Quotes from Joel Shepherd

Fear was sometimes useful, but when the thing that you feared was present in everything around you and prevented you from dealing with your situation practically, it became a pointless distraction

You mean one human is good, but a hundred humans is bad?" "Exactly. One human is just a person. A hundred humans make a society. And societies have kings, and religions and priests, and all these other things serrin completely fail to understand

It is the way, isn't it? With humans and free thought. They only learn through terrible mistakes. Free thought does not make wisdom. Instead it creates enough space for men to commit terrible folly, from which the survivors learn through disaster.

Sasha,' Kessligh said around his mouthful, 'if you'd seen as many people killed as I have, all because one of them believes this thing and the other believes this other thing, you wouldn't think it was all so harmless. Tales and legends are fun, but beliefs, Sasha. Beliefs are dangerous. Be careful what you believe in, for beliefs are far more dangerous then swords.

human societies always define themselves by their narrowest possible interests.That they are exclusive not inclusive.

Revolutionary ideas may be wonderful, but revolutions are nasty. You can't cure a headache by cutting off the patients head.

It's wise to learn how to cook,' Kessligh fumed, 'but a meal prepared over three weeks is inedible! There is wisdom in action! So stop talking, and act!

No sheth an sary' (No herb shall heal like blood on the steel)

Life is a battle, Sasha. All existence is in conflict. We fight the elements, we fight our consciences, we fight the limitations and eventual mortality of our bodies. All things happen by conflict, of one sort or another.

your words are pure poison, Master Reynold,' said Lesthen. 'You and your kind suffer from the worst disease of humanity, the willingness to subordinate truth, to lock reason in chains and to rape the objective thought, in order to achieve your objective.

When meeting with powerful people about things that matter,' he'd said, 'never play yourself down. It's unprofessional

All lost, because one of the galaxy's many life forms saw all the others as resources to be consumed. It was an attitude all life began with. Some grew out of it.

The problem, Sasha, is not what a person believes in. Verenthane, pagan, Lisan Skyworship, the Kazeri desert mystics – it's all the same, all have the potential to be equally good or bad. The problem is not what things are believed, the problem is how people choose to believe them.

That's not pride. That's fear. Pride is being so certain in yourself that you're not intimidated by the strangeness of others. Pride is being so certain that you can look after yourself that you don't need to threaten or complain or make malicious whispers behind others' backs.

but the one thing they'd taught him in the Academy that he already knew from his father was that a man only got as much respect as he gave himself.

And there's nothing in all human space that scares me like human leadership scared of facts.

The corporate joke among humans was that the official symbol of the barabo financial regulator was a shrug.

Capability doesn't equal intent, Doctor. Do you want what she knows or not? Because if you keep looking at her like the caged lab rat, she'll keep looking at you like the evil bloody scientist with the big syringe.

Populist politics only appeals to intuitive logic, because that which is intuitive can be comprehended by the masses.

Given some recent events, he'd come to doubt whether being a great warrior was all some made it out to be. But now he'd seen great warriors save the entire corbi race. And Liala had led them, not with bravado and shouting, but with calculation, patience and reason. Being a warrior, then, was more than just one thing. The best warriors, like Liala, Styx, Captain Debogande and Major Thakur, were far more than just brave and dangerous.

People who think they're already perfect abandon all hope of self-improvement. That's the trap.

Sasha smiled darkly. "We must find this ambassador. If I were to throw him at the feet of the Ilduuri Steel, their attitude toward the Remischtuul might change." "Getting this ambassador may not be easy." Sasha shrugged. "I don't need all of him. His head will do.

Civilians and pop-culture psychologists talk as though achieving bravery is the end of the journey. It's not, it's the beginning. And after learning bravery, you must learn to deal with pain. Because after true bravery, there's always pain." Lisbeth's smile turned sad. "Unless you die." Trace nodded. "Yes. Unless you die. Bravery is dangerous. Cowards live longer.

She was sipping some dreadful vegetable smoothie concoction that looked like minced caterpillars.