Lois McMaster Bujold Quotes

How small those mountains looked from space!

I know you have courage, and I know you have will. The rest is just picking yourself up and ramming into the wall again and again until it falls down.

Ordinary people need extraordinary examples.

The old ones are fighting it. They call it off planet corruption, but it’s really the future they fear.

The fundamental principle was clear: the spirit was to be preferred over the letter, truth over technicalities. Precedent was held subordinate to the judgment of the man on the spot. Alas, the man on the spot was himself. There was no refuge for him in automated rules, no hiding behind the law says as if the law were some living overlord with a real Voice. The only voice here was his own.

Aren’t family squabbles jolly fun? Bleeding ulcers run in my family, we give them to each other.

Yeah, so I’m short. But wait’ll you see me dance.

The trick of handling horses isn’t to be faster than the horse, or stronger than the horse. That pits your weakness against his strengths. The trick is to be smarter than the horse. That pits your strength against his weakness, eh?

Hunting hawks do not belong in cages, no matter how much a man covets their grace, no matter how golden the bars. They are far more beautiful soaring free. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

You know, 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.

There was no way he could anticipate every contingency. When the time came to leap in faith, whether you had your eyes open or closed or screamed all the way down or not made no practical difference.

Not only was Ivan an idiot, but he generated a telepathic damping field that turned people nearby into idiots too.

That idea only makes sense if you don’t think too hard about it.

Acting or reacting, we carry him in us. You can’t walk away from him any more than I can. Whether you travel toward or away, he’ll be the compass. He’ll be the glass, full of subtle colors and astigmatisms, through which all new things will be viewed. I too have a father who haunts me, and I know.

How can I give you up? You’re the mountains and the lake, the memories—you have them all. When you’re with me, I’m at home, wherever I am.