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I must keep my mind on the present. The future does not exist; the past has ceased to be. Only the present is real.
“What use are ideals if we cannot fit them to the universe as we find it?” Qui-Gon had once asked him. “If our beliefs tell us one thing, and the needs of real people tell us another, can there be any question of which we should listen to?” This all sounded very lofty when Qui-Gon said it, but in actuality it meant things like, It’s okay to “borrow” a spaceship from criminals if you really need it,
“The Jedi don’t have such mystics anymore,” Obi-Wan pointed out. “We’re meant to put aside visions of the future, because we can’t know whether they’ll come to pass. Master Yoda even says such visions can bring a Jedi to darkness.”
Holding power over other beings will always require us to be vigilant against the darkness within us.
“Darkness is a part of nature, too, Qui-Gon. Equally as fundamental as the light. Always remember this.”)
Never assume your friends are above wrongdoing. Even good people can make terrible mistakes.
There was something fascinating, Obi-Wan decided, about the idea of having such grandeur and concealing it—making it known only to those who would be willing to discover what lay within.
Some people, he thought, are drawn to the light as surely as flowers that bend toward a sun.
“People are more than their worst act,” Obi-Wan recited. It was something Qui-Gon had said to him many times, which at last seemed to be sinking in.
Only through sacrifice of many Jedi will the Order cleanse the sin done to the nameless. The danger of the past is not past, but sleeps in an egg. When the egg cracks, it will threaten the galaxy entire. When the Force itself sickens, past and future must split and combine. A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.
“The ancient Sith used lightsabers,” Obi-Wan said. “But they’ve been extinct for a millennium. So, no. A Jedi just wouldn’t be involved in a lightsaber duel to the death. It couldn’t happen.”
“How did you guys get out of that one?” “Often I have to ask myself that question,” Qui-Gon said.
“The Force is in all things, Master.” That much, Obi-Wan felt sure of.
Orth said, “Who is this…Dooky?”
I turn toward it because it is the light.”
The desire to know the future sprang from a desire to control the future. The desire to control the future sprang from fear—the fear of the depthless pain and loss the future might hold.
“We don’t choose the light because we want to win.” Averross smiled sadly. “We choose it because it is the light.”
Qui-Gon had faith that Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One. Obi-Wan would have to find faith in it, too.
