"“The revolt,” breathed Galen almost to himself, “must not die.” “Even if everybody in it dies? ‘It didn’t work, so let’s do it some more’? In my line of work, they call that military stupidity. I don’t know what they call it in civilian life.”"

"“Some stand-offs,” said Galen, “are more equal than others.”"

"“You must learn to kill if you expect to survive.” “No you don’t," Miles put in. "Most people go through their whole lives without killing anybody. False argument.”"

"He felt like a man trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of live pieces, that moved and changed shape at random intervals with tiny malicious giggles."

"So what do you want? Really want, not just think is most prudent. Or worse, think is what I want."

"She considered seventy-six. It…made no sense. Except that sometime in the past three years, she had switched from counting her years not up from birth, but back from death—a grab-bag of time not growing, but shrinking, use it or lose it."

"If nothing else, the arrival of actual children replaces theory with practice. And time to fret with…lack of time to breathe, sometimes."

"It only takes one nutcase to decide that you, not he, are the reason his life sucks, and set out to even the score. Nutcases are not in short supply here."

"“Never underestimate the human capacity for wishful thinking and willful blindness,” said Miles. Such as a whole society of people who became so wrapped up in avoiding death, they forgot to be alive?"

"History does not so much repeat as echo, I suppose."

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

"His mystery, it seemed, had just split into two. Mystery mitosis. It seemed a retrograde sort of progress."

"All the worry people expend over not existing after they die, yet nary a one ever seems to spare a moment to worry about not having existed before they were conceived. Or at all. After all, one sperm over and we would have been our sisters, and we’d never have been missed."

"He’d underestimated how much work normal healthy children would take, even with all the help his money and position could buy. For there were some tasks you didn’t want to delegate, because then you’d be missing the best parts."

"“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.”"

"I don’t see people, young or otherwise, as having a right to be idiots. It’s just impractical to try to stop them, unless they’re hurting somebody, and this sport—extreme art?—does not appear to be lethal."

"From fried witchetty grubs to gold-plated turnips, when you're a writer you never know what's going to appear on your plate next. It keeps a woman alert, it does."

"Yani seemed a time-traveler who had found out the hard way that he did not like his destination any better than his point of departure, failed to notice the one common factor was himself, and now could not go back."

"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."

"Misplaced paranoia could be as great a mistake as misplaced faith."

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

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

"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."

"He supposed he shouldn’t think of it as Quick work, my Lord Auditor, from foreplay to coitus in one afternoon. But who was being screwed? And why, why, why was he being bribed?"

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

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

"“’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.”"

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

"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."

"“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."

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

"“Old age,” she said, “is slower than a grenade, but a lot more thorough.”"

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

"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."

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

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

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

"“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.”"

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"“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.”"

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

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

"“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."

"He didn’t exactly have a plan, yet. More of a stab in the dark. He still wasn’t sure what his blade would connect with…"

"If you desire a man to tell you comfortable lies about your prowess, and so fetter any hope of true excellence, I'm sure you may find one anywhere. Not all prisons are made of iron bars. Some are made of feather beds."

"Too little payment for a crime, too much for an accident."