Quotes from David Weber

Kylpaitryc's eyes streamed tears as he coughed explosively on harsh, sinus-raping smoke.

small craft had yet returned, so

I wish I knew what he called himself. I'm sure that treecats have their own names for themselves." "Me, too," Stephanie agreed, "and I bet they have their own names for us, too. I just hope mine isn't 'Source of Celery.

agreement not to discuss. "He never gets tired of comparing one physical artifact to another," Anders went on, "even if they all look pretty

The majority of people didn't blush in zero-gee. Unfortunately for Carpenter, he wasn't one of them.

strawmen—as manufactured ogres, created for their own propaganda purposes.

Ah, but hame is where yer loved, lad

In a navy with infinite money and resources, pushing components to a hundred and ten percent of their normal operating ceilings was a good way to weed out those that might fail under the added duress of combat. In a navy with extremely finite quantities of both, that kind of limit-pushing was just begging for trouble.

And for the whole system to be healthy, all parts of it must enjoy equal freedoms. And the most fundamental of all those freedoms is this: that persons must be free to read, write, say, and think what they will. Without that, all other freedoms are not merely meaningless, they are shams.

My favorite's toxophilia, arousal from archery. You wouldn't believe the poses people get into. Remember: one overnight bag, that's it.

only a sergeant

No one could place two-thirds of a world's population on the Dole and keep them there forever without the entire system crashing 

My God, woman! Your life was destroyed. You've rebuilt a new one, a deeply productive one, without ever surrendering. You're entitled to not be strong about everything every instant. And you have the right to admit that it hurts, and that things frighten you.

overtures from a cold-blooded consideration of advantages to an emotional rejection based on their own bigotry. And if I've learned one thing over the years, it's that when it comes down to raw emotion against reason, emotion wins. *

sweeping, simplistic solutions to complicated problems are much more appealing than tackling the real thought that might actually solve them. At

Causes can be tricky masters," Harrington sighed. "It's really difficult to avoid checking your scruples at the door when you buy into one of them.

But the universe wasn't really unfair, she thought, and her mouth quirked. It just didn't give much of a damn one way or the other.

Perhaps that, he thought, was the real lesson. The knowledge that life meant growth and change and challenge, and that those were painful things, but that only those who dared to love despite the pain were the true inheritors of humanity's dreams of greatness.

Round these parts, we do stupid in a whole 'nother way. I can't quite decide whether our people's motto should be 'Hey, y'all! Watch this!' or 'Somebody hold mah beer!

Eleven men and women, exhausted, battered, and armed with captured weapons, against fifty battle-armored foes desperate to kill them. Every one of those eleven knew exactly what their odds of living through the next three minutes were, but it didn't matter. They were all that stood between six hundred civilians and cold-blooded murder, and Alicia's green eyes were hard as she watched the gaps being punched through the western wall. Make it count, people, she said, almost conversationally.

What's conquered by the sword depends on the sword to stay conquered.

mercy and justice are deadlier than any rifle or bayonet.

If you think it's bad now, my friend, wait till we reach a town!' He shook his head and brushed at his tattered, dirty shirtsleeve. 'Do try to remember we're visitors-and not welcome ones-if you should feel moved to reason with anyone.

reached the