Quotes from Sherwood Smith

The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.

When people first discover beauty, they tend to linger. Even if they don't at first recognize it for what it is.

If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And then you'd better hope he's half asleep.

But I'd also learned that the self might want one thing, but that didn't mean it was right.

It is a shame when we must regard a people as an enemy. It is a shame and a regret when the two peoples share so much. And it is a shame, a regret, and a tragedy when those peoples meet as individuals and find much to admire.

No, my career as a warrior princess, short as it had been, was over, I thought morosely. Violence only works if you're good at it. Otherwise, it hurts too much.

War is a convenient fix for government problems if it happens somewhere else. To other people.

Jaim says that the essence of command is to turn surprises to your favor. You get your perimeter outside the enemy's perimeter, and attack." "What does that mean, exactly?" "Oh, I don't know, some kind of military jabber. I was hoping you knew.

I endeavor to be serious and you will not take me seriously

You don't look at the problem all at once, or it's like being caught in a spring flood under a downpour. You tackle the problem in pieces...

Judging the actions of the many by those of the one is both human and dangerous.

What might have happened to them to make them the way they were? It did not change what they now did, but it changed, profoundly, how he perceived their motivations, their place in the world.

Love is one of the simplest of what we call the Mysteries, and yet the strongest, like air: the greatest treasure cannot buy it nor the smartest thief steal it nor the most powerful emperor command it. And like air, it freely fills to infinity whatever is open to it.

As soon as we're born, we become a part of patterns, the intimate ones we create with those we live among, and the patterns so large that it takes a lifetime to perceive a fragment of the possibilities.

What's it really like to always be the prettiest person in a room? Dos it mean you're always acting as if in a play, because no one stops looking at you?' 'Life is a play, isn't it?

What if feeling good only comes after you destroy someone you hate?' 'That's not good, that's triumph

I am old, but the word to me means familiar, comfortable. Accustomed after long and venerable use. Not dilapidated and useless.

Are they trained to treat everyone as a servant?' 'Probably. That doesn't make you into one

I feel stupid when people say 'You? You are so brave,' because I don't feel brave, I don't even know what brave is.

He'd spent his entire exile schooling himself to face that he would never get what he wanted. People didn't, sometimes. So you made a life as best you could.

One thing I still remembered from my war days was how to move in shrubbery.

At the best of times I don't have the kind of voice anyone would want to hear mangling their favorite songs.

Choose the duty that you can most effectively execute: that is, finally, all we can do in life.

Maybe I'm no longer a dog, but I can still bite!