What an obituary. 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 hi… - Lois McMaster Bujold

“Old age,” she said, “is slower than a grenade, but a lot more thorough.”

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.

“What are you doing?” the Countess asked.…
“Just…wrestling with temptation.”
Illyan’s voice came back, amused. “Who’s winning?”
Miles’s eye followed the cracks in the plaster, overhead. His voice came out high and light, on a sigh: “I think…I’m going for the best two falls out of three.”