Lois McMaster Bujold Quotes - Page 3

All the worry people expend over not existing after they die, yet nary a one ever seems to spare a moment to worry about not having existed before they were conceived. Or at all. After all, one sperm over and we would have been our sisters, and we'd never have been missed.

I'd storm heaven for you, if I knew where it was.

Miles clutched Quinn's elbow. "Don't Panic." "I'm not panicking," Quinn observed, "I'm watching you panic. It's more entertaining .

Good soldiers never pass up a chance to eat or sleep. They never know how much they'll be called on to do before the next chance.

I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” - Jimi Hendrix, “The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.

You try to give away what you want yourself.

This is the most important thing I will ever say to you. The human mind is the ultimate testing device. You can take all the notes you want on the technical data, anything you forget you can look up again, but this must be engraved on your hearts in letters of fire. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, more important to me in the men and women I train than their absolute personal integrity. Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool metal. That’s all.

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that.

People give themselves to you, in their talking, and in other ways, if you are quiet and patient and let them, and not in such a damned rush to give yourself to them you go bat-blind and deaf.

Bleeding ulcers run in my family, we give them to each other.

All true wealth is biological.

Poets speak of hope in ladies smiles, but give me a smirk any day, I say.

I'm sorry. I can love you. I can grieve for you, or with you. I can share your pain. But I cannot judge you.

It’s important that someone celebrate our existence," she objected amiably. "People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.

Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it.

If you desire a man to tell you comfortable lies about your prowess, and so fetter any hope of true excellence, I'm sure you may find one anywhere. Not all prisons are made of iron bars. Some are made of feather beds.

If you ever have to make a choice between learning and inspiration, choose learning. It works most of the time.

What you are is a question only you can answer.

"It was suicide, wasn't it?" "In an involuntary sort of way," said Vorob'yev. "These Cetagandan political suicides can get awfully messy, when the principal won't cooperate." "Thirty-two stab wounds in the back, worst case of suicide they ever saw?" murmured Ivan, clearly fascinated by the gossip. "Exactly, my lord."

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.

When the time comes to leap in faith whether you have your eyes open or closed or scream all the way down or not makes no practical difference.

This is important! But you have to stay absolutely cool. I may be completely off-base, and panicking prematurely." "I don't think so. I think you're panicking post-maturely. In fact, if you were panicking any later it would be practically posthumously. I've been panicking for days.

You have to be careful who you let define your good.

I've got forward momentum. There's no virtue in it. It's just a balancing act. I don't dare stop.

One of the best things about writing is how it redeems, not to mention recycles, all of one's prior experiences, including or perhaps especially the failures.