The Official Quotable Doctor Who

Wise Words from Across Space and Time

Authors: Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

Publisher: Harper Design, New York

Anyone who watches “Doctor Who” will not be wondering why I chose it for one of this year’s Halloween Blogs. However, for those who need a crash course:

This show is scary.

Really, really scary.

Between Weeping Angels, things that lurk out of the corner of your eye, “ghosts” that turn out to be Cybermen, and creepy things that sneak into your room at night, just to name a few, I have been plenty scared while watching this show.

But the brilliant thing about “Doctor Who” is that it’s also funny, moving, and inspirational. You could pretty much call it “Humanism: The Show,” and that would still be an accurate title. It’s all about never getting bored with the wonders all around you, and finding wonders out in the universe too. The Doctor has a zest for life and a thirst for knowledge that is infectious.

So, I picked up this book in particular because I wanted to gather some of my favorite quotes. These are a pretty wide representation of what the Doctor and his many friends are all about, and I encourage those who have never viewed the program to give it a go. And I’m not recommending any episode in particular, because really you can start anywhere. In fact, choose one at random; you’ll be better off if you start from scratch and piece things together. That’s how I started, and how I began to love this sprawling story of the mad man who flew off into the stars with his blue box.

And now, The Quotable Doctor Who:

Adelaide Brooke: State your name, rank, and intention.

The Doctor: The Doctor. Doctor. Fun. (The Waters of Mars)

Madge: Are you the new caretaker?

The Doctor: Usually called the Doctor. Or the caretaker or Get Off This Planet. Though strictly speaking, that probably isn’t a name. (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)

“Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame, whatever the cost.” –The War Doctor (The Day of the Doctor)

“He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures. And runs a lot. Seriously, there’s an outrageous amount of running involved.” –Donna Noble (The Doctor’s Daughter)

“There is so much, so much to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I’m not running away from things, I am running to them before they flare and fade forever.”–The Doctor (The Power of Three)

“I am old and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and dreamer of improbable dreams.”–The Doctor (The Almost People)

Shakespeare: How can a man so young have eyes so old?

The Doctor: I do a lot of reading. (The Shakespeare Code)

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. Hey. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.” –The Doctor (Vincent and the Doctor)

“I think it does us good to be reminded the universe isn’t entirely peopled with nasty creatures out for themselves.” –The Doctor (Castrovalva)

“As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves.” –The Doctor (The Edge of Destruction)

“Mankind doesn’t need warfare and bloodshed to prove itself. Everyday life can provide honor and valor, and let’s hope that from now on this, this country can find its heroes in smaller places.”– John Smith (Human Nature)

“Courage isn’t just a matter of not being frightened, you know… It’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.” –The Doctor (Planet of the Daleks)

“The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.” –The Doctor (The Face of Evil)

“You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they’re as dull as a brick? Then there’s other people, and you meet them and you think, not bad, they’re OK. And then you get to know them, and their face just sort of becomes them, like their personality is written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful.” –Amy Pond (The Girl Who Waited)

“Better a broken heart than no heart at all.” –The Doctor (A Christmas Carol)

“He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that’s up there with flossing.”–Rose Tyler (The Doctor Dances)

“There is no indignity in being afraid to die. But there is a terrible shame in being afraid to live.”–Alydon (The Daleks)

“I can’t stand burnt toast. I loathe bus stations. Terrible places, full of lost luggage and lost souls.”–The Doctor (Ghost Light)

“Happiness is nothing unless it exists side by side with sadness.”–The Doctor (The Happiness Patrol)

“One only harms that which one fears.”–Monarch (Four to Doomsday)

“Sad really, isn’t it? People spend all their time making nice things, and other people come along and break them.”–The Doctor (The Enemy of the World)

“One man’s law is another man’s crime.”–The Doctor (The Edge of Destruction)

“Bad laws were made to be broken.”–The Doctor (The Macra Terror)

“You’re happy to believe in something that’s invisible, but if it’s staring you in the face, nope, can’t see it. There’s a scientific explanation for that. You’re thick.”–The Doctor (World War Three)

“There’s always something to look at if you open your eyes.”–The Doctor (Kinda)

“It seems to me there’s so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of.”–Vincent Van Gogh (Vincent and the Doctor)

“All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a faraway star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until, eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe.”–The Doctor (The Rings of Akhaten)

“Observe humanity. For all their faults they have such courage.”–Dalek Sec (Evolution of the Daleks)

“Time is not the boss of me.”–The Doctor (The Time of the Angels)

“That’s why I keep traveling. To be proved wrong.”–The Doctor (The Satan Pit)

“A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.”–The Doctor (The Time Warrior)

“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and the privilege of wisdom to listen.”–The Doctor (The Two Doctors)

“Better to go hungry than starve for beauty.”–Cameca (The Aztecs)

“Good looks are no substitute for a sound character.”–The Doctor (The Pirate Planet)

“Long acquaintance is no guarantee for honesty.”–The Doctor (The Daleks’ Master Plan)

“Nothing’s just rubbish if you have an enquiring mind.”–The Doctor (The Invasion of Time)

“Don’t be cool, guys. Cool is not cool.”–The Doctor (The Time of the Doctor)

“Rash action is worse than no action at all.”–The Doctor (The Edge of Destruction)

“Don’t just be obedient. Always make up your own mind.”–The Doctor (The Macra Terror)

“We’re all just stories in the end.”–The Doctor (The Big Bang)

“Everything has got end some time, otherwise nothing would ever get started.”–The Doctor ( A Christmas Carol)

“You want weapons? We’re in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have.”–The Doctor (Tooth and Claw)

“If you want to know what’s going on, work in the kitchens.”–The Doctor (Rise of the Cybermen)

“Christmas Eve on a rooftop. Saw a chimney, my whole brain just went, what the hell.”–The Doctor (A Christmas Carol)

“On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact mid-point, everybody stops and turns and hugs, as if to say, well done. Well done, everyone. We’re halfway out of the dark.”–Kazran Sardick (A Christmas Carol)

“Oh, smell that air. Grass and lemonade. And a little bit of mint. A hint of mint. Must be the 1920s.”–The Doctor (The Unicorn and the Wasp)

“I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn’t half cold.”–The Doctor (The End of the World)

“I can’t tell the future, I just work there.”–The Doctor (The Bells of Saint John)

“Time will tell. It always does.”–The Doctor (Remembrance of the Daleks)

“You must travel with understanding as well as hope.”–The Doctor (The Ark)

“No one knows how they’re going to be remembered. All we can do is hope for the best.”–The Doctor (The Unicorn and the Wasp)

“Day I know everything? Might as well stop.”–The Doctor (The Satan Pit)

“My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone’s. It’s taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I’m going. Where I’ve always been going. Home, the long way round.”–The Doctor (The Day of the Doctor)

“We all change, when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives. And that’s OK, that’s good–you’ve gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.”–The Doctor (The Time of the Doctor)