All Quotes

"Your talent for making interesting new enemies has evidently not deserted you."

"I’d have worn them as a courtesy to your friend...I’ll wear them now as a defiance to our enemies."

"Taura nailed it. She'll do for m'lord, all right. And God help their enemies."

"I smell diplomacy. Miles grimaced."

"There were security angles, political angles, personal angles—how many angles could dance on the head of a pin?"

"“Anyway, he thinks we’re lying. But we’re not. Also, your people are idiots.” “Yes. I know. But they’re my idiots."

"What is it about you people who run sexually segregated fleets that makes you all disembark insane? No, don’t bother answering that, I think we all know. But the all-male military organizations who have that custom for religious or cultural reasons all come onto station leave like some horrible combination of kids let out of school and convicts let out of prison. The worst of both, actually—the judgment of children combined with the sexual deprivation of—never mind."

"There is a great deal of sanity to be saved in letting the past go, and moving on."

"“I will consider this contention,” said Greenlaw dryly, with the For about ten seconds, after which I shall toss it out the nearest airlock hanging unspoken."

"If you make it plain you like people, it’s hard for them to resist liking you back."

"Yet if the truth doesn’t serve us, what does that say about us, eh?"

"The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them."

"He was borrowing trouble, reasoning in advance of his data."

"There’s nothing like the threat of imminent death to force one to delegate."

"“Not treason,” haut Pel objected faintly. “As such.” “Unsanctioned unilateral redesign, then.”"

"He stared at the two bundles more than filling his lap in a kind of cosmic amazement. “We did it,” he muttered to Ekaterin, now perching on the chair arm. “Why didn’t anybody stop us? Why aren’t there more regulations about this sort of thing? What fool in their right mind would put me in charge of a baby? Two babies?”"

"He had been the end point of human evolution. At this moment he abruptly felt more like a missing link. I thought I knew everything. Surely I knew nothing. How had his own life become such a surprise to him, so utterly rearranged? His brain had whirled with a thousand plans for these tiny lives, visions of the future both hopeful and dire, funny and fearful. For a moment, it seemed to come to a full stop. I have no idea who these two people are going to be."

"How many details had to point in the same direction before one decided they pointed true? Depends on how costly it is to be mistaken, maybe?"

"Puzzles. I hate puzzles. Ivan liked flowcharts—nice and clear and you could always tell just where you were and what you should do next, everything laid out neatly. No ambiguities. No traps. Why couldn’t life be more like flowcharts?"

"So far from a trudge, she seemed to find the task tolerably amusing. “Oh, languages aren’t work,” she explained cheerily. “They’re a game. Now, economics, that’s boring.”"

"Just because I have forgotten so many old enemies does not mean they have forgotten me."

"And in her way, I suppose, she loved us, and naturally wanted us to have this great thing she'd found, too. Except... I wasn't her. It was like... if she could just fix me into being her, then she could shower me with the gifts she so valued."

"“What’s a call girl?” asked Tej, her brows crimping in puzzlement. “Uh…” Ivan sought a translation. “Like a Betan licensed practical sexuality therapist, only without the licensed and the therapy parts.”"

"It was not a very original period of my life. I won’t say I fell in with bad company—I more hunted them down."

"As the week wore on, Ivan contemplated the merits of inertia as a problem-solving technique with growing favor."

"“Is that going to be a problem?” said Ivan. “Definitely. I just don’t know what kind, yet. Or whose.”"

"The admiral did not invite Ivan to sit, so Ivan took up a prudent sort-of parade rest and waited. Someone would tell him what was going on shortly; they always did, however little he wanted to know."

"It’s been a long time since I wagered so much on a single throw. Though if I’m to revisit the desperation of my youth, I want the body back, too."

"The limits of trust depend much on whether you mean to do business more than once."

"Let’s be sensible and wish for both of us there, while we’re wishing. I mean, it’s not like wishes are rationed."

"Maybe only love gave you more than what you’d dealt for."

"I expect death will still be cheap and always available, doesn’t take high tech."

"“You’re pretty free with that thing.” “It’s all right. I have a license to stun.” “I thought that was supposed to be a license to kill.” Roic grimaced. “That too. But you would not believe all the forms that have to be filled out, afterward.”"

"“You know what I like best about you, Ivan Xav?” she asked, newly shy in her illumination. He turned his chin into her hair in an inquiring sort of way. “My shiny groundcar? My Vorish insouciance? My astounding sexual prowess? My…my mother? Dear God, you’re not taking me for the sake of getting my um-stepfather?” “Well, I do like them both very much, but no. What I like best about you, Ivan Xav, is that you’re nice. And you make me laugh.” She smiled now, into his shoulder. “That…doesn’t seem like much.” He sounded a bit taken aback. “Yes,” she sighed, “but consider the context.”"

"There are two possible ways to solving a dilemma, in justice or elsewhere; begin with the facts, and follow out their logic where it leads one, or begin with the desired outcome, and reason backward to the necessary steps to achieve it."

"The most interesting question of history is always, What were these people thinking?"

"No amount of money can make one stay bought. Who does not freely choose to."

"A three-planet empire delivered upset snakes by the basket-load to this man’s office, every damned morning. Yeah—for all the talk of men coveting the emperor’s throne, Ivan had never yet heard anyone speak of coveting his desk."

"“What do you see in that Barrayaran boy, anyway?” the Baronne asked querulously, dodging back despite Tej’s best efforts. “He just doesn’t seem very ambitious.” “Mm,” said Tej. One woman’s defect is another woman’s delight? “I suppose…it’s all the things he sees in me.” That you don’t."

"In all, in truth, it was a problem for another day, Ivan decided. When life and chance handed you an afternoon as idyllic as this one promised to be, it seemed profoundly ungrateful not to pay attention."

"Everything in the district competes for resources. The best solution is to make more resources."

"“I didn’t know he had days off,” said Enrique, sounding vaguely puzzled. Naturally enough; Enrique didn’t exactly take breaks either, or at least not scheduled ones, his time being divided into days with too many things to do, and days with far too many things to do—much like her own, Ekaterin reflected ruefully."

"Shooting people to keep them from dying had logical flaws obvious to everyone."

"One couldn’t fix the past, only the present."

"“’S funny. Piotr, toward the end of his life, looked at our district and only saw how much better it was. All the backbreaking, heartbreaking work he did cleaning up the messes after the war is taken for granted now, or mostly just forgotten. Instead, we look around and only see how much better it could be. And neither of us is wrong, exactly.”"

"Is it still a victory if you don’t get the credit?"

"Only five days on this benighted world, and already total strangers are trying to kill me. Sadly, it wasn’t even a record."

"Don’t underestimate the viciousness of academics when funding is at stake."

"While not reliable enough to be put in charge of anything more complicated than a dishwasher, they were very easy to convince that all their troubles were someone else’s fault."

"Let me tell you, young man—the dirty little secret of democracy is that just because you get a vote, doesn’t mean you get your choice."