- Phil Coulson: Skye, please, tell me something good.
- Skye: We have Internet.
- Phil Coulson: Yay. And, boy, have I lowered my expectations.
- Phil Coulson: There's got to be something here! This means something! This has to mean something. The world needs us! HYDRA is out there. We cannot let them win! We cannot let them define us! Do you understand that? We are not agents of nothing, we are agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that still carries weight! It has to carry weight. After everything we've been through, that carries weight!
- Agent Kaminsky: Hail Hydra!
- John Garrett: All right, all right, put your arms down, Kaminsky. You look like a West Texas cheerleader at a pep rally.
- Phil Coulson: I swore an oath, we all did, to serve when everything else fails, to be humanity's last line of defense, to be the shield.
- Antoine Triplett: He saved our asses back at the Hub, but I'm telling you he's chasing the white whale.
- Leo Fitz: Have you even read Moby Dick?
- Antoine Triplett: Yeah, have you?
- Leo Fitz: That's not the point.
- Phil Coulson: What's with the windows?
- Eric Koenig: Supposed to make the isolation more bearable. Every day of the week, different view. Wednesday's pretty terrific if you like topless beaches.
- Phil Coulson: Find everything you can on our team - all personal records, photos, anything that proves we exist - then erase it.
- Skye: Uh, that's kind of the nuclear option.
- Phil Coulson: It's *our* only option. Every government agency in the world will be on our ass. We need to vanish.
- Skye: Okay. But... once that's done, it can't be undone. We'll be ghosts. Not agents of S.H.I.E.l.D., just agents of... nothing.
- Raina: So you're a liar. You're a fraud.
- John Garrett: An artist. A con artist, perhaps, but an artist all the same.
- Jemma Simmons: Well, at least we still have each other.
- Leo Fitz: Yeah, good. 'Cause the last thing I want is for things to change.
- Jemma Simmons: Fitz, it's too late for that.
- Melinda May: You okay?
- Phil Coulson: Tell you what - let's skip the part where you act concerned about my well-being. What is it you want?
- Phil Coulson: This means something. This has to mean something. The world need needs us. Hydra is out there. We cannot let them win, we cannot let them define us. Do you understand that. We are not Agents of Nothing, we are Agents of Shield, and that still carries weight!
- Ian Quinn: Do you know what my life was like before I met you? It was really *nice*. But because of you, I've had my assets frozen, I've been beaten. You almost ripped my tongue out of my mouth!
- John Garrett: But I didn't. I'm regretting that now.
- Phil Coulson: [to May] I'm not going to hand over my weapon. You wanna try to take it from me?... Good. Now get out of my office.
- Skye: And when I see you next, who you gonna be? You got a clean slate. You can be anyone you want.
- Grant Ward: I don't know. Maybe... Tom Brady. I always wanted to play quarterback.
- Skye: And date supermodels. You are so predictable.
- Grant Ward: No, I mean the guy seems to have things pretty worked out.
- Ian Quinn: You. You have to be kidding me. I've been in a cell smaller than my shoe closet. I wasn't allowed to eat with a fork, which would have been worse if I'd been allowed to eat anything but meatloaf!
- Eric Koenig: [to Coulson] Very soon you're going to be issued your very own lanyard. Lanyards for others will be distributed on a case by case basis.