Quotes from Gene Roddenberry

The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.

I think God is as much a basic ingredient in the universe as neutrons and positrons. This is the prime force, when we look around the universe.

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.

I wanted to cast a woman as second in command. NBC said no way.

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.

For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain.

For me science fiction is a way of thinking, a way of logic that bypasses a lot of nonsense. It allows people to look directly at important subjects.

A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on and licks it, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away.

I hope that I helped to build a fierce pride in what we are and what we can do if we set our minds to it.

Our effects were primitive. Our stars were a black cloth with holes in it and light behind.

I wanted to send a message to the television industry that excitement is not made of car chases.

Normal television limits what you can do. With science fiction, you can exercise your imagination more. I fell in love with it.

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.'

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.

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.

I'd been an Army bomber pilot and fascinated by the Navy and, particularly, the story of the Enterprise, which at Midway really turned the tide in the whole war in our favor. I'd always been proud of that ship and wanted to use the name.

'Star Trek' is a 'Wagon Train' concept - built around characters who travel to worlds 'similar' to our own, and meet the action-adventure-drama which become our stories. Their transportation is the cruiser 'S.S. Yorktown,' performing a well-defined and long-range Exploration-Science-Security mission which helps create our format.

It was 'ST' format to let space and alien worlds, rather than human weakness, provide the conflict and danger necessary to our adventure show.

It is important to the typical 'Star Trek' fan that there is a tomorrow. They pretty much share the 'Star Trek' philosophies about life: the fact that it is wrong to interfere in the evolvement of other peoples, that to be different is not necessarily to be wrong or ugly.

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five year mission... to boldly go where no man has gone before.

What Kirk wanted every evening was to go to bed with a beautiful woman. Our captain now is a man of infinitely more skill. A better man.

If 'Trek' is a hit, we'd love to do a series of films - a regular event. Look at James Bond's films. They've been around since the early sixties.

I remember myself as an asthmatic child, having great difficulties at 7, 8 and 9 years old, falling totally in love with 'Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle' and dreaming of having his strength to leap into trees and throw mighty lions to the ground.

'Star Trek' was an attempt to say 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 lifeforms.