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Lois McMaster Bujold
628 quotes
“But even the gods cannot see infinitely far ahead. Our free wills cloud Their vision, even though Their eyes are more piercing than ours. The gods do not plan, so much as take advantage.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Inventing as you go, are you?” “Yes, I am quite godlike in that way, if no other.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was lately suggested to me, by a man with longer experience of the gods than I can rightly imagine, that the reason the gods do not show our paths more plainly is that They do not know either. I haven’t decided if I find this reassuring or the reverse. It does hint they do not torment us solely for Their amusement, at least.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Talking to the gods had been a much more comfortable proposition when there had seemed no danger of Their talking back.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Taste the betrayal of the gods, then; I have dined on it for ages.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Four thousand, so many! It matters less where I begin, as that I begin.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heaven weeps, but free will is sacred. The meaning of yes is created by the ability to say no.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sharpest fall of all, from life to death.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hair shirts, really, what is the point?” She gave the impression of a faint, dramatic shudder, and Pen smiled despite himself. She added more tartly, “And it indicates a deep confusion of thinking to mistake one’s own discomfort for a benefit to another.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A well-practiced prayer that he knew how to do. So he did, whispering the words aloud. In all, he was relieved that no one answered.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It occurred to him that the attitude of supplication was identical to that of surrender on a battlefield.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The gods do not act for our ends, but for Theirs.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’d sent to my superiors in Whippoorwill twice, but have got no reply yet. And written to the divines in the neighbor vales. One said he could not help, and the other…was less helpful.” Gallen grimaced. “My prayers have fared no better.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone talks to the gods, no one expects them to answer.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A few other works, half of which turn out to be rubbish. Always a problem with written sources, which frequently tell you far more about the person who wrote them than the subject addressed.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earthworms are theologically neutral creatures, as far as I know.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I won’t dismiss it from the list just yet. But it needs verification. Everything needs verification.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world is not always so friendly a place that you can afford to squander your advantages on a pointless conceit.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can think of no greater nightmare than to lose my ability to read.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pen cleared his throat. “Do you normally try to murder people you’ve just met?” Although that was what a soldier did, he supposed.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps the absence of risk should not be mistaken for the presence of fortitude.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pen wondered at a world that hanged poor men for thievery, but celebrated great ones.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This demon seemed slow to deploy even the most basic magics, but maybe dolphins didn’t think in terms of arson.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The princess-archdivine once quipped to me that our friends are what the gods give us to make up for our families.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dying is easy. Surviving is hard.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reform is resisted by everyone who has an interest in it not taking place at their expense.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re worse than evil. You’re inefficient.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don’t promote your troubles beyond your rank.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No prayer addressed to my god ever returned any useful insight.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mira does not gossip about her clients. Very rigid rule, I gather. The highest rank of Lodi courtesans don’t; that’s part of how they became the highest rank.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nikys had never believed that clothes made the man, but the lack of them certainly did.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Des, it seemed, was much less terrified by this return to Cedonia than he was. Of course, a demon could not be killed exactly. Are you saying I would be a surprise? Oh, Pen. You have been a surprise from the beginning.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Assassins can cross borders where armies can’t.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Penric smiled and advanced, feeling dimly that the first thing a man said to his intended’s respected mother probably shouldn’t be Quick, take your clothes off!”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It didn’t seem wise to assume all had gone as planned.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He wouldn’t say pray, as he’d decided long ago not to bother the gods with questions when he didn’t really want to hear the answers.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One gives you the shirt off his back, mused Des, and the other offers to help you bury bodies. I do believe you have made some new friends, Pen!”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time. It did not wait for any human want, or grief, or plan. Or careful list. Nearly half her life might be behind her already. It was time to get started on the next half.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And that was just how it worked, wasn’t it? Happiness handed around and around, never stopping. It wasn’t something one could hoard tight like a miser. That would be like trying to hold one’s breath for later.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just once, Pen thought glumly, he’d like to get an answer to prayers, instead of being delivered as one.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pen spared a moment of fresh loathing for the sectarian idiocy that made even children afraid.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some poetic epics extolled heroism in warriors; Adelis the actual soldier put his faith in logistics.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times begins to seem like a message to be ignored at one’s peril.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pen would pray to his God for guidance, but he never did get any back when he did that, so he supposed he must use his own judgment.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She made the best of herself through tidiness and health, not by the unearned gift that’s the blessing and curse of those born beautiful.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Five gods avert,” said Rede. And then, after a pensive moment, “Do They?” “Not that I can tell,” said Pen. “I’ve sometimes wondered if the gods regard death not as a dreaded ending, but as a welcome beginning.” “Of what?” “I am deeply not sure. Which doesn’t stop people from making up a thousand tales.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It turns out languages are like children. Once you have six, adding a seventh hardly makes any difference.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don’t borrow trouble the interest rate is much too high.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is why medicine can’t be my calling,” said Pen dimly. “The demand is endless, and I’ve learned I am not. Only the gods could deal with all the world’s pain, all at once, all the time. It’s a wonder they’re not driven mad. Unless they have been, which would explain some things. Theologically speaking.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were many Temple sorcerers in great Thasalon, which drew all men of ambition to it, whether like flies to honey or to manure a matter of opinion.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source