I have had another thought on such fates that denies neither gods nor man. Perhaps, instead of controlling every step, the gods have started a hundre… - Lois McMaster Bujold

Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I'd always thought kindness a trivial virtue therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at his ease before his own hearth.'

'Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how they may endure.'

-Bergon and Cazaril talking over the past

“So this word of honor business—you believe he never breaks it?”
“Well…”
“He does, then.”
“I have seen him do so. But the cost was huge.”
“He breaks it for a price, then.”
“Not for a price. At a cost.”
“I fail to see the distinction.”
“A price is something you get. A cost is something you lose.”

On the sixth day God saw He couldn't do it all, so He created ENGINEERS