Month: March 2017

“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”

From: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Genre: Television

Who said it?: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

The story behind the quote: There are already several quotes from the old Star Trek cast. Now, it’s time to give a little respect to The Next Generation, the successor to the franchise. Star Trek: The Next Generation successfully introduced new fans to the sci-fi world where humans explored the final frontier. The series also gave us many memorable characters and, thankfully, lots of great quotes.

This week’s quote comes from The Next Generation Episode entitled Peak Performance, wherein Picard and Riker (played by Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes, respectively), take part of a series of war games to test their mettle as part of their training. During the episode, Lt. Commander Data (played by Brent Spiner) plays a competitive game against the the war games observer in a strategic game aptly named Strategema. To his surprise, Data, who just so happened to be an android, loses. This makes Data start to lose faith in himself as a strategist as there was supposedly no way he should have lost.

The quote happens during the second act. Picard asks Data to come to the bridge but the android has second thoughts. This is when Picard, after ordering him on to the bridge, gives the quote.

Geek wisdom:  Life isn’t fair all the time. Sometimes you will given lucky breaks and sometimes unlucky ones. There are also going to be times when, even if you think you’ve thought of every possible bad thing that could happen and prepare contingencies for them, things may still not swing your way. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try things anymore. The important thing is that you try.

“Hello, Newman…”

From: Seinfeld

Genre: Television

Who said it?: Jerry Seinfeld

The story behind the quote: We’ve already noted in a previous post that Seinfeld has a lot of memorable quotes. So… here’s another one! The quote is actually said throughout the entire show.

Jerry Seinfeld isn’t particularly a nice guy. He can be selfish and loves to mock others and, once he sees the girl he’s dating have one flaw, he can’t help but fixate with it. But Seinfeld still can get along with pretty much anyone, except for one particular person, and that would be Newman, his “sworn enemy.” Jerry has a particular distaste for Newman (played by Wayne Knight) but he will still greet him with the quote when their paths do cross.

Geek wisdom: It’s still common courtesy to be cordial to the people that we meet. Even if we may not like this person, we still have to be man enough to be civil with each other, even if we may not really mean it. It’s important to do this because, in the future, we may actually find a way to get along with these people that we dislike and just building animosity won’t solve any of our problems anyway.

“I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready!”

From: Spongebob Squarepants

Genre: Cartoons, Television

Who said it?: Spongebob Squarepants

The story behind the quote: This week’s quote comes from a certain creature who lives in a pineapple under the sea, Spongebob Squarepants. One of Nickelodeon’s most popular cartoons, Spongebob Squarepants features the titular character who gets into different crazy adventures in Bikini Bottom (and sometimes outside the town).

The quote actually comes from the very first episode of the series, “Help Wanted.” Spongebob Squarepants notices that his favorite restaurant, The Krusty Krab, is looking for a new fry cook. As this is his dream job, Spongebob marches out, incessantly saying the quote.

Geek wisdom: When opportunity knocks, we always have to be prepared to answer it. We have to always be ready, or, at the least, psyche ourselves up to the point that we feel that we are ready to tackle any problems that may come our way.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

From: The Empire Strikes Back

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Yoda

The story behind the quote: This week’s quote comes from one of the most popular sci-fi geek movie franchises of all time, Star Wars. More specifically, this week’s quote comes from The Empire Strikes Back. While I have already covered a bunch of quotes from Yoda, one of the greatest Jedi Masters from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, that doesn’t mean that I’ve run out of quotes from him! Actually, this quote is closely linked to one of Yoda’s other quotes I’ve covered before. But it is still worthy of getting a separate entry here.

The quote comes from the middle of the film, while Luke Skywalker is training in Dagobah with Yoda in the ways of The Force. R2-D2 alerts Luke that his X-Wing is sinking in the swamp. While Luke thinks it’s impossible to get his ship out now, Yoda tells him that he seems so sure of it when he really shouldn’t…

Geek wisdom: At some point, we are satisfied with what we know and we are so sure of ourselves regarding this knowledge. We stop questioning alternatives and just go with what we know without even seeing if these new methods or if these new discoveries are true. We have to be open to new ideas and give them a try even if they seem like they wouldn’t work.