Matthew Stover

Only human, after all.

"You're in the jungle, now. There are no rules." <br/k> "Of course there are. Don't be an idiot."

Mace stared at the man as though he'd never seen him before. And he hadn't: only now, finally, was he seeing him. An undistinguished little man: soft face and uncertain voice, shaky hands and allergies: an undistinguished little man who must have had resources of toughness that Mace could barely imagine.

"Depa is right: Jedi are insane." <br/k> "Ever since I came to this planet, people have been telling me how crazy I am. They've told me this so many times that I had started to wonder if it might be true. Now, though, I understand: you don't say this because it's true. Not even because you think it's true. You say it because you hope it's true. Because if I am insane, you aren't really the revolting slime-hearted vermin that, down deep, you know you are."

Anyone who is of a thoughtful, philisophical cast of mind will occasionaly be struck by the appearance of certain organizing principles of history. The forms these principles seem to take inevitably depends upon one's specific obsession. For a mornachist, history is a struggle of classes of economic civil war. An agriculturalist sees the dynamic of populations, land, and availability of food; a philosopher might speak of the will to power or the will to sythesis; a theologian of the will of God.

I don't have to be a hero, he thought in silent wonder. All I have to do is pretend.

The problem with happy endings is that nothing is ever truly over.

"I respect what is repectable," Tan'elkoth replied. "To ask for respect where none has been earned is childish maundering.And what is repectable, in the end, save service? Even your idol Jefferson is, in the end, measured by how well he served the species. The prize of individualism--its goal--is self-actualization, which is only another name for vanity. We do not admire men for achieving self-actualization; we admire self-actualization when its end result is a boon to humanity."

And in the name of this gospel of freedom, she had imprisoned herself; in the name of "living life honestly," she would go to her death. It was, he supposed, the only way she could make herself feel special.

Do you solemnly swear to serve the Republic in thought, in word, and in deed; to defend its citizens, resist its enemies, and champion its justice with the whole of your heart, your strength, and your mind; to foreswear all other allegiances; to obey all lawful orders of your superior officers; to uphold the highest ideals of the Republic, and at all times to conduct yourself to the credit of the Republic as its commissioned officer, by witness of, aid from, and faith in the force?

"But... but... you can't fight the way things are..." <br/k> "But we do. Every day. That's what Jedi are." <br/k> "You can never win-" <br/k> "We don't have to win. We only have to fight."

The first thing they did was pick up survivors. Because we are equipment, too. As long as the Republic takes care of us, we'll take care of it.

Don't care about gods. Gods are irrelevant. What counts is people. What counts is having respect for each other.

Life is mere chance only when one allows it to be.

I gave them the word of a Jedi Master that if they surrendered I would keep them from harm. I will not be made a liar.