koshisms

Koshisms

This is my attempt to collect every word spoken by Kosh Naranek, the Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5. For more information about Vorlons and Babylon 5, read J. Michael Straczynski's description of the Vorlons, and see the list of related links at the bottom of the page.
Warning

This page contains Kosh quotes through the end of Season Three.
The Pilot

The Gathering

Kosh never actually speaks. He does appear to bow to Sinclair when we see through his eyes via Lyta; he bows to the assembled ambassadors when he meets them at the pilot's end.
Season One: Signs and Portents

I am greatly indebted to pierce@arch.umsl.edu, who collected all of Kosh's Season One quotes on his Kosh Quotes page. This extremely useful page also includes notes and hypotheses about Vorlons, though it is somewhat out of date. I used it as the source for the following Season One quotes, though I have changed some of pierce's punctuation and added and removed some notes. Unfortunately, I was unable to contact him for his permission to do this.
Midnight on the Firing Line

[Kosh's encounter suit is empty when Sinclair enters the room; Kosh speaks from behind a barrier. Light is visible near the source of his voice; we assume that the light is Kosh.]
Kosh: Greetings, Commander.
Sinclair: You weren't at the council room earlier. I wanted to make sure that you knew about the emergency session.
Kosh: Yes.
Sinclair: We may need your help to push through sanctions. Does your government have a position on the current situation?
Kosh: <not translated>
Sinclair: Will you attend the emergency meeting?
Kosh: Yes.
[Kosh enters his suit very quickly -- too quickly for Sinclair to turn in time to see him.]
Kosh: They are alone. They are a dying race. We should let them pass.
Sinclair: Who -- the Narn or the Centauri?
Kosh: Yes.
The War Prayer

Sinclair: Ambassador Kosh, I hadn't heard from you, so I thought I'd make sure that you'd been informed. There have been several recent attacks on non-humanoids. We are conducting a thorough investigation and hope to have it wrapped up soon.
Kosh: Good.
Sinclair: Meanwhile, it might be helpful if you spoke with the other ambassadors.
Kosh: We take no interest in the affairs of others.
Sinclair: Well, I hope you'll reconsider. If you could give us a hand, we...
Kosh: Yes?
Sinclair: Nothing. We will respect your wishes. That's quite a viewer. I've never seen anything like it before. What is it?
Kosh: Efficient.
Sinclair: Those are images from my world. If I may ask, what are you...
Kosh: I am studying.
Sinclair: Studying what?
[Kosh's head sinks lower, and he makes a noise like a machine shutting down. The conversation is obviously over.]
Sinclair: Ambassador?
Deathwalker

Talia: Ambassador Kosh, is there something I can do for you?
Kosh: I wish to engage your services.
Talia: For what?
Kosh: Business.
Talia: What sort of business?
Kosh: Important.
Talia: Ambassador, I'd be happy to assist you, but there are certain details that I must know before taking any commission, not to mention getting clearance from --
Kosh: All arranged, as is payment. We will meet in Red 3 at the hour of scampering.
Talia: Ambassador Kosh, all of the clearances seem to be in order and the pay is very generous. However, there is something I still don't understand.
Kosh: Understanding is a three-edged sword.
[Enter Abbut]
Abbut: Oh, Kosh, you old dog! You didn't tell me you were bringing a date.
Talia: I'm Talia Winters, licensed commercial telepath, Psi Corps rating P-5. I'll be sitting in on the negotiations on behalf of Ambassador Kosh.
Abbut: Ah. I'm a 23, myself. A good number. Call me Abbut.
Kosh: Please scan Abbut. Report to me his thoughts at present.
Abbut: Oh, goody! Nothing like a good mind scan to clear the old processor.
[Talia scan him, and looks confused]
Kosh: Miss Winters?
Talia: He has no thoughts at all. It's as if his mind were empty.
Kosh: Excellent. We may now begin our business. Abbut?
Abbut: Crab... Nebula...

Kosh: Then the willows must scuttle carefully.
Abbut: Does Saturn have rings?
Kosh: The talks are over for the day. We shall commence again tomorrow at the hour of longing.
Abbut: Suits me.
[Exit Abbut.]
Talia: Ambassador! Ambassador Kosh!
Kosh: There is a question?
Talia: Yes. I've been scanning Mr. Abbut all day, and his mind is still just as empty as when we started. And these phrases that you keep speaking in, they don't make any sense.
Kosh: Ah, you seek meaning. Then listen to the music, not the song.

Talia: Ambassador, I've thought it over, and I don't believe that I can continue with this assignment.
Kosh: Your belief does not enter into it. We have a contract.
Talia: I know that, but you don't really need a telepath.
Kosh: What is need compared to the path?

Abbut: A herring is just a herring, but a good cigar is a Cuban.
Kosh: A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from the bristles. Do you understand, Miss Winters?
[Talia sees images, which frighten her so much that she screams.]
Abbut: You were swell. Maybe we can have that Jovian Sunspot sometime. Kosh, old boy, a pleasure as always. Let's do lunch soon.
[Abbut hands Kosh a data crystal. Exit Abbut.]
Talia: What was he, and what was on that data crystal he gave you?
Kosh: Reflection, surprise, terror. For the future.

[After the destruction of Deathwalker's ship by the Vorlons.]
Sinclair: Why?
Kosh: You are not ready for immortality.

Believers

Tharg: The Vorlons are very powerful. If you filed a protest, Commander Sinclair would have to forbid Dr. Franklin from operating on our son.
M'Ola: Will you consider one thing. Please. If it were your child or even you yourself, how would you feel if the doctor of Babylon 5 wanted to perform an unwelcome procedure on you?
Kosh: The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Signs and Portents

[To Morden -- we suppose]
Kosh: Leave this place. They are not for you. Go. Leave. Now.
Grail

Sinclair: We've confiscated the fake encounter suit. It's a pretty close match to your own, at least from the outside.
Kosh: Why?
Sinclair: Deuce wanted to make people think he had the Vorlons working for him. He figured it would add to his image and intimidate people.
Kosh: Why?
Sinclair: Well, after all, no one knows exactly what you look like. That makes some people a little nervous.
Kosh: Good.
Chrysalis

[To Sinclair]
Kosh: And so it begins. You have forgotten something.
Season Two: The Coming of Shadows

I'm not positive that I have all of Season Two collected yet. If you know of a scene in which Kosh speaks which is not included here, please mail me and let me know which episode I need to rewatch.
The Coming of Shadows

Emperor Turhan: How will this end?
Kosh: In fire.
All Alone in the Night

[In Sheridan's dream]
Sheridan: Why are you here?
Kosh: We were never away. For the first time your mind is quiet enough to hear me.
Sheridan: Why am I here?
Kosh: You have always been here.
[In a Babylon 5 hallway, in real life]
Kosh: You have always been here.

Hunter, Prey

Kosh: Why?
Sheridan: You tell me... You're the one popped in my dream. [snip]
Kosh: I sought understanding. I listen to the song. Your thoughts became the song.
Sheridan: Has this ever happened before?
Kosh: Once.
Sheridan: You wanted to see me?
Kosh: You wanted to see me.
Sheridan: Well, I guess everybody does. See what you are, inside that encounter suit.
Kosh: They are not ready. They would not understand.
Sheridan: Am I ready?
Kosh: No. You do not even understand yourself.
Sheridan: Could you help me to understand you?
Kosh: Can you help me to understand you?
Sheridan: Well, I can try. Is that what you want? An exchange of information? I tell you something about me, you tell me something about you?
Kosh: No. You do not understand. Go.
Sheridan: Damnit, what do you want? [speech about Kosh watching him] What do you want?
Kosh: Never ask that question.
Sheridan: At least I got a response out of you. So what'll it be, Ambassador?
Kosh: I will teach you.
Sheridan: About yourself?
Kosh: About you. Until you are ready.
Sheridan: For what?
Kosh: To fight legends.

There All the Honor Lies

Sheridan: Ah, Ambassador Kosh. What can I do for you?
Kosh: The lesson.
Sheridan: Ah, I know. I sort of forgot. Look, it's been kind of a bad day, and I'm not really in the best frame of mind for any lessons just now.
Kosh: Precisely the correct time. Come.
Sheridan: No, you don't understand. I really don't have time for this.
Kosh: Come.
Sheridan: I'm not quite sure I understand what we're doing down here.
Kosh: Good... What is this place?
Sheridan: It's pretty much the worst part of Downbelow. If Garibaldi knew we were down here alone, he'd go right up the flue.
Kosh: There.
Sheridan: What, you want me to go inside, is that it? Why? What's inside there?
Kosh: One moment of perfect beauty.
[Sheridan experiences one moment of perfect beauty.]
Sheridan: I had no idea. No idea at all!
Kosh: Yes.
Sheridan: Thank you.
[Exit Kosh; enter Ivanova.]
Ivanova: Another lesson? What this time?
Sheridan: Beauty. In the dark.
Ivanova: Must be working. You're beginning to talk just like a Vorlon.

In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum

Sheridan: Recognized? By whom?
Kosh: Everyone.
Kosh: Sheridan. Learn.
Delenn: The Icarus. Your wife's ship. Sent to investigate the remains of an ancient race no one has ever heard of.
Kosh: Z'ha'dum.

Kosh: If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die.

Sheridan: You will teach me?
Kosh: Yes.

Comes the Inquisitor

Delenn: Lennier said you were calling for me.
Kosh: Yes.
Delenn: Is there something wrong?
Kosh: You, perhaps. We have sent for an Inquisitor.
Delenn: An Inquisitor. Why?
Kosh: To be sure about you. You will submit to his authority.
Delenn: How will I know who it is?
Kosh: You will know, if you survive.
The Fall of Night

[We finally see what Kosh looks like -- though he never speaks.]
Season Three: The Point of No Return

Matters of Honor

Sheridan: Ambassador, I've been looking for you. Um, last week, after you saved my life, I didn't really get a chance to thank you properly. I've tried to reach you since then, but you haven't answered my calls. Is everything all right?
Kosh: Being seen by so many at once was a great strain. I returned to my ship to rest. You have a question?
Sheridan: Nobody knows it was you. Everyone saw something different, something from the -- the legends of their own world. But it was still a terrible risk. After taking such care to hide what you really are, why take that chance?
Kosh: It was necessary.
Sheridan: [sighs] Well, as answers go, short, to the point, utterly useless, and totally consistent with what I've come to expect from a Vorlon.
Kosh: Good.
Sheridan: You know, I just had a thought. You've been back and forth to your homeworld so many times since you got here -- how do I know you're the same Vorlon? Inside that encounter suit, you could be anyone.
Kosh: I have always been here.
Sheridan: Oh yeah? You said that about me, too.
Kosh: Yes.
Sheridan: I really hate it when you do that.
Kosh: Good.
Passing Through Gethsemane

Ivanova: Ambassador. You wanted to see me?
Kosh: Yes. Formality. Ritual. You should be informed.
Ivanova: Informed of what?
Kosh: Returning.
Dust to Dust

It's unclear at which point the person in G'Kar's vision is really Kosh. In transcribing this conversation, I'm making some assumptions. I could be wrong. By the end, though, it is clearly Kosh.
Kosh:It is enough.
G'Kar: What? Who's there?
Kosh: Just us.
G'Kar: Who are you?
Kosh: I am who I have always been.
[The scene changes, and we see G'Kar's father, hanging on a tree.]
G'Kar: Father.
Kosh/G'Kar's Father: It is too late for me, G'Kar. It is not too late for you. Honor my name. Honor my name.
G'Kar: No.
[The scene goes dark.]
Kosh: We are a dying people, G'Kar. So are the Centauri. [We see him, standing behind G'Kar: an older Narn, not G'Kar's father.] Obsessed with each other's death until death is all we can see and death is all we deserve.
G'Kar: The Centauri started it.
Kosh: And will you continue, until there are no more Narns, and no more Centauri? If both sides are dead, no one will care which side deserves the blame. It no longer matters who started it, G'Kar. It only matters who is suffering.
G'Kar: No. No, I have an obligation to honor my father's name.
Kosh: And how have you chosen to honor that name? What is there left for Narn if all of creation falls around us? There is nothing. No hope, no dream, no future, no life. Unless we turn from the cycle of death toward something greater. If we are a dying people, then let us die with honor, by helping the others as no one else can.
G'Kar: I don't understand.
Kosh: Because you have let them distract you. Blind you with hate. You cannot see the battle for what it is. We are fighting to save one another. We must realize we are not alone. We rise and fall together. And some of us must be sacrificed if all are to be saved. Because if you fail in this then none of us will be saved, and the Narn will be only a memory. [Vanishes.] You have the opportunity here and now to choose, to become something greater and nobler and more difficult than you have been before. The universe does not offer such chances often, G'Kar.
G'Kar: Why now? Why not earlier? All this time, where have you been?
Kosh: I have always been here.
[We see him as G'Lan, as in The Fall of Night. Then he vanishes into light. The vision ends, and we see the real G'Kar, who begins to cry. Behind him, Kosh turns and leaves the room.]
Interludes and Examinations

Sheridan: If you can convince your government to send out an expedition to engage one or two of their [the Shadows'] ships --
Kosh: No.
Sheridan: Alright, I know you can't fight the entire Shadow fleet yourselves, but if you could beat them in just one fight, it could be the break we need to get everyone organized. Then we'd have a real chance. You could do it, couldn't you?
Kosh: Perhaps. But there are still few of us. It is not our time. It is yours. We are not prepared yet.
Sheridan: Don't turn your back on me. Don't you even try to walk away from me. Just who the hell do you think you are? Wait. I know what you think you are, what you want us to believe. But I don't buy it. For three years now you've been pulling everyone's strings, getting us to do all the work and you haven't done a damn thing but stand there and look cryptic. Well, it's about time you started pulling your own weight around here. [An energy surge is noticed in Command and Control.] I hear you've got a saying, "Understanding is a three-edged sword." Well we've got a saying too. "Put your money where your mouth is."
Kosh: Impudent.
Sheridan: Yeah? Well maybe that's the only way to get through to you. You said you wanted to teach me to fight legends. Well you're a legend too and I am not going away until you agree.
Kosh: Incorrect. [Sheridan is hit with a white shock of energy.] Leave. Now.
Sheridan: No.
Kosh: Disobedient.
Sheridan: Up yours. [A second shock of energy, which cuts Sheridan's cheek; there is a little blood.] So, the real Kosh shows his colors at last, eh? You angry now? Angry enough to kill me? Because that's the only way I'm leaving. Unless your people get off their encounter-suited butts and do something. I've got nothing to lose! Hell, my own government wants to kill me, and if we lose this war I'm just as dead. Our only chance is to get the other races on board for this fight, and right now you're the key to doing that.
Kosh: It is not yet time.
Sheridan: Then who decides that time? You? You've put me in this position, you ordered me to fight this damn war! Well, it's about time you let me fight it my way. How many people have already died fighting this war of yours, huh? How many more will die before you come down off that mountain and get involved? Ships, colonies, whole worlds are being destroyed out there, and you do nothing. How many more, Kosh, how many more dead before you're satisfied? [Sheridan is lifted by an invisible force and pinned to the wall, Darth Vader-style.] Go ahead -- maybe one more death will balance out the books. Go on -- get it over with. Save us both the trouble later.
[Kosh releases him.]
Kosh: I will do as you ask. But there is a price to pay. I will not be there to help you when you go to Z'ha'dum.
Sheridan: Yeah, you already said, if I go to Z'ha'dum, I'll die.
Kosh: Yes. Now.
Sheridan: Alright. If that's the tradeoff, if you want to withhold your help when the time comes, that's fine. I'll go it alone.
Kosh: You do not understand. But you will.
[Sheridan is asleep. In his dream, he sees his father, whom we later realize is actually Kosh. While he dreams, three Shadows enter Kosh's chambers, with Morden's help, and attack the Vorlon.]
Kosh: John... Johnny...
Sheridan: Dad?
Kosh: I don't have much time, son. [Flash to Kosh's quarters, where we see vague images of a battle.] I want you to know you were right. I didn't want to admit that. Just pride I guess. You get my age, you get kinda set in your ways. It had to be done. Don't blame yourself for what happened later. [Flash to battle; in Sheridan's dream, Kosh shows pain.]
Sheridan: Dad, are you -- you all right?
Kosh: It's too late for me. I'm sorry for what I did before. I knew what was ahead. I guess -- I guess I was afraid. When you've lived as long as I have, you -- you get kinda used to it. Ah! [He shows more pain.] I wish I could have done more for you. There's so much I should have said, and now it's too late.
[Sheridan doesn't actually say anything, but is clearly showing disbelief.]
Kosh: You're right. It's time you begin fighting this war your way. [Flash to battle; Kosh shows more pain.] I've got to go now, John.
Sheridan: No, no, don't -- don't leave.
Kosh: It's -- it's all right, son. See, as long as you're here, I'll always be here.
[Final flash to battle and Kosh's death. Sheridan wakes and sits up in bed.]
Sheridan: Kosh! Kosh!

Sheridan's dream scene transcribed by Dan Thompson. Many thanks, Dan.

Walkabout

Sheridan: Your government neglected to tell me your name. How should I refer to you when we're alone?
Kosh: Kosh.
Sheridan: Ah, yes, I understand that's how we're to refer to you publicly, but privately?
Kosh: Kosh.
Ivanova: Ambassador Kosh is... dead.
Kosh: We are all Kosh.
Sheridan: Well, he's a Vorlon, all right.
Ivanova: Yep.
On the wall of Kosh's quarters, we see the imprints of his predecessor's final battle. The scene changes; the Ambassador is in the hall, waiting for Lyta.
Lyta: I'd heard you arrived. I was just coming to see you.
Kosh: ["Grabs" Lyta's throat as the previous Kosh once grabbed Sheridan's.] Where?
Lyta: I'm sorry. I wasn't here. I was doing what he told me to do. He wasn't with me when I left. Not even a piece of him. I swear!
Kosh: [Releases her.] Failed. Gone.
Lyta: I know. I'm sorry. It's my fault.
Kosh: There was no other?
Lyta: No. Not that I knew of. I'm sorry. He's gone.
Kosh: Follow.

Sheridan/Kosh: Is there a problem?
Lyta: What?
Sheridan: I said, is there a problem?

[After the first direct defeat of the Shadows.]
Sheridan/Kosh: And so it begins.

Z'ha'dum

Kosh: Jump. Jump now.
Season Five: The Wheel of Fire

Day of the Dead

Kosh: When the long night comes, return to the end of the beginning.

Related Links

The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
Vorlon Home Page
Kosh Quotes (Season One only)
Ask Kosh
Maintained by Jessica Perry Hekman (jphekman@ora.com). Please send me comments and suggestions.