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They Stared At Her Curiously, And She Caught Snatches Of Conversation In Two Or Three Languages. It Wasn't Hard To Guess Their Content, And She Smiled A Bit Primly. Youth, It Appeared, Was Full Of Illusions As To How Much Sexual Energy Two People Might Have To Spare While Hiking Forty Or So Kilometers A Day, Concussed, Stunned, Diseased, On Poor Food And Little Sleep, Alternating Caring For A Wounded Man With Avoiding Becoming Dinner For Every Carnivore Within Range - And With A Coup To Plan For The End.

-Lois McMaster Bujold

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They Stared At Her

Lois McMaster Bujold

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They Stared At Her Curiously, And She Caught Snatches Of Conversation In Two Or Three Languages. It Wasn't Hard To Guess Their Content, And She Smiled A Bit Primly. Youth, It Appeared, Was Full Of Illusions As To How Much Sexual Energy Two People Might Have To Spare While Hiking Forty Or So Kilometers A Day, Concussed, Stunned, Diseased, On Poor Food And Little Sleep, Alternating Caring For A Wounded Man With Avoiding Becoming Dinner For Every Carnivore Within Range - And With A Coup To Plan For The End.

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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.

We Should Have Taken Our Chances Back Then, When We Were Young And Beautiful And Didn't Even Know It.

History Does Not So Much Repeat As Echo, I Suppose.

Guard Your Honor. Let Your Reputation Fall Where It Will. And Outlive The Bastards.

A Good Friend Of My Son's Is A Son To Me.

Lost Friendship

The Will To Be Stupid Is A Very Powerful Force, But There Are Always Alternatives.

And This Was Your Friend?" Cordelia Raised Her Eyebrows. "seems To Me The Only Difference Between Your Friends And Your Enemies Is How Long The Stand Around Chatting Before They Shoot You.

Some Prices Are Just Too High, No Matter How Much You May Want The Prize. The One Thing You Can't Trade For Your Heart's Desire Is Your Heart.

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.

Never Argue With A Pedant Over Nomenclature. It Wastes Your Time And Annoys The Pedant.

One Step At A Time, I Can Walk Around The World. Watch Me.

Oh, Was That Liquor Of Yours A Stimulant?" Asked Elena. "i Wondered Why He Didn't Fall Asleep." "couldn't You Tell?" Chuckled Mayhew. "not Really." Miles Twisted His Head To Take In Elena's Upside-down Worried Face, And Smile In Weak Reassurance. Sparkly Black And Purple Whirlpools Clouded His Vision. Mayhew's Laughter Faded. "my God," He Said Hollowly, "you Mean He's Like That All The Time?

You Try To Give Away What You Want Yourself.

Like Integrity, Love Of Life Was Not A Subject To Be Studied, It Was A Contagion To Be Caught. And You Had To Catch It From Someone Who Had It.

A Price Is Something You Get. A Cost Is Something You Lose.

Adulthood Isn't An Award They'll Give You For Being A Good Child. You Can Waste Years, Trying To Get Someone To Give That Respect To You, As Though It Were A Sort Of Promotion Or Raise In Pay. If Only You Do Enough, If Only You Are Good Enough. No. You Have To Just Take It. Give It To Yourself, I Suppose. Say, I'm Sorry You Feel Like That And Walk Away. But That's Hard

The Gods Give No Gifts Without Hooks Embedded.

Forward Momentum Only Worked As A Strategy If One Had Correctly Identified Which Way Was Forward.

The World Demands I Make Good Choices On No Information, And Then Blames My Maidenhood For My Mistakes, As If My Maidenhood Were Responsible For My Ignorance. Ignorance Is Not Stupidity, But It Might As Well Be. And I Do Not Like Feeling Stupid.

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.

Not That I Haven't Leaped Up Into The Blinding Light Of Competence Now And Then. It's Sustaining The Altitude That Defeats Me.

When The Souls Rise Up In Glory, Yours Shall Not Be Shunned Nor Sunderered, But Shall Be The Prize Of The Gods' Gardens. Even Your Darkness Shall Be Treasured Then, And All Your Pain Made Holy.

When You Can’t Do Something Truly Useful, You Tend To Vent The Pent Up Energy In Something Useless But Available, Like Snappy Dressing.

The World Is Made By The People Who Show Up For The Job.

Suicidal Glory Is The Luxury Of The Irresponsible.

Most People Go Through Their Whole Lives Without Killing Anybody. False Argument.

A Weapon Is A Device For Making Your Enemy Change His Mind.

It Was Never What I Wanted To Buy That Held My Heart's Hope. It Was What I Wanted To Be.

He's Not Too Short. He's Just... Concentrated.

If Power Was An Illusion, Wasn't Weakness Necessarily One Also?

Yes," Vorkosigan Agreed, "i Could Take Over The Universe With This Army If I Could Ever Get All Their Weapons Pointed In The Same Direction.

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.

Our Children Change Us... Whether They Live Or Not.

Adversity Does Teach Who Your Real Friends Are.

When You Give Each Other Everything, It Becomes An Even Trade. Each Wins All.

If There's No Game, Isn't Winning A Pretty Meaningless Concept?

My Home Is Not A Place, It Is People.

"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."

Some Men Just Aren't Cut Out For Paternity. Better They Should Realize It Before And Not After They Become Responsible For A Son.

Events May Be Horrible Or Inescapable. Men Have Always A Choice - If Not Whether, Then How, They May Endure.

Anything Worth Achieving Is Worth Overachieving.

One Foot In Front Of The Other, Wasn't That The Grownup Way Of Solving Problems? Surely He Ought To Be A Grownup At His Age.

Change Is Possible.' 'change Is Inevitable.

Possible Change

Change Is Inevitable

If You Ever Have To Make A Choice Between Learning And Inspiration, Choose Learning. It Works Most Of The Time.

Reputation Is What Other People Know About You. Honor Is What You Know About Yourself.

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.

Women Do Desperately Need Models For Power Other Than The Maternal.

An Honor Is Not Diminished For Being Shared.

Cecil Flashed A Grin. "quite. Plus Your Rather Irritating Habit Of Treating Your Superior Officers As Your, Ah..." Cecil Paused, Apparently Groping Again For Just The Right Word. "equals?" Miles Hazarded. "cattle," Cecil Corrected Judiciously.

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. The Family Economy Evades Calculation In The Gross Planetary Product. It's The Only Deal I Know Where, When You Give More Than You Get, You Aren't Bankrupted - But Rather, Vastly Enriched.

Common Humanity

I Began My Writing Career In A Very Isolated Place And Time.

Wikipedia Is So Dangerous. You Go Online To Look Up The Definition Of Eclampsia, And Three Hours Later You Find Yourself Reading This Earnest Explanation Of Tentacle Porn In [japanese] Anime.

I Have A Catch-phrase To Describe My Plot-generation Technique -- 'what's The Worst Possible Thing I Can Do To These People?'

From Fried Witchetty Grubs To Gold-plated Turnips, When You're A Writer You Never Know What's Going To Appear On Your Plate Next. It Keeps A Woman Alert, It Does.

Miles Clutched Quinn's Elbow. "don't Panic." "i'm Not Panicking," Quinn Observed, "i'm Watching You Panic. It's More Entertaining .

I'm Not Getting It All Sorted, She Worried. I'm Not Getting It Right. You Are Brilliant, The Voice Reassured Her. It Is Imperfect. So Are All Things Trapped In Time. You Are Brilliant, Nonetheless. How Fortunate For Us That We Thirst For Glorious Souls Rather Than Faultless Ones, Or We Should Be Parched Indeed, And Most Lonely In Our Perfect Righteousness. Carry On Imperfectly, Shining Ista.

Poets Speak Of Hope In Ladies Smiles, But Give Me A Smirk Any Day, I Say.

Exile, For No Other Motive Than Ease, Would Be The Last Defeat, With No Seed Of Future Victory In It.

I Am Increasingly Convinced That Technological Culture Is The Entire Root Of Women's Liberation.

I've Always Tried To Write The Kind Of Book I Most Loved To Read: Character-centered Adventure.

Ignorance Is Not Stupidity, But It Might As Well Be. And I Do Not Like Feeling Stupid.

Never Underestimate The Human Capacity For Wishful Thinking And Willful Blindness,' Said Miles. Such As A Whole Society Of People Who Became So Wrapped Up In Avoiding Death, They Forgot To Be Alive?

Aim High. You May Still Miss The Target, But At Least You Won't Shoot Your Foot Off.

What You Are Is A Question Only You Can Answer.

I Am Not Schizoid. A Little Manic-depressive, Maybe." "'know Thyself.'" "we Try, Sir.

Seems Like Half My Anxiety Dreams Are About Airports.

Any Communitys Arm Of Force - Military, Police, Security - Needs People In It Who Can Do Necessary Evil, And Yet Not Be Made Evil By It. To Do Only The Necessary And No More. To Constantly Question The Assumptions, To Stop The Slide Into Atrocity.

His Outflung Hands Traced Over The Threads Of His Rug, Passed Loop By Loop Through Some Patient Woman's Hands. Or Maybe She Hadn't Been Patient. Maybe She'd Been Tired, Or Irritated, Or Distracted, Or Hungry, Or Angry. Maybe She Had Been Dying. But Her Hands Had Kept Moving, All The Same.

Surely Only Correct Understanding Could Lead To Correct Action.

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.

Miles Is... Miles; Close To A Force Of Nature, Climbing Up Out Of His Own Pages And Escaping Subordination To Any Opinion Of Mine.

If You're Trying To Take A Roomful Of People By Surprise, It's A Lot Easier To Hit Your Targets If You Don't Yell Going Through The Door.

Any Man Can Be Kind When He Is Comfortable. I'd Always Thought Kindness A Trivial Virtue, Therefore. But When We Were Hungry, Thirsty, Sick, Frightened, With Our Deaths Shouting At Us, In The Heart Of Horror, You Were Still As Unfailingly Courteous As A Gentleman At Ease Before His Own Hearth.

Children Might Or Might Not Be A Blessing, But To Create Them And Then Fail Them Was Surely Damnation.

I Don’t Duel, Boy. I Kill As A Soldier Kills, Which Is As A Butcher Kills, As Quickly, Efficiently, And With As Least Risk To Myself As I Can Arrange.

When I Go Down Into The Ground At Last, As God Is My Judge, I Pray My Best-beloved May Have Better To Say Of Me Than, "he Didn't Hit Me."

Growing Up, I Have Discovered Over Time, Is Rather Like Housework: Never Finished.

Bleeding Ulcers Run In My Family, We Give Them To Each Other.

If The Truth Doesn't Save Us, What Does That Say About Us?

It's An Ancient And Honorable Term For The Final Step In Any Engineering Project. Turn It On, See If It Smokes.

All The Geniuses I Ever Met Were So Just Part Of The Time. To Qualify, You Only Have To Be Great Once, You Know. Once When It Matters.

I'm Very Interested In The Impact Of Biotechnology On The Way People Live.

How Could You Be A Great Man If History Brought You No Great Events, Or Brought You To Them At The Wrong Time, Too Young, Too Old?

Too Late, He Recalled Miles's Dictum That The Reward For A Job Well Done Was Usually A Harder Job.

I Am Who I Choose To Be. I Have Always Been What I Chose, Though Not Always What I Pleased.

One Learns Better Than To Hand One's Choices To Fear. With Age, With Every Wound And Scar, One Learns.

Wounds And Scars

I'd Storm Heaven For You, If I Knew Where It Was.

Since No One Is Perfect, It Follows That All Great Deeds Have Been Accomplished Out Of Imperfection. Yet They Were Accomplished, Somehow, All The Same.

There Are Always Survivors At A Massacre. Among The Victors, If Nowhere Else.

You Have To Be Careful Who You Let Define Your Good.

The Dead Cannot Cry Out For Justice. It Is A Duty Of The Living To Do So For Them.

If You Can't Be Seven Feet Tall, Be Seven Feet Smart.

Experience Suggests It Doesn't Matter So Much How You Got Here, As What You Do After You Arrive.

Miles Exhaled Carefully, Faint With Rage And Reminded Grief. He Does Not Know, He Told Himself. He Cannot Know... "ivan, One Of These Days Somebody Is Going To Pull Out A Weapon And Plug You, And You're Going To Die In Bewilderment, Crying, "what Did I Say? What Did I Say?" "what Did I Say?" Asked Ivan Indignantly.

I Need Words That Mean More Than They Mean, Words Not Just With Height And Width, But Depth And Weight And, And Other Dimensions That I Cannot Even Name.

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.

I've Always Thought Tests Are A Gift. And Great Tests Are A Great Gift. To Fail The Test Is A Misfortune. But To Refuse The Test Is To Refuse The Gift, And Something Worse, More Irrevocable, Than Misfortune.

I Am An Atheist, Myself. A Simple Faith, But A Great Comfort To Me, In These Last Days.

On The Sixth Day God Saw He Couldn't Do It All, So He Created Engineers

Miles Added It To His Life's Lessons List. Call It Rule 27b. Never Make Key Tactical Decisions While Having Electro-convulsive Seizures.

Don't Wish To Be Normal. Wish To Be Yourself. To The Hilt. Find Out What You're Best At, And Develop It, And Hopscotch Your Weaknesses. Wish To Be Great At Whatever You Are.

Honor Is What You Know About Yourself.

It Is Always Easier To Get Forgiveness Than Permission.

Utterly Bleak And Black Is Not The Sum Of Realism. All The Other Colors Are Real, Too.

Mia Maz Glanced Aside In Concern At His Muffled Snort. "are You All Right?" "yes. Sorry," He Whispered. "i'm Just Having An Attack Of Limericks." Her Eyes Widened, And She Bit Her Lip; Only Her Deepening Dimple Betrayed Her. "shhh," She Said, With Feeling.

If You Want To Catch Something, Running After It Isn't Always The Best Way.

Only The Saints Would Joke So About The Gods, Because It Was Either Joke Or Scream, And They Alone Knew It Was All The Same To The Gods.

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.

Endure Pain, Find Joy, And Make Your Own Meaning, Because The Universe Certainly Isn't Going To Supply It.

Never Do Yourself, What You Can Con Professionals Into Doing For You.

As The Week Wore On, Ivan Contemplated The Merits Of Inertia As A Problem-solving Technique With Growing Favor

But Pain Seems To Me An Insufficient Reason Not To Embrace Life. Being Dead Is Quite Painless. Pain, Like Time, Is Going To Come On Regardless. Question Is, What Glorious Moments Can You Win From Life In Addition To The Pain?

I Do Think, Half Of What We Call Madness Is Just Some Poor Slob Dealing With Pain By A Strategy That Annoys The People Around Him.

Real Destiny Takes Everything-the Last Drop Of Blood, And Strip Out Your Veins To Be Sure-and Gives It Back Doubled. Quadrupled. A Thousand-fold! But You Can't Give Halves. You Have To Give It All. I Know. I Swear. I've Come Back From The Dead To Speak The Truth To You. Real Destiny Gives You A Mountain Of Life, And Puts You On Top Of It.

Second Sight Is Redundant To Reason Anyway.

All True Wealth Is Biological.

Honesty Is The Only Way With Anyone, When You'll Be So Close As To Be Living Inside Each Other's Skins.

The Gods' Most Savage Curses Come Upon Us As Answers To Our Own Prayers. Prayer Is A Dangerous Business.

Your Father Calls You To His Court. You Need Not Pack. You Go Garbed In Glorious Raiment. He Waits Eagerly By His Palace Doors To Welcome You, And Has Prepared A Place At The High Table, By His Side, In The Company Of The Great-souled, Honored, And Best-beloved.

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.

The Good Face Pain. But The Great? They Embrace It.

I Don't Want Power. I Just Object To Idiots Having Power Over Me.

For Me, Writing Is More A Process Of Discovering The Book Than Planning It.

This Wasn't Prayer Anyway, It Was Just Argument With The Gods. Prayer, He Suspected As He Hoisted Himself Up And Turned For The Door, Was Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other. Moving All The Same.

I Miss It Every Minute, And I Have No Wish At All To Go Back.

I Know Girls Who Pine For It. They Like To Play Dress-up And Pretend Being Vor Ladies Of Old, Rescued From Menace By Romantic Vor Youths. For Some Reason They Never Play 'dying In Childbirth', Or 'vomiting Your Guts Out From The Red Dysentery', Or 'weaving Till You Go Blind And Crippled From Arthritis And Dye Poisoning', Or 'infanticide'. Well, They Do Die Romantically Of Disease Sometimes, But Somehow It's Always An Illness That Makes You Interestingly Pale And Everyone Sorry And Doesn't Involve Losing Bowel Control.

They Stared At Her Curiously, And She Caught Snatches Of Conversation In Two Or Three Languages. It Wasn't Hard To Guess Their Content, And She Smiled A Bit Primly. Youth, It Appeared, Was Full Of Illusions As To How Much Sexual Energy Two People Might Have To Spare While Hiking Forty Or So Kilometers A Day, Concussed, Stunned, Diseased, On Poor Food And Little Sleep, Alternating Caring For A Wounded Man With Avoiding Becoming Dinner For Every Carnivore Within Range - And With A Coup To Plan For The End.

There Was No Limit To What One Man Might Do, If He Gave All, And Held Back Nothing.

When You Choose An Action, You Choose The Consequences Of That Action.

The Real Unforgivable Acts Are Committed By Calm Men In Beautiful Green Silk Rooms, Who Deal Death Wholesale, By The Shipload, Without Lust, Without Anger, Or Desire, Or Any Redeeming Emotion To Excuse Them But Cold Fear Of Some Pretended Future. But The Crimes They Hope To Prevent In That Future Are Imaginary. The Ones They Commit In The Present - They Are Real.

I Wanted To Give You A Victory. But By Their Essential Nature Triumphs Can’t Be Given.

Hi, I'm A Hero, But I Can't Tell You Why. It's Classified.

Whether You Function As Welders Or Inspectors, The Laws Of Physics Are Implacable Lie-detectors. You May Fool Men. You Will Never Fool The Metal.

Read, Or You Will Be Missing Something Extraordinary.

Missing Something

My Dinner Party,' Miles Grated. 'it's Just Breaking Up.' And Sinking. All Souls Feared Lost.

Some People Grow Into Their Dreams, Instead Of Out Of Them.

One Corner Of His Mouth Crooked Up, Then The Quirk Vanished In A Thoughtful Pursing Of His Lips. "he's Bisexual, You Know." He Took A Delicate Sip Of His Wine. "was Bisexual," She Corrected Absently, Looking Fondly Across The Room. "now He's Monogamous." Vordarian Choked, Sputtering.

There Is A Sad Disconnectedness That Overcomes A Library When Its Owner Is Gone.

For A While, I Thought I Was Going Mad. At Last, I Became Reconciled To My Despair. The Medications Helped, Too, I Thought, Sir.

The Principle Difference Between Heaven And Hell Is The Company You Keep There.

Company You Keep

A True Vor, Miles Told Himself Severely, Does Not Bury His Face In His Liegewoman's Breasts And Cry--even If He Is At A Convenient Height For It.

Colonel Otto, Do You Have A, Perhaps, Fuller And More Detailed Account Than Your Preliminary One Of Why My Imperial Security Building Is Now Largely An Underground Installation? From A Technical Perspective.

Think Of The Glory. Think Of Your Reputation. Think How Great It'll Look On Your Next Resume." On My Cenotaph, You Mean. Nobody Will Be Able To Collect Enough Of My Scattered Atoms To Bury. You Going To Cover My Funeral Expenses, Son?" Splendidly. Banners, Dancing Girls, And Enough Beer To Float Your Coffin To Valhalla." - Miles Coaxing Ky Tung To Agree To An Almost Suicidal Mission

Do It For Yourself. The Universe Will Be Around To Collect Its Cut Later.

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.

I Think 99 Percent Of Women's Lib Comes From Technology Making Different Kinds Of Lives Possible, And Then The Social Adjustment Follows The Technology - It Doesn't Precede It.

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.

A Stunning First Impression Was Not The Same Thing As Love At First Sight. But Surely It Was An Invitation To Consider The Matter.

First Impression

In Mysticism, Knowledge Cannot Be Separated From A Certain Way Of Life Which Becomes Its Living Manifestation. To Acquire Mystical Knowledge Means To Undergo A Transformation; One Could Even Say That The Knowledge Is The Transformation. Scientific Knowledge, On The Other Hand, Can Often Stay Abstract And Theoretical. Thus Most Of Today’s Physicists Do Not Seem To Realize The Philosophical, Cultural And Spiritual Implications Of Their Theories.

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.

If You Make It Plain You Like People, It's Hard For Them To Resist Liking You Back.

[koudelka] Looked Back, "you?! I Know You! You Trust Beyond Reason!" [cordelia] Met His Eyes Steadily, "yes, It's How I Get Results Beyond Hope, As You May Recall.

When You Choose An Action, You Choose The Consequences Of That Action. When You Desire A Consequence You Had Damned Well Better Take The Action That Would Create It.

I Take It As A Man's Duty To Restrain Himself.

Have You Ever Heard The Phrase, Living Well Is The Best Revenge?" "where I Come From, Someone's Head In A Bag Is Generally Considered The Best Revenge

I've Described My Usual Writing Process As Scrambling From Peak To Peak On Inspiration Through Foggy Valleys Of Despised Logic. Inspiration Is Better When You Can Get It.

Power Is Better Than Revenge. Power Is A Live Thing, By Which You Reach Out To Grasp The Future. Revenge Is A Dead Thing, Reaching Out From The Past To Grasp You.

All Great Human Deeds Both Consume And Transform Their Doers. Consider An Athlete, A Scientist, An Artist, Or An Entrepreneur. In Service Of Their Goals, They Lay Down Time, Energy And Many Other Choices And Pleasures; In Return, They Become Most Truly Themselves. A False Destiny May Be Spotted By The Fact That It Consumes Without Transforming, Without Giving Back The Enlarged Self.

You Should Have Fallen In Love With A Happy Man, If You Wanted Happiness. But No, You Had To Fall For The Breathtaking Beauty Of Pain.

The Most Important Thing About Quests, He Decided, Was Not In Finding What You Went Looking For, But In Finding What You Never Could Have Imagined Before You Ventured Forth.

The Imperial Service Could Win A War Without Coffee, But Would Prefer Not To Have To.

I Am Not A Fate Worse Than Death, Dammit!

Well, What Is A Blessing But A Curse From Another Point Of View?

I Spent My 20s Working In Patient Care At A Large University Hospital, An Experience That Has Informed All My Work And Has Given Me A Lot Of Human Observation To Draw On.

A Hundred Objective Measurements Didn't Sum The Worth Of A Garden; Only The Delight Of Its Users Did That.

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.

You Can Say A Lot In A Little Time, If You Stick To Words Of One Syllable.

But Have You Ever Overheard Two Women Discussing Men? Men Are Crude Liars, Comparing Their Drabs, But Women - I'd Rather Have [an] Anatomist Dissect Me Alive Than To Listen To The Things The Ladies Say About Us When They Think They Are Alone.

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.

No Battle Plan Survives First Contact With The Enemy. Not When The Enemy Is Me.

Your Reverence, I Do Not Hate Any Man In This World Enough To Inflict The Results Of My Prayers Upon Him.

It's A Bizarre But Wonderful Feeling, To Arrive Dead Center Of A Target You Didn't Even Know You Were Aiming For.

Escapist Literature Gets A Bad Rap. But I Think Escape Is Important For A Lot Of People In A Lot Of Places.

I've Got Forward Momentum. There's No Virtue In It. It's Just A Balancing Act. I Don't Dare Stop.

I Don't Confuse Greatness With Perfection. To Be Great Anyhow Is The Higher Achievement.

If You Can't Do What You Want, Do What You Can.

Invisible Monsters

The Rule For Finding Plots For Character-centered Novels, Which Is To Ask: 'so What's The Worst Possible Thing I Can Do To *this* Guy?' And Then Do 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.

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