Posted by Keith Braithwaite
Leonard Nimoy passed away on February 27 at age 83, succumbing to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an aliment the cause of which he firmly believed was his unfortunate smoking habit, despite his having given it up 30 years ago. He is survived by his wife, two children, numerous grandchildren, and an older brother. News of his death occasioned accolades from his Star Trek co-stars, NASA astronauts, U.S. president Barack Obama, and Trekkers the world over.
A screen and stage actor, Nimoy’s talents extended, as well, to directing, writing and poetry, photography, and singing. But he will best be remembered for his portrayal of Star Trek’s renowned half-human, half-Vulcan science officer, Mr. Spock, a legacy the actor finally embraced after an initial period of resistance, which proved futile.
He appeared in, among other productions, Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, Get Smart, Mission: Impossible, the sci-fi thriller Them!, the B-movie The Brain Eaters, the first remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and the serial Zombies of the Stratosphere. Before landing the role of Spock, he co-starred with DeForest Kelley, the future Doctor McCoy, in the TV Western The Virginian, and with future Captain Kirk William Shatner in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
He returned to his iconic role for the Star Trek movies, including as an older Spock in the J. J. Abrams reboot and its follow-up, and memorably as Ambassador Spock in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, most popular of the original show’s many sequels. He also voiced Spock in Star Trek: The Animated Series, and recently, in an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
In tribute to Mr. Nimoy, we offer a selection of some of Spock’s memorable quotes:
Emotions are alien to me. I’m a scientist. —to Leila, who sustains an unrequited love for Spock six years after having met him on Earth; This Side of Paradise
It is not life as we know or understand it.—observation in regards to the dangerous creatures the Enterprise’s landing party encounter on the planet Deneva; Operation—Annihilate!
I do not totally understand the emotion, but it obviously exists. The Companion loves you.—to Zefram Cochrane, regarding the strange energy being that restored an aged, dying Cochrane to youthful vigour and rendered him immortal, but has, at the same time, held him captive, if benignly; Metamorphosis
Fascinating.—expression commonly utilized by Spock to describe the unexpected; multiple episodes and films
No, but it is…interesting.—reply to Dr. McCoy’s plea that Spock refrain from stating that the oddly imperfect performance of the M-5 computer is “fascinating”; The Ultimate Computer
We disposed of emotion, Doctor. Where there is no emotion, there is no motive for violence.—explaining to McCoy that Vulcan quelled its aggressive instincts by expunging emotion; Dagger of the Mind
On my planet, to rest is to rest, to cease using energy. To me, it is quite illogical to run up and down on green grass using energy instead of saving it.—informing Captain Kirk that he will not be beaming down for rest and rehabilitation with the rest of the crew; Shore Leave
I fail to understand why I should care to induce my mother to purchase falsified patents.—to Harry Mudd, who had just employed a colourful colloquialism casting doubt on Spock’s ability to convincingly play a part in Kirk’s plan to use wild irrationality as a means of undermining a world of utterly logical androids; I, Mudd
I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.—to an evasive Leila, when asking her to explain how she and her fellow colonists have survived on a planet bathed in deadly radiation; This Side of Paradise
Logical. Flawlessly logical.—in response to his betrothed T’Pring’s explanation for invoking her right of kal-if-fee, and choosing not her lover, Stonn, but Captain Kirk to challenge Spock in man-to-man combat; Amok Time
After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.—to Stonn, transferring to him the hand of Spock’s now-former consort, T’Pring; Amok Time
Strange. Step by step I have made the correct and logical decisions…and yet two men have died.—to his fellow shipwrecked survivors as he puzzles over his failure to effectually protect the people under his command from the primitive menace they face; The Galileo Seven
They regard themselves as aliens in their own world, a condition with which i am somewhat familiar.—offering Captain Kirk his insights on Dr. Sevrin’s insubordinate space hippies; The Way to Eden
I am a Vulcan, doctor. Pain is a thing of the mind. The mind can be controlled.—explaining that his Vulcan side affords him the ability to overcome the excruciatingly painful duress of a lethal parasitic organism that infiltrates the nervous system and takes over the body of its host; Operation—Annihilate!
Pain!…Pain!…Pain!—crying out in empathy with the Horta as he mind-melds with the creature; The Devil in the Dark
Your mind to my mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts.—beginning the first of several mind melds with his human shipmates in order to counter the powerful Melkotian-generated illusion of the Enterprise crewmen being participants in the famous Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, an illusion so convincing that it effectively becomes fatal reality in the minds of the humans; Spectre of the Gun
Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.—distracting an Eminiaran guard seconds before administering the Vulcan nerve pinch to the hapless fellow; A Taste of Armageddon
Captain…you are an excellent starship commander, but as a taxi driver, you leave much to be desired.—commenting on his captain’s aptitude as a driver after a shaky automobile ride with Kirk at the wheel; A Piece of the Action
Quite a lovely animal, Captain. I find myself strangely drawn to it.—answering Kirk as to what he makes of Garry Seven’s cat, Isis; Assignment: Earth
A most curious creature, Captain. Its trilling seems to have a tranquilizing effect on the human nervous system. Fortunately, of course, I am…immune…to…its…effect.—evaluating a tribble as he gently strokes the little fur-ball and begins, like his human shipmates, to experience its soothing influence; The Trouble With Tribbles
On Vulcan the Teddy Bears are alive, and they have six-inch fangs.—effectively quashing Dr. McCoy’s ribbing of Spock for having had a Teddy Bear-like pet sehlat as a child on Vulcan; Journey to Babel
Captain, the Horta is a remarkably intelligent and sensitive creature…with impeccable taste.—justifying the Horta’s appraisal of pointed ears as the most attractive of humanoid features; The Devil in the Dark
Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted.—to Kirk, who noted Spock’s immodesty at the Horta’s having found pointed ears a most attractive feature and teasingly suggested that his first officer is behaving increasingly like a human with each passing day; The Devil in the Dark
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We must acknowledge once and for all that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong crisis.—editorializing after being stonewalled by Gideon’s Ambassador Hodin regarding the whereabouts of Captain Kirk, who beamed down but, according to the ambassador, failed to materialize at the coordinates given; The Mark of Gideon
Diplomats and bureaucrats may function differently, but they achieve exactly the same results.—opining after getting the runaround from both Starfleet and the Federation’s Department of Planetary Treaties on the matter of the Enterprise’s captain having gone missing on Gideon; The Mark of Gideon
A very…interesting game, this poker.—commenting on the success of Captain Kirk’s poker-inspired bluff, delivered to the alien commander Balok during a showdown between the Enterprise and the gigantic spaceship Fesarius; The Corbomite Maneuver
I have never computed them, Captain.—reply to Kirk’s question as to the odds of someone being dealt a Royal Fizzbin; A Piece of the Action
You should make a very convincing Nazi.—to Kirk, as the captain dons a pilfered Gestapo officer’s uniform in order to pass as a Nazi in a world modelled on the Third Reich; Patterns of Force
Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous. And only the Romulans know what they think of Earth.—part of an overview delivered to the Enterprise crew of available Federation intelligence on the mysterious Romulans; Balance of Terror
Vulcan, like Earth, had its aggressive, colonizing period—savage, even by Earth standards. And if the Romulans retained this martial philosophy, then weakness is something we dare not show.—making the case to the captain and senior officers for risking interstellar war by attacking a Romulan raiding vessel that has crossed the Neutral Zone into Federation space and destroyed several outposts, given his belief that Romulans and Vulcans share a common, brutally violent ancestry; Balance of Terror
Mr. Scott, there was no deity involved. It was my cross-circuiting to “B” that recovered them.—in response to Engineer Scott’s exclamation thanking the heavens for the safe return of Captain Kirk and Ensign Garrovick during a tricky beam-up; Obsession
I presume you mean they vanished in a manner not consistent with the usual workings of the transporter, Mr. Scott.—seeking clarification from the chief engineer, who reports that Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov abruptly disappeared from the transporter platform; The Gamesters of Triskelion
I love you. However, I hate you.—applying illogic to test the reaction of two identical Alice models of Harry Mudd’s highly rational androids; I, Mudd
Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad.—again applying illogic to confuse the controlling Norman android in hopes of overloading his circuitry: I, Mudd
I am endeavouring, ma’am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.—answering Edith Keeler’s inquiry, upon her spying the unusual contraption Spock is assembling, as to what he is doing; The City on the Edge of Forever
While I might trust the doctor to remove a splinter or lance a boil, I do not believe he has the knowledge to restore a brain.—as a disembodied voice in response to the notion that Doctor McCoy might be able to put Spock’s brain back after it was purloined by alien women for the purposes of connecting it to and having it run the machinery that sustains their underground civilization; Spock’s Brain
The fact that my internal arrangement differs from yours, doctor, pleases me no end.—riposte to McCoy’s banter regarding the location of the heart in the Vulcan torso as compared to the human; Mudd’s Women
The most unfortunate lack in current computer programming means that there is nothing available to immediately replace the starship surgeon.—slyly, to McCoy, while discussing the merits of replacing starship crew members with more efficient machines; The Ultimate Computer
Doctor, I am chasing the captain, Lieutenant Uhura, and Ensign Chekov, not some wild aquatic fowl.—rejoinder to McCoy, who in his characteristic vernacular, questions the wisdom of Spock’s ordering the Enterprise to follow the decidedly flimsy evidence of an ionization trail in an attempt to, hopefully, locate these three missing crewmembers in the wake of their sudden and inexplicable disappearance; The Gamesters of Triskelion
I am Spock.—establishing, first, his own identity as he begins a difficult mind meld with an amnesia-stricken Kirk in an attempt to restore the captain’s memory; The Paradise Syndrome
I am not Herbert.—to the space hippies, rebuffing this uncomplimentary characterization derived from the name of a minor official and meaning an individual whose thinking is rigid and limited (square), usually bestowed by those who are “one” (hip) upon someone who is “stiff” (uptight) and does not “reach” (dig) their radical nonconformist viewpoint; The Way to Eden
Vulcans never bluff.—with appropriate gravitas to an imprudent Commodore Decker, who dismisses as mere gambit Spock’s caution that, acting on Captain Kirk’s personal authority, he will have the commodore forcibly relieved, if necessary, of his provisional command of the Enterprise; The Doomsday Machine
Jim, Edith Keeler must die.—Stressing to Kirk that in order to restore to that which it once was the timeline drastically, if inadvertently, altered by a feverish and crazed Doctor McCoy, who jumped through a portal into the past and somehow prevented from dying in an automobile accident the prophetic woman with whom the captain has chanced to fall deeply in love back here in the early-20th century, they must keep McCoy from so intervening and allow Miss Keeler to die as history intended; The City on the Edge of Forever
He knows, Doctor. He knows.—in answer to a shocked McCoy’s question “Do you know what you just did?”, asked of Kirk after the anguished captain deliberately stepped in to stop McCoy saving Edith Keeler from being struck and killed by an oncoming automobile; The City on the Edge of Forever
Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, a starship also runs on loyalty…to one man, and nothing can replace it, or him.—to an apprehensive Captain Kirk, who worries that his job may be rendered obsolete by the M-5 computer; The Ultimate Computer
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.—a Vulcan axiom, spoken to Kirk and reflecting the philosophy of sacrifice by the minority in favour of the majority; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
I have been, and always shall be, your friend.—Spock’s dying words to Kirk after suffering a lethal dose of radiation while heroically repairing the warp drive and saving the Enterprise; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.—not technically one of Spock’s aphorisms, but rather, Leonard Nimoy’s final tweet, posted a few days before his death and capped with the acronym “LLAP”, which stands for…
Live long and prosper.—a Vulcan blessing, spoken in concert with the raising of one’s hand in a parted-fingers salute devised by Nimoy that somewhat resembles Winston Churchill’s famous victory sign and was inspired by a Jewish benediction; various episodes and films