- Capt. Picard: Seize the time, Meribor. Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.
- Eline: [referring to Picard's "starship"] Was your life there so much better than this? So much more gratifying, so much more fulfilling, that you cling to it with such stubbornness?
- Capt. Picard: Eline...
- Eline: It must have been extraordinary. But never in all the stories you've told me... have you mentioned anyone who loved you as I do.
- Capt. Picard: I always believed that I didn't need children to complete my life. Now I couldn't imagine life without them.
- Eline: The rest of us have been gone a thousand years. If you remember what we were, and how we lived, then we'll have found life again.
- Capt. Picard: Eline...
- [the probe is launched]
- Eline: Now we live in you. Tell them of us... my darling.
- Batai: We hoped our probe would encounter someone in the future. Someone who could be a teacher. Someone who could tell the others about us.
- Capt. Picard: Oh... Oh, it's me... Isn't it? I'm the someone. I'm the one it finds. That's what this launching is. A probe that finds me, in the future.
- Capt. Picard: [on his flute] When did I learn to play this?
- Eline: I'm afraid you never did, dear. You do keep trying.
- Capt. Picard: You say I've been ill?
- Batai: For more than a week. Eline should have put you in the hospital, but she insisted on caring for you herself.
- Capt. Picard: Eline?
- Batai: Your wife. If you don't remember that, maybe it's safer not to go home.
- Capt. Picard: I'd like to ask your permission to build something.
- Eline: Kamin, you've built your telescope, your laboratory, you don't need my permission for something new.
- Capt. Picard: In this case, I think I do.
- Eline: What is it?
- Capt. Picard: A nursery.
- Eline: [collecting Kamin's shoes] Don't forget these. I won't put them away for you again.
- Capt. Picard: [as Kamin] Yes, ma'am.
- Batai: This sapling is planted as an affirmation of life, in defiance of the drought, and with expectations of long life. Whatever comes, we will keep it alive, as a symbol of our survival.
- Capt. Picard: A good scientist doesn't function by conjecture.
- Meribor: A good scientist functions by hypothesizing and then proving or disproving that hypothesis. That's what I did.
- Capt. Picard: Hey, why don't you spend more time with that young man Dannick?
- Meribor: You are changing the subject.
- Capt. Picard: No, I'm not. I'm just hypothesizing... that he's in love with you.
- Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker: I'm not willing to let this thing keep drilling into him.
- Doctor Beverly Crusher: If somebody gets stabbed, you don't necessarily pull the knife out right away. It might do more harm than leaving it there.
- Ressikans: Go carefully.
- [Ressikan farewell]
- Capt. Picard: A good scientist doesn't function by conjecture...
- Meribor: [quoting her father] "A good scientist functions by hypothesizing and then proving or disproving that hypothesis."
- Meribor: You've taught me to pursue the truth, no matter how painful it is. It's too late to back off now. This planet is dying.
- Lieutenant Commander Data: It is an unmapped system of six planets, sir.
- Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker: Any of them inhabited?
- Lieutenant Commander Data: Not any longer, sir. The star went nova. All life in this system was destroyed approximately 1000 years ago.
- Capt. Picard: It breaks my heart to look at him.
- Meribor: Who?
- Capt. Picard: My grandson. It breaks my heart. He deserves a rich full life and he's not going to get one.
- Capt. Picard: What is it they're launching?
- Meribor: You know about it, Father. You've already seen it.
- Capt. Picard: Seen it? What are you talking about? I haven't seen any missile.
- Batai: Yes you have, old friend. Don't you remember?
- Capt. Picard: Batai?
- Batai: You saw it just before you came here.
- Capt. Picard: What is this place?
- Eline: You're still feverish.
- Capt. Picard: Computer, freeze program.
- [nothing happens]
- Capt. Picard: Computer, end program.
- [nothing happens]
- Eline: Kamin.
- Capt. Picard: Picard to Enterprise.
- [nothing happens]
- Eline: Kamin, please don't get up. You're still not well.
- Capt. Picard: I asked you, what is this place?
- Eline: This is your home, of course.