Quotes from David Drake

People like to think that their convenience is important. Daniel had found that as a general rule the universe didn't agree, and that other human beings tended to be a subset of 'the universe' in this regard.

can't fix the roof when it's raining, and when the sun comes out the roof don't leak no more. The

Yes, the Large Birds o' Prey They will carry us away, And you'll never see your soldiers any more!  —Rudyard Kipling

the world might be better off if more people accepted responsibility and dealt with consequences. — Dave Drake david-drake.com

You have to know exactly what you're doing before you decide to use guns.

a man with the power to punish anyone never hears anything except what he wants to hear. or, what's worse, what his subordinates think he wants to hear—and they don't dare ask him what it is.

His desktop was a sheet of black opal with neither paper nor a data console to mar its polished perfection. A small printer perched on the outer edge, as if contemplating suicide in remorse at intruding on so august a personage.

All over the galaxy, men with the best gifts of Science and no skills but those of murder looked for patrons who would hire them to bring down civilization. Business was good.

The trouble with doing things that others said were impossible, Daniel thought, is that people keep coming up with other impossible things. Eventually they're likely to be right.

When you screw up real bad, you can either be afraid or you can flare out in anger and blame somebody else. Not because you don't know better, but because it's the only way to control your fear. It isn't pretty, but there's no pretty way to screw up bad.