"“You’ve behaved very highhandedly, Captain Mallory. Is that the custom out here?” “The custom is, sir, that those who know a situation handle it and those who don’t watch and learn, or get out of the way.”"

"What the probe had found was a star with reasonable possibilities for encouraging life; a belt of debris, including particles, planetoids, irregular chunks somewhat under planet size with interesting implications for systemic formation, and a planetary companion with its own system of debris and moons...A planet desolate, baked, forbidding. It was no Eden, no second Earth, no better than what existed in the sun’s own system, and it was a far journey to have gone to find that out. The press grappled with questions it could not easily grasp itself, sought after something to give the viewers, lost interest quickly. If anything, there were questions raised about cost, vague and desperate comparisons offered to Columbus, and the press hared off quickly onto a political crisis in the Mediterranean, much more comprehensible and far bloodier."

"People ask where writers get ideas. Take my advice. Some cool, clear night, drive to a country place where city lights don’t block your view. Turn off the car lights. Get out and look up. And see our real neighborhood."

"Poisoning rarely happens in a well-managed kitchen."

"For me the purest and truest art in the world is science fiction."

"Inevitably the party trying to resolve a matter had to contend with the party most willing to exploit it."

"Given ignorance in the mix, stupidity was at least as common in politics as astute maneuvering;"

"Average people didn't analyze what they thought: they thought they thought, and half of it was gut reaction."

"Trade isn't about goods. Trade is about information. Goods sit in the warehouse until information moves them."

"If you're up against a smart opponent, make him think himself to death."

"Jane leaned back against the counter and stared at the ceiling. At the traditional location of God, no matter what the planet."

"“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Not when the enemy is me."

"He knew now why they called it “falling in love.” There was the same nauseating vertigo of free fall, the same vast exhilaration, the same sick certainty of broken bones upon impact with a rapidly rising reality."

"All in all, it was probably a good thing these youths had no political interests. They were just the sort of people who started revolutions but could not finish them, their idealism betrayed by their incompetence."

"“Do me the honor of grasping that I may just possibly know what I’m doing!” I wish to hell I knew what I was doing. Intuition was nothing but the subconscious processing of subliminal clues, he was fairly sure, but I feel it in my bones made too uncomfortably thin a public defense for his actions."

"“Hands are to be hired. Design is the test of the intellect.” “I must disagree. In my experience, hands are integral with brains, almost another lobe for intelligence. What one does not know through one’s hands, one does not truly know.”"

"Hi, I’m a hero, but I can’t tell you why. It’s classified."

"“Ensign Vorkosigan,” Illyan sighed. It seems you still have a little problem with subordination.” “I know, sir. I’m sorry.” “Do you ever intend to do anything about it besides feel sorry?” “I can’t help it, sir, if people give me the wrong orders.”"

"He leaned forward to put his elbows on the comconsole, and lace his fingers together, and regarded Miles with a kind of clinical disapproval, as if he were a data point that messed up the curve, and Illyan was deciding if he could still save the theory by re-classifying him as experimental error."

"The arrow of justice flies one way."

"“I’m afraid of power…” Gregor’s voice went low, contemplative. “You aren’t afraid of power, you’re afraid of hurting people. If you wield that power,” Miles deduced suddenly. “Huh. Close guess.” “Not dead-on?” “I’m afraid I might enjoy it. The hurting.”"

"She could be the only person on Barrayar to automatically put Gregor the man before Gregor the emperor. All our ranks look like optical illusions to her, I think."

"Beware of wishing for justice. You might get it."

"Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."

"Rule 1: Only overrule the tactical computer if you know something it doesn’t. Rule 2: The tac comp always knows more than you do."

"“Damn,” said Elena in a hushed voice. “If I didn’t know you, I’d think you were Mad Yuri’s understudy. The look on your face…am I reading too much into all that innuendo, or did you in fact just connive to assassinate Gregor in one breath, offer to cuckold him in the next, accuse your father of homosexuality, suggest a patricidal plot against him, and league yourself with Cavilo—what are you going to do for an encore?” “Depends on the straight lines. I can hardly wait to find out,” Miles panted. “Was I convincing?” “You were scary.” “Good.”"

"It could be worse was always an unassailable assertion."

"I don’t think I’m destined to die today. I must be being saved for day after tomorrow."

"“Is she pretty?” “Yeah, if you happen to like blond power-mad homicidal maniacs, I suppose she could be quite overwhelming.”"

"“Face like an angel, mind like a rabid mongoose?” Oser’s lips twitched very slightly. “You’ve met her.”"

"I may be small, but I screw up big because I’m standing on the shoulders of GIANTS."

"“The key of strategy, little Vor,” she explained kindly, “is not to choose a path to victory, but to choose so that all paths lead to a victory.”"

"There is no moral difference between ordering an execution, and carrying it out."

"War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It’s peace that’s wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with."

"Yes, well…actual combat…is a lot stupider than I’d imagined. If two groups can cooperate to the incredible extent it takes to meet in battle, why not put in a tenth that effort to talk?"

"Your “accidents,” I once noticed, have ways of entangling your enemies that are the green envy of mature and careful strategists. Far too consistent for chance, I concluded it had to be unconscious will."

"Geography is the mother of strategy."

"The job was interesting for a week, while he was learning it, mind-numbing after that."

"Mercenaries thrive on other people’s chaos."

"“This isn’t a good war game, Dad says,” commented Miles. “Not enough random factors and uncontrolled surprises to simulate reality.”"

"“Other than that, how was Kiril Island, Ensign Vorkosigan?” inquired the Count. “You didn’t vid home much, your mother noticed.” “I was busy. Lessee. The climate was ferocious, the terrain was lethal, a third of the population including my immediate superior was dead drunk most of the time. The average IQ equalled the mean temperature in degrees cee, there wasn’t a woman for five hundred kilometers in any direction, and the base commander was a homicidal psychotic. Other than that, it was lovely.”"

"Your moral scruples may be admirable, Miles, but I’m not sure I can afford them."

"The facts appear to be mutating every forty minutes. like bacteria."

"A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind."

"Those who do not know their history, his thought careened, are doomed to keep stepping in it. Alas, so were those who did, it seemed."

"If we shouldn’t do it, we shouldn’t be able to do it."

"When a normal ensign looked at his commander, he ought to see a godlike being, not a, a...future subordinate. New ensigns were supposed to be a subhuman species anyway."

"He’s not like anything, Ahn. He’s the original."

"Pain hurts, sir. I don’t court it."

"We don’t just march on the future, we charge it."