Best Gene Roddenberry Quotes & Sayings

You can't take this speck of dust in this midst of all this incredible panorama of birth and complexifying and say ... this is the only place that [life] happens. It's like turning your back on the whole idea of growth and evolution. — Gene Roddenberry

It has become a crusade of mine to demonstrate that TV need not be violent to be exciting. — Gene Roddenberry

I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will - and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain. — Gene Roddenberry

Technology would have long ago made privacy impossible, except that this had only made it more precious and desirable
and in the close confines of starship life, respect for another's privacy had become a powerful tradition. — Gene Roddenberry

We have within reach, now, the attainment of almost every dream of mankind. — Gene Roddenberry

Gene Roddenberry's thing always was, we should not pass judgment on anything that anyone else believes in or what they do in their lives. — Marina Sirtis

'Star Trek' says that it has not all happened, it has not all been discovered, that tomorrow can be as challenging and adventurous as any time man has ever lived. — Gene Roddenberry

It is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are. It does not matter that we will not reach our ultimate goal. The effort itself yields its own reward. — Gene Roddenberry

Why are we now going into space? Well, why did we trouble to look past the next mountain? Our prime obligation to ourselves is to make the unknown known. We are on a journey to keep an appointment with whatever we are. — Gene Roddenberry

This is a new land, this is a new place, this is a new world, this is unknown. This is uncharted, this is all there is. We don't have any other place to go. I always quote Gene as saying "Why are we now going into space? Well, why did we trouble to look past the next mountain? Our prime obligation to ourselves is to make the unknown known. We are on a journey to keep an appointment with whatever we are." And that was his whole philosophy of Star Trek, of life, of everything else. — Majel Barrett Roddenberry

If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear. — Gene Roddenberry

Was seriously just a name. They didn't tell you what to do. They didn't tell you how they wanted the character to be nothing. You went in to audition for this character name and that was it. When I started, before I came onto the set, I went to Gene Roddenberry and said: hey, what do you want from this guy? Who is he? And being as smart as he is, he said: don't listen to what you've heard or read or seen in the past, nothing. Just make the character your own. And that's what I did. — Michael Dorn

Your writing blows, by the by. You split more infinitives than Gene Roddenberry. — Brian K. Vaughan

In a better world, I can do anything. I'll be there in a better world. In a better world, they will not laugh at me or look down their nose at me. — Gene Roddenberry

Star Trek speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow - it's not all going to be over with a big flash and a bomb; that the human race is improving; that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids - human beings built them, because they're clever and they work hard. And Star Trek is about those things. — Gene Roddenberry

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. — Gene Roddenberry

We stress humanity, and this is done at considerable cost. We can't have a lot of dramatics that other shows get away with - promiscuity, greed, jealousy. None of those have a place in 'Star Trek.' — Gene Roddenberry

Gene Roddenberry was a genius. — Persis Khambatta

The human race is a remarkable creature, one with great potential, and I hope that 'Star Trek' has helped to show us what we can be if we believe in ourselves and our abilities. — Gene Roddenberry

Earth is the nest, the cradle, and we'll move out of it. — Gene Roddenberry

Of course, I have Gene Roddenberry to thank for the creation of Barclay. — Dwight Schultz

Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. [ ... ] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there. — Gene Roddenberry

I'm in a period of growth and expansion. I'm taking long, hard looks at the world and what's happening in it, analyzing and thinking. I'm trying to become acquainted with the universe - with the part of it I occupy - and trying to settle, for myself, what my relationship with it is. — Gene Roddenberry

Ancient astronauts didn't build the pyramids. Human beings built the pyramids, because they're clever and they work hard. — Gene Roddenberry

Nuclear warfare is not necessary to cause a breakdown of our society. You take a large city like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago-their water supply comes from hundreds of miles away and any interruption of that, or food, or power for any period of time, you're going to have riots in the streets. Our society is so fragile, so dependent on the interworking of things to provide us with goods and services, that you don't need nuclear warfare to fragment us anymore than the Romans needed it to cause their eventual downfall. — Gene Roddenberry

His name is 'Mr. Spock.' And the first view of him can be almost frightening - a face so heavy-lidded and satanic you might almost expect him to have a forked tail. Probably half Martian, he has a slightly reddish complexion and semi-pointed ears. — Gene Roddenberry

They say that ninety per cent of TV is junk. But ninety per cent of everything is junk. — Gene Roddenberry

I have always been reasonably leery of religion because there are so many edicts in religion, 'thou shalt not,' or 'thou shalt.' I wanted my world of the future to be clear of that. — Gene Roddenberry

Time is the fire in which we burn. — Gene Roddenberry

When you get into an airplane by yourself and take off, you find yourself in this lovely, three-dimensional world where you can go in any direction. There is no feeling any more exciting than that. — Gene Roddenberry