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Lois McMaster Bujold
628 quotes
“I’ve seen planetary invasion plans less complex than what’s being booted about for this Imperial Wedding.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I propose a treaty. You can have all the rest of the women in the universe. I just want this one.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He must not be in one of his voluble moods. Either you can’t turn him on or can’t turn him off. Well, if there was a choice, taciturn was probably safer for the innocent bystanders than spring-wound.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mark had a Thing about Miles. Thing was not accepted psychoscientific terminology, she’d been informed by his twinkling therapist, but there was scarcely another term with the scope and flexibility to take in the whole complexity of the…Thing.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You had to admire their honesty. No wonder they did so well at the sciences.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought he was a bit creepy.” Kareen stiffened. If you’d been cloned a slave, raised by terrorists to be a murderer, trained by methods tantamount to physical and psychological torture, and had to kill people to escape, you’d likely seem a little creepy too. If you weren’t a twitching puddle.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kareen was by no means sure Mark was a potential husband. He was still working his heart out on becoming a potential human being.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She’d made it clear that Things Would Be Done Properly. The problem came in defining the term Properly.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh yes. This was going to do well. If there was one thing Tsipis appreciated, it was a quick study. Ekaterin was one of those show once people whom Miles, in his mercenary days, had found more precious than unexpected oxygen in the emergency reserve.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You couldn’t be that good and not know it, somewhere in your secret heart, however much you’d been abused into affecting public humility.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My brother has this bad little habit of editing his version of reality to fit his audience.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Miles was plenty expressive too, in his own unreliable way. Half of it was horseshit, but you were never sure which half.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All Mark knew was that if it came down to a choice between Kareen and oxygen, he’d prefer to give up oxygen, thanks.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No money, but she’s beautiful, and her blood lines are impeccable.” “Are you choosing a wife, or buying a horse?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He told Mark he’s courting her in secret,” Martya put in to the Vorbrettens. “It’s a secret from her. We’re all still trying to figure that one out.” “Is the entire city party to my private conversations?” Miles snarled. “I’m going to strangle Mark.” Martya blinked at him with manufactured innocence. “Kareen had it from Mark. I had it from Ivan. Mama had it from Gregor. And Da had it from Pym. If you’re trying to keep a secret, Miles, why are you going around telling everyone?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you’re just now finding out that this world is unjust, well, you’re behind the times.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have to be careful who you let define your good.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For her, this was a metaphor, he reminded himself. Though maybe he was a metaphor too, inside his head with the Black Gang. A metaphor gone metastatic. Metaphors could do that, under enough pressure.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I could be a virgin again. What a dreadful thought.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is always easier to get forgiveness than permission.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don’t pay back your parents. You can’t. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It’s a sort of entailment. Or if you don’t have children of the body, it’s left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heavens, Kareen, you don’t have to pay me—” “Never,” said Kareen with passion, “ever suggest they don’t have to pay you. What they pay for, they’ll value. What they get for free, they’ll take for granted, and then demand as a right. Hold them up for all the market will bear.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She wondered when not dull had become her prime criterion for mate selection.”
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“I wanted to give you a victory. But by their essential nature triumphs can’t be given. They must be taken and the worse the odds and the fiercer the resistance, the greater the honor. Victories can’t be gifts.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He lived, therefore he learned.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lately I have come to believe that the principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.”
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“Is there anything else I can do for you, Madame Vorsoisson?” Illyan called after her, as she stood outside to let Nikki exit. She leaned back toward him to breathe venomously, “Yes. Hang Vormoncrief.” He offered her a sincere salute. “I shall do my humble best, Madame.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now, you had that doctorate in Barrayaran history. Do any really interesting District succession squabbles spring to your memory?” “Lord Midnight the horse,” Galeni replied at once. “Who always voted ‘neigh.’”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He carefully ignored his simmering fury. Rage had no place in this. Calculation and implacable action did.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no more hollow feeling than to stand with your honor shattered at your feet while soaring public reputation wraps you in rewards. That’s soul-destroying. The other way around is merely very, very irritating.”
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“No,” said his father, “you don’t have to smile. But if you’re really asking for advice from my accumulated experience, I’m saying Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards.”
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“Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you’ll be so close as to be living inside each other’s skins. So…is this Ekaterin another passing fancy?” The Count hesitated, his eyes crinkling. “Or is she the one who will love my son forever and fiercely—hold his household and estates with integrity—stand beside him through danger, and dearth, and death—and guide my grandchildren’s hands when they light my funeral offering?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You? I know you! You trust beyond reason.” She met his eyes steadily. “Yes. It’s how I get results beyond hope. As you may recall.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gardens were meant to be seen, smelled, walked through, grubbed in. A hundred objective measurements didn’t sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The trouble with oaths of the form, death before dishonor, is that eventually, given enough time and abrasion, they separate the world into just two sorts of people: the dead, and the forsworn.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even love is not as strong as habit, eh?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How can you stand me? I can’t even stand me.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He smiled, recapturing her hand. “A very wise woman once told me—you just go on. I’ve never encountered any good advice that didn’t boil down to that, in the end. Not even my father’s.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Government by thugs in the Bloody Centuries gave Barrayar many colorful historical incidents, suitable for high drama. I don’t think it’s a drama we wish to return to in real life.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So much for that line of reasoning, Lord Richars,” Ekaterin finished. She sat back with a hand-dusting gesture, and added, by no means under her breath, “Twit.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If power was an illusion, wasn’t weakness necessarily one also?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Roots grow deep in the dark.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When he invited me to one for the Winterfair season, I wasn’t sure if it was hunting or social, and whether I should pack weapons or dresses.” Lady Vorpatril’s smile sharpened. “Dresses are weapons, my dear, in sufficiently skilled hands.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a bodyguard by trade,” she said, evidently continuing a conversation with Lady Vorpatril. “How can I kick someone’s teeth in wearing this?” “A woman wearing that suit, my dear, will have volunteers to kick in annoying persons’ teeth for her,” said Lady Alys.”
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“Life’s uncertain out there. Things can go down bad, fast, anytime. We all just get a time, in our different ways.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What would you do? If you discovered or suspected such a horror?” His lips twisted. “That’s a tough one. A higher honor must underlie ours, the count says. We can’t ever obey unthinkingly.” “Huh. That’s what Miles says, too. Is that where he got it, from his father?” “I shouldn’t be surprised. M’lord’s brother Mark says integrity is a disease, and you can only catch it from someone who has it.”
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“Your talent for making interesting new enemies has evidently not deserted you.”
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