looking for Picard quote

[bryce]

Hi, I've been looking online everywhere for a particular quote by Picard, but to no avail. (And I don't have TNG on DVD...)

I'm looking for the exact words Picard said in "The Samaritan Snare" to Wesley in the shuttle - as they were on final approach to the planet/starbase - about studying art, history & philosophy...and maybe them "all this" would "make sense"...or some such?

Anybody know the part I'm talking about? (Sorry I can't be more specific...it's been a long time since I saw the episode - years, probably - so my recall of it is vague.)

I was wondering if anybody could help give me the exact quote...? (Even a good online source for Trek/Picard quotes would be shiny also...wikiquote is not that comprehensive...)

Thanks!

 

[kitsune]

Excerpt from http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/143.htm

WESLEY: We're approaching Starbase Five One Five, sir.
PICARD: At last. Did you read that book I gave you?
WESLEY: Some of it.
PICARD: That's reassuring.
WESLEY: I just don't have much time.
PICARD: There is no greater challenge than the study of philosophy.
WESLEY: But William James won't be in my Starfleet exams.
PICARD: The important things never will be. Anyone can be trained in the mechanics of piloting a starship.
WESLEY: But Starfleet Academy
PICARD: It takes more. Open your mind to the past. Art, history, philosophy. And all this may mean something.

 

[bryce]

[edited by me]

^THANKS!!!

(And thanks for the linky!)

I've been trying to explain to my oldest daughter and son lately - as we get ready to see the new Trek movie together (and their first real exposure to Star Trek at all, save the 2 tribble episodes) the way that Star Trek has shaped my values and ideas and ethics and such...and that quote is a great example...

I always thought that last bit: "Open your mind to the past. Art, history, philosophy. And all this may mean something." summed up a lot of what I came to love and respect (and try to take to heart) about TNG's philosophy, and Picard's values, and what made him a kind of archetypical "Philosopher-King" /slash "Renaissance Man"...

As well as just being a (IMHO, profound) statement about the value of a "classical education"...or being a "polymath", and a well-rounded person - of any sex.

But maybe I'm reding to much into it, lol!

It's just that...Picard has always been a role model for me (funny, I *hated* him when TNG first premiered!) and I was 18-is when that came out...and living with a good friend(still)/housemate who was is lesbian/feminist - and often down on men - and I never felt very much like most typical guys anyway (like girls - just not sports, cars, & Budweiser) and I was trying to find *positive* male role models to counter my dad's idiotic sexist, dysfunctional, repressed & often abusive views on manhood - and from the other side my roomie's male-bashing views that "All men - except you - are rapists...and you still could be...'cept you're...*different*." (*ug!*) and in my search I was came across a lot of the "Mythopoetic Men's Movement" books like "Iron John" and "Fire in the Belly" that were popular at the time...and that quote struck me as very reminiscent of the "King/Warrior/Magician/Lover" "archectypes" I was reading about then...King Arthur...Picard...you know...?

And I realized that Picard, more than Kirk, was not only a major role model for me - but also a pretty good ideal/example of a positive, strong (if a bit emotionally repressed) male figure. (Even if he is a sissy Earl-Grey sipping "cheese eating surrender monkey" frog like...uh...oh...er...me, actually...)

 

[WillsBabe]

I like Picard's comment in that scene that the important things in life will not be on any exam. It rang true to me at the time, and rings even more so now.

 

[JB2005]

it reminds me of bartlet/charlie in the west wing

 

[kitsune]

And I realized that Picard, more than Kirk, was not only a major role model for me - but also a pretty good ideal/example of a positive, strong (if a bit emotionally repressed) male figure.

Picard's one of my three favorite characters (the others being Jadzia Dax and Data). I never found anything to like about Kirk.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Wesley can be such a little creep sometimes. Captain /freaking/ Picard gives you an important book to read and you don't bother to finish it..and then you have a lame excuse as to why you haven't.

 

[Holdfast]

The important things never will be. Anyone can be trained in the mechanics of piloting a starship.

If that quote was relevant in the 1980s (and it was), think about how much more relevant is now, with the sheer explosion in pointless bureaucracy and paperwork - "mechanics" - there has been since Samiritan Snare aired. Action done in absence of any thought, done purely out of form, for policy reasons, following empty protocol.

The world is full of technically competent & dependable people who completely lack any sort of significant insight or purpose. And worse, they infest every level of society, right up to and including upper management and politics. They function like worker drones, but somehow have ended up in charge of the hive. It's tragic, really. Still, one has to laugh...