Charles E. Gannon Quotes

The only proper course of action regarding humanity was to leave it alone, and, if possible, isolate it. Just as one would handle any other sophont that was quite irremediably and dangerously insane.

After all, an agent on the inside of a rival organization was always worth more, operationally speaking, than a loyal servitor in one’s own.

No: the answer you like the most is the one you should trust the least. Go over the evidence one more time: be sure you haven’t missed something.

Where greed is great, corruption is simple.

So what you are characterizing as conspiracy is merely an unfortunate coincidence.

It seems to me that you counted on the idiom of speech to mislead the Ambassador, to invite him to presume that they were not interested in hearing your discourse."
Riordan shrugged. "Guilty as charged. But there is a big difference between lying and using language that will trick the incautious. More importantly though, if the Ktor are going to wholly ignore the rules of fair and honest communication, then I'd say we're on pretty firm ethical ground if we simply decide to play by the letter, not the spirit, of those rules.

These matters should incite more urgent investigation than the technology you arrogated from your attackers. But like most primitive cultures, your reflex is one of stimulus and response: to focus entirely on the issues and actions of the moment.

Riordan surveyed the scene again. Knowing that it could not be other than perfect made it seem less remarkable, much in the way a constructed vista in a theme park could never quite compare with a less perfect one discovered in nature. This was merely a technological achievement, and the price of its perpetual perfection was its inability to inspire a sense of grandeur.

Caine, neither of us has a choice in this matter. The orders must be obeyed. The full truth of what you found, of what your troops know and can testify to, is too destabilizing. It's a delicate time, Caine. You, more than anyone else, should understand that."
"I do understand. I understand that the time has come to stop managing information and concealing the truth.

“You think she’ll make it?”
“She should. Unless something else goes wrong.”
Tsaami’s tone was sour. “Caine: this is a battlefield. Something else always goes wrong.”
To which Riordan had no ready response. After all, Karam was right.

Damn, muttered Opal, staring after him, guess he flunked charm school.

So, sighed Rulaine, we're pretty much screwed.
Yaargraukh's black eyes stared. "I do not understand your expression—'screwed?' This is a carpentry metaphor?"
Bannor almost smiled. "Not exactly.

If there's a chance to talk our way out of a fight, this is the moment. Once blood is spilled, it becomes an Honor issue. Finding a way back to a parley would be difficult and highly unlikely.
"Yeah, I heard about that crap," Karam muttered. "Scuttlebutt is that once Honor is involved, they become bushido bear-aardvarks beating their horse chests and making much ado about nothing.

When such leaders act in opposition to their sworn duties, they compound injustice with disgrace.

No matter which images of battle and carnage came to haunt him, no matter which specific terror rose up through them, the lessons they rehearsed were always the same:
There’s no such thing as certainty.
Control is an illusion.
Death and destruction descend the moment you forget to watch for them.
That was what two years of intermittent war had taught him. And once you learned those lessons, you didn’t just remember them: you lived them, moment to moment.