River: Little soul, big world. Eat, sleep, and eat… Many souls.

Mal: Cattle on the ship three weeks, she don’t go near ’em. Suddenly we’re on Jiangyin and she’s got a driving need to commune with the beast?

River: They weren’t cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see the sky and they remember what they are.

Mal: Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me?

 
Firefly — Episode 5 — “Safe”