Quotes from Lois McMaster Bujold

I wanted—I wanted to serve something. To"—he raised his eyes to his father's, driven to a painful honesty—"to make my life an offering fit to lay at his feet." He shrugged. "Screwed up again." "Clay, boy." Count Vorkosigan's voice was hoarse but clear. "Only clay. Not fit to receive so golden a sacrifice." His voice cracked.

Miles added it to his life's lessons list. Call it Rule 27B. Never make key tactical decisions while having electro-convulsive seizures.

But pain ... seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?

No me sorprendería. El hermano de milord, Mark, dice que la integridad es una enfermedad, y tan sólo puede contagiártela alguien que la padece.

From spaceman to caveman in three days, she meditated aloud. How we imagine our civilization is in ourselves, when it's really in our things.

One of Piotr's most enormous horses, quite naked of bridle, saddle, halter, or any other handle to grab, was trotting out of the barn. Clinging to its mane like a burr was a dark-haired, dwarfish little boy. Miles's sharp features shone with a mixture of exaltation and terror. Cordelia nearly fainted. "My imported stallion!" yelped Piotr in horror.

Way I figure, once a drop is enough to kill you, any more you add makes no difference." "A reasonable argument." No it's not, it's insane!

If it ever came down to exerting power by force, it would mean I'd already lost it.

Haroche was crouched to the left of his old comconsole desk, just levering the vent grille out of the wall. In the opened flimsie-folder on the floor by his side lay another fiber filter. Miles laid a small bet with himself that they would find a disemboweled grille awaiting Haroche's return in one of the briefing rooms on a direct line between Illyan's old office and this one. A quick switch, very cool. You think fast, General. But this time I had a head start.

Cordelia was not at all sure she wanted Piotr present, but until the old man did them all the convenience of dropping dead, she was stuck with him.

I've never taught anybody before . . ." He smiled up at her, willing confidence into her face, her eyes, her spine. "Look, you can probably kill the first two days just having them demonstrate what they know on each other, while you stand around and say "Um," and "Hm," and "God help us," and things like that.

You shall lie warm here, watching the long lake change its faces, winter to spring, summer to fall. No armies march here, and even the deepest midnights aren't wholly dark. Surely God won't overlook you, in such a spot as this. There will be grace and forgiveness enough, old dog, even for you." He lit the offering. "I pray you will spare me a drink from that cup, when it overflows

I'll lay it out straight, then. I don't like the way things are run around here. Oliver's mouth twisted sardonically; he did not comment aloud. He didn't need to. I'm going to change them, Miles added. Shit, said Oliver, and rolled back over. Starting here and now. After a moment's silence Oliver added, Go away or I'll pound you. Suegar

It's only for a week. If I can do it," he said manfully, "you can do it." "I've heard that before somewhere," she muttered.

Well, I don't hate him. Can't say I worship him, either. She paused a long time, and looked up to meet her mother's eyes square on. But when he's cut, I bleed.

The fastest way to get to easy is through hard.

Send a patroller to check," said Miles a little tightly. Remembering he was supposed to be a diplomat, he added, "If you please." Teris

When the time came to leap in faith, whether you had your eyes open or closed or screamed all the way down or not made no practical difference.

Go dance with the girl, Mark. She thinks you're interesting. Mother Nature gives a sense of romance to young people, in place of prudence, to advance the species. It's a trick—that makes us grow.

Why does your one virtue have to be fidelity?

Horseriver first, before he'd been exhausted by this night, could he have taken apart what Horseriver's long curse had welded together?

I was just a little taken aback. That—that wasn't the proposition I was expecting, is all. Excuse me. I fear I am become incurably low-minded." "You can't help that, I'm sure," Ethan said tolerantly. "Being female, and all that." She

He had to restrain himself from skipping down the steps of the Palais de London in the ambassador's wake. Genius. He was a frigging genius.

Like integrity, love of life was not a subject to be studied, it was a contagion to be caught. And you had to catch it from someone who had it.