| Insofar as we, the members of the United Federation of Planets, do recognize and respect the vital role that each and all of our separate peoples has played in the building of our union, and insofar as that union is then the product of our differences as much of the acknowledgement of our failings as the recognition of our potentials, we do so resolve, as a United Federation of individual Planets strong both in spirit and the desire to live free, never to lose sight of those principles which, by fate or providence, have served to establish this Federation as a meeting of equals. We shall foster within the bounds of our common influence the inescapable belief that all life is possessed of the inalienable right to flourish on its own terms and in its own time and place. Therefore, we devote our energies to the establishment and fostering of such a state in equal measure throughout the Known Galaxy, and dedicate our Star Fleet to the preservation and protection of that state; that state being an insular program of non-interaction and non-interference with those cultures whose development of self and whose singular right to self determination would be unduly burdened or damaged by the interaction with, or even the knowledge of, more technologically advanced races, even those races whose motives and intentions are unimpeachable and altruistic, even unto the destruction of the culture by lack of action, it being non the more justifiable to crush the special essence of a new culture in the process of saving it. We shall do all within our power to leave the development of any and all cultures entirely to their own devices, to let them flourish or fail as their differing gifts allow, and to prevent any and all who would deprive them of this, their most basic right, from performing self-serving and selfish actions at the expense of the innocents, until such time as they, themselves, come forward, as equals, and mindful of their place within the greater whole. |
 |
| The Prime Directive |