It still felt like hauling buckets from a well of memory with a rope that burned his hands. - Lois McMaster Bujold

A skilled soldier kills your enemies, but a skilled duelist kills your allies.

Mira does not gossip about her clients. Very rigid rule, I gather. The highest rank of Lodi courtesans don’t; that’s part of how they became the highest rank.

“You think he’s a genius?” she said, raising her eyebrows. The high Vor twit?”
“I don’t know him quite well enough, yet. But I suspect so, a part of the time.”
“Can you be a genius part of the time?”
“All the geniuses I ever met were so just part of the time. To qualify, you only have to be great once, you know. Once when it matters.”