- Gedrin: When it rains, do you run from doorway to doorway, trying to stay dry, getting wet all the while, or do you just accept the fact that it's raining, and walk with dignity?
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Rain's one thing. Plasma bombs are something else.
- Gedrin: But the principle is the same.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [pause] I'd bring an umbrella.
- Gedrin: You are not at all like the Borg I knew.
- Seven of Nine: As a drone, I helped assimilate many civilizations. Now I have the opportunity to help reconstruct one. I find the experience... gratifying.
- [Voyager gets trapped inside a subspace network]
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Can you find a way out?
- Tom Paris: I don't know. There's hundreds of corridors. It's like a maze.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Then be a good rat and find us the cheese, hm?
- Tuvok: [referring to the Vaadwaur] We don't know anything about this species. They could be hostile.
- Seven of Nine: Most humanoid cultures are.
- Gedrin: You're Borg.
- Seven of Nine: How do you know that?
- Gedrin: Don't you recognize my people? The Vaadwaur?
- Seven of Nine: The Collective's memory from 900 years ago is fragmentary.
- Gedrin: I've had many encounters with your kind.
- The Doctor: And lived to tell about them? Impressive.
- Neelix: Computer, name the specific folktales that use the word 'vaadwaur.'
- Voyager Computer: "The Demon with the Golden Voice;" "The Tale of the Deadly Stranger;" "The Tale of the Boy Who Lost His Head;" "The Tale of the Bloody Hand."
- Neelix: Not exactly 'Mother Goose.'
- Chakotay: [on seeing the hundreds of stasis pods of the Vaadwaur] Dragon's teeth.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: "Dragon's teeth?"
- Chakotay: An old Greek myth. After a dragon was killed in a war, its teeth were spread out over the battlefield. They took root, and warriors sprung from the ground to continue the fighting.
- [Morin has studied a little about Klingon history]
- Morin: There are many parallels between our cultures. The Vaadwaur have also learned to embrace death without fear. As children, we're taught to fall asleep each night imagining a different way to die.
- B'Elanna Torres: I prefer curling up with a good book.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: You haven't been completely honest about your past, and that makes me a little uncertain about the present.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: If we're going to be fighting side by side, I have to trust you. I need to be certain you don't have any ulterior motives.
- Gedrin: Our only motive is survival.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: If I were to take you at your word, the ancient Talaxians might call ME 'vaadwaur' - "foolish." That's what they came to call anyone who allowed themselves to be deceived by an enemy.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: We said we'd try to help you make a new start, and I want to keep that promise, but I can't ignore history, Mr. Gedrin.
- [during an attack by Vaadwaur ships, Janeway suggests using the atmosphere's radiogenic particles as a power source for Voyager's impulse drive]
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: What if we drew the particles directly into our plasma manifold?
- Tom Paris: That would give us one hell of a boost.
- Harry Kim: It could also blow out every power relay on the ship.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
- [last lines]
- Seven of Nine: Captain... I believe I made an error in judgment.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Oh?
- Seven of Nine: By awakening Gedrin, I initiated a chain of events that nearly led to our destruction. I wanted to help revive a civilization, not start a war.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: You thought you were acting out of compassion. I might have done the same thing, but that doesn't make it right, Seven. The repercussions of this could be catastrophic.
- Seven of Nine: Their technology is nine centuries out of date, their plans for conquest are irrelevant.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: They're a resourceful species, determined... They'll adapt. I doubt we've seen the last of them.
- Tuvok: Sixteen Turei vessels are now in orbit. Long-range sensors indicate five more on the way.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: I can understand that they want the odds in their favor, but isn't that overkill?
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [negotiating with the Turei] What's more important to you - deleting the records of a Federation ship that means you no harm or defending yourselves against hundreds of Vaadwaur fighters who are determined to invade your under-space? I suggest you pick your enemy.