Charles E. Gannon Quotes

You are impetuous. But then again, you are human.

That means we have nothing to shoot at, no efficacious response. So we do something pointless. And we feel better.

I do not disagree with you, Bannor Rulaine. But in my culture, when tradition is challenged by law, the law is often twisted, construed, and reconstrued until it can be made to conform with tradition. I believe your word for this is teleology: where a result is decided before the process debate or discovery is initiated.
O'Garran snorted. "Fancy word for saying, 'they're going to have it their way, no matter what.'

The total lack of information is a kind of information in itself.

Besides being grossly unprofessional and misinformed, just why is that a relevant inquiry?

There are only three variables governing the outcome of any given situation. Power—political, economic, military, whatever. Intelligence—the information you have and how cleverly you use it. And chance.
"And that's it?"
"That's it. Leaders get themselves too tangled up when they fail to break a situation—any situation—back down to those basics. Or when they forget the fundamental differences between the three variables.

If the motivation was simple greed, then that was a promising target for development as an agent inside the enemy’s camp. Greed was not only a predictable impulse, but was an indicator of the dependability of the individual being suborned. It was overwhelmingly associated with profoundly self-centered egos and values.

You would have been quite pleased if Hitler had won World War II. That would have made your job easier for you." Sukhinin, whose family was said to have suffered horribly in his nations Great Patriotic War against the Nazis, wore a smile that was more reminiscent of bared teeth.
Shethkador's reply was almost casual. "Of course we would have preferred that outcome. You would have been preacculturated to our ways."
Downing raised an eyebrow. "So Adolf Hitler is your idea of an ubermensch?"
"Hitler? A superior being? Fate, no. Do not mistake our approval of the ethos of a regime for admiration of its leader. Hitler was a weak, superstitious amateur whose profound insecurities and absolute in ability to perceive himself accurately ultimately caused the downfall of his project."
"How so?"
"Is it not obvious? Firstly, he surrounded himself with those like himself; fanatics who were also cranks, individuals whose personal derangements or need for rationalizing their own inferiority led them to a psychopathic projection of their own feelings onto others. The true object of their exterminations was what they most feared and loathed in themselves; weakness, insufficiency, flaccidity, cowardice. They could not admit this, of course, so they protected the roots of their self-hatred by ensuring that these traits were not the overt criteria upon which their social extirpations were based. Rather, they demonized specific groups and then attributed these treats to them, thereby amplifying the political appeal of their movement by invoking traditional prejudices and stereotypes through suitably crafted propaganda.

He is young—well, younger—and idealistic. Which is to say, foolish.

If, fourteen years ago, he had entertained secret hopes of leaving a discernible, enduring mark on the legacy of humankind, he was now fully disabused of them.

Would anyone, even low-breeds, be so ingenuous to believe such a tale?
"Remarkably, yes. Their power to believe what they wish, if not given incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, is rather astonishing.

Weiner-Kutkh waved airily. “I seem to have been born lucky.”
“Said every cheater who’s ever lived,” Caine retorted.

“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.

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.

Battles are lost because a combatant stops fighting too soon; wars are lost because a combatant does not stop fighting soon enough.