Best Star Trek speech

[FaxModem1]

Simple enough. What speech is the best speech in all of Star Trek?

[Vendetta]

"I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all... I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing - a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant."

[Formless]

That's a good one, but IMO from the same man we get what I think summarizes the entire theme of Deep Space 9:

"On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well, it's easy to be a Saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints — just people. Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not!"
(Sisko, on the problem with the Federation)

[Elheru Aran]

Starting with the fun ones:

"It's not over between us, Lwaxana. You're mine and I will not let you go. I insist you return to my side immediately. My love is a fever, longing still for that which longer nurseth the disease. In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, for they in thee a thousand errors see. But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise, who in despite of view are please'd to dote. Shall I compare the to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

TOG: You didn't tell me that you and Captain Picard were
LWAXANA: You said you didn't want to hear about my other romances. I have a new love, Jean-Luc.

[Bridge]

LWAXANA [on viewscreen]: And you can't keep killing all my lovers. That simply has to stop.
TOG [on viewscreen]: Killing?
LWAXANA [on viewscreen]: Oh, he's insanely jealous.

PICARD: Listen, Tog, I must possesses Lwaxana. And if that means destroying your ship in the process, so be it.
TOG [on viewscreen]: Captain, I had no idea Lwaxana was
LWAXANA [on viewscreen]: Don't let him threaten you. You can defeat him. The only way you'll ever get me back is over Tog's dead body!

(Aside) That can be arranged. Mister Worf, arm phaser banks and photon torpedoes. If Lwaxana Troi is not in my arms in ten seconds, throw everything you've got at the Krayton.

When I have plucked the rose, I cannot give it vital growth again. It needs must wither. Nine, eight. 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Seven, six...

TOG [on viewscreen]: No, wait.
PICARD: Five, four
TOG [on viewscreen]: Beam her to their Bridge, now!
PICARD: Two, one
(Lwaxana appears, and sits on Picard's knee)
LWAXANA: You wonderfully jealous fool, you.
TOG [on viewscreen]: Captain, I trust there will be no further action taken against us?
PICARD: Such as my reporting this incident to your superiors who may question your competency as DaiMon? I will think about it. Screen off.
LWAXANA: Thank you, Jean-Luc. You were most convincing. You certainly convinced me.
PICARD: I am truly grateful, Mrs. Troi, that you risked your life to save my people. I'll have you home within a few hours.
LWAXANA: Oh, no, no, no, no, that won't be necessary. I'd just love to hear more of your poetry.
PICARD: Perhaps another time. (finally manages to stand up) Please. Mister Crusher, set course for Betazed. Warp nine.

Thrilling:

Attention all hands. As you know, we could outrun the Klingon vessels, but we must protect the Enterprise-C until she enters the temporal rift. And we must succeed. Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise.

I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We’ve made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here…THIS far, NO further! And I will make them pay for what they’ve done

Just:

You know, there some words I've known since I was a school boy. With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today

HAFTEL: Then I regret that I must order you to transport Lal aboard my ship.
PICARD: Belay that order, Mister Data.
HAFTEL: I beg your pardon?
PICARD: I will take this to Starfleet myself.
HAFTEL: I am Starfleet, Captain! Proceed, Commander.
PICARD: Hold your ground, Mister Data.
HAFTEL: Captain, you are jeopardising your command and your career.
PICARD: There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders. You acknowledge their sentience, but you ignore their personal liberties and freedom. Order a man to hand his child over to the state? Not while I am his captain.

(I may be a little bit of a Picard fan...)

[Captain Seafort]

KIRK: We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honoured dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world, a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel that sacrifice a vain or empty one... and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this. Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, ...his was the most ...human.

[Elheru Aran]

Incidentally, if anybody needs any help, here you go:

http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/index.html

Seems to have transcripts of pretty much all the episodes far as I can tell, so if you know the episode title you can probably dig it up without too much trouble (I found ctrl-f pretty helpful, incidentally).

Here's a Sisko one for variety:

SISKO: Competition. For fun. It's a game that Jake and I play on the holodeck. It's called baseball.
JAKE: Baseball? What is this?
SISKO: I was afraid you'd ask that. I throw this ball to you and this other player stands between us with a bat, a stick, and he, and he tries to hit the ball in between these two white lines. No. The rules aren't important. What's important is, it's linear. Every time I throw this ball, a hundred different things can happen in a game. He might swing and miss, he might hit it. The point is, you never know. You try to anticipate, set a strategy for all the possibilities as best you can, but in the end it comes down to throwing one pitch after another and seeing what happens. With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape.
BATSMAN: And you have no idea what that shape is until it is completed.
SISKO: That's right. In fact, the game wouldn't be worth playing if we knew what was going to happen.
JAKE: You value your ignorance of what is to come?
SISKO: That may be the most important thing to understand about humans. It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives, day by day, and we explore the galaxy, trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I am here. Not to conquer you either with weapons or with ideas, but to co-exist and learn.

[Darth Lucifer]

The entire cross-examination of Bruce Maddox from "The Measure of a Man:"

PICARD: I call to the stand Commander Bruce Maddox as a hostile witness.
COMPUTER: Verify, Maddox, Bruce, Commander. Current assignment, Associate Chair of Robotics, Daystrom Technological Institute. Major papers
PICARD: Yes, yes, yes. Suffice it to say, he's an expert. Commander, is your contention that Lieutenant Commander Data is not a sentient being and therefore not entitled to all the rights reserved for all life forms within this Federation?
MADDOX: Data is not sentient, no.
PICARD: Commander, would you enlighten us? What is required for sentience?
MADDOX: Intelligence, self awareness, consciousness.
PICARD: Prove to the court that I am sentient.
MADDOX: This is absurd! We all know you're sentient.
PICARD: So I am sentient, but Data is not?
MADDOX: That's right.
PICARD: Why? Why am I sentient?
MADDOX: Well, you are self aware.
PICARD: Ah, that's the second of your criteria. Let's deal with the first, intelligence. Is Commander Data intelligent?
MADDOX: Yes. It has the ability to learn and understand, and to cope with new situations.
PICARD: Like this hearing.
MADDOX: Yes.
PICARD: What about self awareness. What does that mean? Why am I self aware?
MADDOX: Because you are conscious of your existence and actions. You are aware of yourself and your own ego.
PICARD: Commander Data, what are you doing now?
DATA: I am taking part in a legal hearing to determine my rights and status. Am I a person or property?
PICARD: And what's at stake?
DATA: My right to choose. Perhaps my very life.
PICARD: My rights. My status. My right to choose. My life. It seems reasonably self aware to me. Commander? I'm waiting.
MADDOX: This is exceedingly difficult.
PICARD: Do you like Commander Data?
MADDOX: I don't know it well enough to like or dislike it.
PICARD: But you admire him?
MADDOX: Oh yes, it's an extraordinary piece of
PICARD: Engineering and programming. Yes, you have said that. Commander, you have devoted your life to the study of cybernetics in general?
MADDOX: Yes.
PICARD: And Commander Data in particular?
MADDOX: Yes.
PICARD: And now you propose to dismantle him.
MADDOX: So that I can learn from it and construct more.
PICARD: How many more?
MADDOX: As many as are needed. Hundreds, thousands if necessary. There is no limit.
PICARD: A single Data, and forgive me, Commander, is a curiosity. A wonder, even. But thousands of Datas. Isn't that becoming a race? And won't we be judged by how we treat that race? Now, tell me, Commander, what is Data?
MADDOX: I don't understand.
PICARD: What is he?
MADDOX: A machine!
PICARD: Is he? Are you sure?
MADDOX: Yes!
PICARD: You see, he's met two of your three criteria for sentience, so what if he meets the third. Consciousness in even the smallest degree. What is he then? I don't know. Do you? (to Riker) Do you? (to Phillipa) Do you? Well, that's the question you have to answer. Your Honour, the courtroom is a crucible. In it we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a pure product, the truth for all time. Now, sooner or later, this man or others like him will succeed in replicating Commander Data. And the decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of a people we are, what he is destined to be. It will reach far beyond this courtroom and this one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him and all who come after him to servitude and slavery? Your Honour, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there it sits. Waiting. You wanted a chance to make law. Well, here it is. Make a good one.

[Khaat]

How about STOS?

NAN: You realise what you have done?
KIRK: Yes, I do. I've given you back the horrors of war. The Vendikans now assume that you've broken your agreement and that you're preparing to wage real war with real weapons. They'll want do the same. Only the next attack they launch will do a lot more than count up numbers in a computer. They'll destroy cities, devastate your planet. You of course will want to retaliate. If I were you, I'd start making bombs. Yes, Councilman, you have a real war on your hands. You can either wage it with real weapons, or you might consider an alternative. Put an end to it. Make peace.
ANAN: There can be no peace. Don't you see? We've admitted it to ourselves. We're a killer species. It's instinctive. It's the same with you. Your General Order Twenty Four.
KIRK: All right. It's instinctive. But the instinct can be fought. We're human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands, but we can stop it. We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes. Knowing that we won't kill today. Contact Vendikar. I think you'll find that they're just as terrified, appalled, horrified as you are, that they'll do anything to avoid the alternative I've given you. Peace or utter destruction. It's up to you.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Not the best, but still a worthy mention:

"Jean-Luc, we're only moving six hundred people."
"How many people does it take, admiral, before it becomes wrong? Hmm? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? How many people does it take, admiral?!"

- Dougherty and Picard