Tag: qui-gon jinn

“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.”

From: Star Wars (specifically, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Qui-Gon Jinn

The story behind the quote: This week’s quote comes from the first of the Star Wars prequels, Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The film was released in 1999 and was highly anticipated as this was George Lucas returning to the Star Wars franchise that he launched way back in 1977. However, this film, as well as the next two, were set before the original trilogy, making them prequels.

The quote comes early in the film. After Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, two Jedis Knights, escape from a Trade Federation ambush. They get separated in Naboo. As the Trade Federation tanks destroy the land, Qui-Gon runs across and saves the Gungan Jar-Jar Binks, who was just standing around instead of trying to find cover. Qui-Gon is annoyed as Jar-Jar was essentially a deer in the headlights and calls him brainless. When Jar-Jar retorts that he can’t be brainless as he knows how to speak, the Jedi Master delivers the quote.

Geek wisdom: Always take the time to think before you speak. A wise person will only speak when he needs to. A dumb person will just blurt out anything that comes to mind without thinking if it’s even worth talking about.

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“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

From: Star Wars

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Yoda

The story behind the quote: Most people agree that the original Star War trilogy was a great series of films and also introduced us to story of something that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said for the prequel films. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any meaningful quotes that can be captured from them, though.

The quote comes The Phantom Menace and it’s delivered by Yoda, the swamp dwelling Jedi Master who gave us another quote before. As this is set before The Empire Strikes Back, he delivers the quote from a more comfortable setting… in the hall of the Jedi High Council. Qui-Gon Jinn is requesting permission to train Anakin Skywalker (SPOILERS! He becomes Darth Vader) from the Council. Yoda looks at the boy denies Qui-Gon’s request as he senses that he is afraid… and being afraid will lead to bad things…

Geek wisdom: The most heinous of acts in the world can be caused by simple fear. It could be the fear of our own insecurities, fear of the unknown, fear of things we can’t understand and the like. Like Yoda said, this fear can take on a life of its own and grow into other negative reactions, like the aforementioned anger, hate and suffering.

Now, most of this fear can actually be controlled with some understanding. Once we get past the fear and actually try to understand why we are afraid of something, then that’s the time we can conquer the fear.