (EMH) playbed by Santiago Cabrera in the Star Trek: Picard episode The End is the Beginning (February 6, 2020) written by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman

• Captain Picard is the hero we need right now. He exemplifies in some ways even more then James Kirk—and I’m not gonna get into the Kirk vs Picard argument because I love Captain Kirk, he was my first captain—but Picard is even more of an exemplar of everything that is best about Star Trek’s vision for the future.
  • Michael Chabon, "Captain Picard is the hero we need, says Star Trek writer Michael Chabon", by Richard Trenholm, CNET, (11/7/2018); as quoted in "Michael Chabon on Honoring Star Trek Canon and How Picard Is 'The Hero We Need Right Now'", by Beth Elderkin, IO9, (11/9/2018).

• Picard stands as the bearer of Starfleet's conscience and an exemplar of moral autonomy.
  • Kevin Decker and Jason Eberl Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant (2008), p. 141

• Captain Picard is perceived to be a gentler soul than Captain Kirk.
  • Marc Dipaol, in War, Politics and Superheroes : Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film (2011), p. 30

• When I was in middle school and watching “Star Trek” I imagined we were moving closer toward the show’s version of the future: egalitarian, democratic, creative. Now when I watch the show, I vacillate between hope and escapism. I want to believe that “Star Trek” is predictive of how things will turn out for humanity. I want us to wander the universe in brightly colored uniforms, listening to operas sung by sentient robots. I hope we will find our way to peace. But if that’s not what the future holds, if it’s more war and injustice and greed that we’re headed for, then all I want is to watch Captain Picard hold court on the bridge one more time.
  • Miriam Francisco, “The optimism of ‘Star Trek’”, Michigan Daily, (September 16, 2019)

• The new captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, is the wise man. He rules the Enterprise with a sagely wisdom.
  • Pallab Ghosh, in "Klingons on the Starship Bow" in New Scientist Vo. 117, issue 1605 (24 March 1988), p. 63

• As shown in his speech and actions, Picard is a man of intelligence, courage, integrity, compassion, courtesy.
  • Mark Jancovich and James Lyons, in Quality Popular Television : Cult TV, The Industry and Fans (2003), p. 111

• Patrick Stewart's identification with Jean-Luc Picard is a prime exemplar of the extreme entanglement between actor and character produced by cult television programs, yet in Stewart's case this entanglement has not precluded a very active and successful post-Star Trek career.
  • Sara Gwenllian-Jones and Roberta E. Pearson, in Cult Television (2004), p. 65

• Those ... who are familiar with the character Captain Picard, already know him to be the leader that we all wish we worked for, whose leadership gives us confidence and comfort in meeting the challenges we face each and every day, and the type of leader that we should strive to become.
  • Wess Roberts and Bill Ross in Make It So : Leadership Lessons from Star Trek, The Next Generation (1995), p. xi

• Picard and his crew were all human carbon copies of Spock—even-keeled, rational, and almost impossibly ethical. (Spock himself says so of Picard in “Unification,” the one “Next Generation” episode in which he appears.) That left little room for identification. You could aspire to be more like Picard, the very model of compassion and culture, but you could never truly understand his moral universe. He was nothing like us twenty-first-century humans. He was too alien.
  • Manu Saadia, “The Enduring Lessons of “Star Trek””, The New Yorker, (September 8, 2016).

• He intrigues me, this Picard. Remarkably analytical and dispassionate, for a human. I understand why my father chose to mind-meld with him. There's almost a Vulcan quality to the man.
  • Spock playbed by Leonard Nimoy in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Unification Part 2 (November 11, 1994), story by by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, teleplay by Michael Piller

• The bridge of the Enterprise, under the moderate and controlled command of Captain Picard, is a locus of "enlightened understanding."
  • Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body (1996), p. 334

• The new captain, Jean-Luc Picard, was French and enjoyed reading, classical music, William Shakespeare, archaeology, and theatre.
  • Gary Westfahl, in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy : Themes, Works, and Wonders (2005) Vol. 3, p. 1264

• Captain Picard is not the swashbuckler that Captain Kirk was.
  • Grace Lee Whitney, Jim Denney, and Leonard Nimoy in The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy (1998), p. 81

• Only question I
  Ever thought was hard
  Was do I like Kirk,
  Or do I like Picard?
  • Weird Al Yankovic, "White & Nerdy", Straight Outta Lynwood (2006)

External links

• Biography of Jean-Luc Picard at the official Star Trek website
• Jean-Luc Picard at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)