Quotes from Lois McMaster Bujold

Very good. But your most insidious chronic problem is in the area of . . . how shall I put this precisely . . . subordination. You argue too much." "No, I don't," Miles began indignantly, then shut his mouth.

The meaning of yes is created by the ability to say no.

Pym looked at the bugs, glanced at the sleeve of his proud uniform, stared again at the deadly parody of his insignia the creatures now bore, and shot Miles a look of heartbreaking despair, a silent cry which Miles had no trouble interpreting as, Please, m'lord, please, can we take him out and kill him now?

You may have slandered an honest man. Or you may have struck a blow for justice. I don't know. The point is... neither do you.

Tej seemed such a sunny personality, much of the time--these flashes of dark were like a crack in the sky, shocking and wrong. Reminding him that the daylight was the illusion, the scattering of light by the atmosphere, and the endless night was the permanent default behind it all.

Lately, I have come to believe that the principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.

Military intelligence was as nothing to military stupidity.

He who plots revenge must dig two graves.

Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you'll be so close as to be living inside each other's skins.

Truth is always War's first victim, the old saying went.

Don't be afraid," she said. "The dead cannot hurt you. They give you no pain, except that of seeing your own death in their faces. And one can face that, I find." Yes, he thought, the good face pain. But the great—they embrace it.

It must be quite a shock to suddenly find out you're pregnant, seventeen times over—at your age, too.

It's true that if your religion failed to deliver a miracle, that a human sacrifice would certainly follow. Ah...quite. You are a man of acute insight. That's not insight. That's a personal guarantee.

Hold to virtue—if you can identify it—and trust that the duty set before you is the duty desired of you. And that the talents given to you are the talents you should place in the gods' service. Believe that the gods ask for nothing back that they have not first lent to you. Not even your life.

It could be surprisingly hard to counter Plain Stupid. Even by heroic measures.

Successes are secret and thankless, failures are splashy and gain you only blame.

How did I get into this mess? Miles isn't even here. -Ivan

I'm sorry, Lady Vorkosigan. We'll simply have to begin at the beginning. Please bear with me. Do I understand correctly you've had some sort of female trouble? No, most of my troubles have been with males.

It was never what I wanted to buy that held my heart's hope. It was what I wanted to be.

A Caligula, or a Yuri Vorbarra, can rule a long time, while the best men hesitate to do what is necessary to stop him, and the worst ones take advantage.

We have what we can hold, dear boy, and never let them see you flinch or falter.

And whose fault was it that the boy swallowed down lies, when no one would feed him the truth?

Power is better than revenge. Power is a live thing, by which you reach out to grasp the future. Revenge is a dead thing, reaching out from the past to grasp you.

If only you were willing to betray a trust, why, the most amazing range of possible actions opened up to you.