- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: When one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable, like... like old leather. And finally... becomes so familiar that one can't ever remember feeling any other way.
- Chief Miles O'Brien: [about his experiences on Setlik III] The only people left alive... were in an outlying district of the settlement. I was sent there with a squad to reinforce them. Cardassians were advancing on us, moving through the streets, destroying, killing... I was with a group of women and children when two Cardassian soldiers burst in. I stunned one of them. The other one jumped me. We struggled. One of the women threw me a phaser, and I fired.
- [he takes a sip from his drink]
- Chief Miles O'Brien: The phaser was set at maximum. The man just... just incinerated, there before my eyes. I'd never killed anything before. When I was a kid, I'd... I'd worry about swatting a mosquito.
- [he gets up]
- Chief Miles O'Brien: It's not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became *because* of you.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: The loyalty that you would so quickly dismiss does not come easily to my people, Gul Macet. You have much to learn about us. Benjamin Maxwell earned the loyalty of those who served with him. You know, in war... he was twice honored with the Federation's highest citation for courage and valor. And if he could not find a role for himself in peace, we can pity him - but we shall not dismiss him.
- Chief Miles O'Brien, Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: [singing] The minstrel boy to the war is gone / In the ranks of death you will find him. His father's sword he hath girded on / And his wild harp slung behind him. Land of song, said the warrior bard / Tho' all the world betrays thee. One sword at least thy rights shall guard /
- [only O'Brien finishes song]
- Chief Miles O'Brien, Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: One faithful harp shall praise thee.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: I'm not going to win this one, am I Miles?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: No, sir.
- [last lines]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Maxwell was right. Those ships were not carrying scientific equipment, were they? A research station within arm's reach of three Federation sectors? Cargo ships running with high-energy subspace fields that jam sensors?
- Gul Macet: If you believe the transport ship was carrying weapons, Captain... why didn't you board it, as Maxwell requested?
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I was here to protect the peace - a peace that I firmly believe is in the interests of both our peoples. If I had attempted to board that ship, I'm quite certain that you and I would not be having this pleasant conversation - and that ships on both sides would now be arming for war.
- Gul Macet: Captain, I assure you...
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Take this message to your leaders, Gul Macet: we'll be watching.
- Lieutenant Worf: The Cardassians have no honor. I do not trust them.
- Counselor Deanna Troi: They're our allies now, Mr. Worf. We have to trust them.
- Lieutenant Worf: Trust is earned, not given away.
- Chief Miles O'Brien: [about dinner] What... Wh-what is it?
- Keiko O'Brien: Kelp buds, plankton loaf and sea berries.
- Chief Miles O'Brien: Sweetheart... I'm not a fish.
- Glin Daro: We're going to your "Ten Forward." Will you join us?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: If my Commander tells me to discuss the transporter with you, I will. If Captain Picard orders me to tell you everything I know about Ben Maxwell, I will. But whom I choose to spend my free time with, that's my business.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: What the hell has happened to this war?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: Sir... There is - no - war. The war is over!
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: You're wrong. The Cardassians live to make war.
- Chief Miles O'Brien: That's what everybody thinks about the enemy. That's probably what they think about *us*.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: We're not the same at all. We do not *start* wars. We do not make surprise attacks on manned outposts. We do not butcher women and children in their homes! Children... who never had the chance to grow up.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: You're a fool, Picard. History will look at you and say, "This man was a fool."
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I'll accept the judgment of history.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: [about Starfleet bureaucrats] They don't know what's going on out here. But you should, Picard. You know what it's like to be under fire.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: You weren't under fire.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: Lives were at stake!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Whose lives?
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: We had to act now!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Why?
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: [looks around] Smells musty in here - like a bureaucrat's office.
- Chief Miles O'Brien: [about Maxwell] I'd just like to say, sir... he was a good man. What he did was terribly wrong, I know that now. But I'm still proud to have served with him.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: If there is to be a lasting peace, Gul Macet, neither you nor I must allow any one man to undermine our efforts.
- [Macet smiles enigmatically]
- Gul Macet: There are those who... crave war. Who need it. I am not one of them, Captain. And I'm beginning to see... that neither are you. We have had our full measure. The lasting peace begins here - with the two of us.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: O'Brien has the ability to size up a situation instantly, and come up with options to fit all contingencies. Remarkable!
- Chief Miles O'Brien: Well, if that's true, I learned it from you, sir.
- Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: [laughs] But you got that silver tongue by kissing the stone, right?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: [singing] The minstrel boy to the war has gone / In the ranks of death you will find him.
- Chief Miles O'Brien, Capt. Benjamin Maxwell: [joint] His father's sword he hath girded on / And his wild harp slung behind him. "Land of song", said the warrior bard / "Tho' all the world betrays thee. One sword at least thy rights shall guard...
- Chief Miles O'Brien: ...One faithful harp shall praise thee."
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Why have you fired on us?
- Gul Macet: Curious question, Captain. In war, one attacks one's enemies.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: You don't care for the Cardassians?
- Chief Miles O'Brien: I like them fine. It's just... Well, I know them. You learn to watch your back when you're around those people.
- [first lines]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [voiceover] Captain's log, stardate 44429.6. We are on a mapping survey near the Cardassian sector. It has been nearly a year since a peace treaty ended the long conflict between the Federation and Cardassia.