The Wisdom Of Leonard McCoy: Why We Still Love Trek’s Country Doctor

"You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home."

By David Wharton | Updated 1 year ago

The Wisdom of Bones

“We all have our darker side. We need it! It’s half of what we are. It’s not really ugly. It’s human.”
– The Enemy Within

“Something I seldom say to a customer, Jim. In this galaxy, there’s a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, three million million galaxies like this. And in all of that and perhaps more, only one of each of us. Don’t destroy the one named Kirk.”
– “Balance of Terror”

“Spock, I’ve found that evil usually triumphs unless good is very, very careful.”
– “The Omega Glory”

“Compassion. That’s the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it’s the one thing that keeps men ahead of them.”
– “The Ultimate Computer”

“Do you know why you’re not afraid to die, Spock? You’re more afraid of living. Each day you stay alive is just one more day you might slip and let your human half peek out.”
– “Bread and Circuses”

“You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him because you’ll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures, the glorious victories. All of these things you’ll never know simply because the word love isn’t written into your book.” – McCoy, to Spock
– “Requiem for Methuselah”

Kirk: “My God, Bones. What have I done?”
McCoy: “What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.”
– Star Trek III: The Search for Spock