Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign
9 quotes
"[Koudelka] looked back, "You?! I know you! You trust beyond reason!"[Cordelia] met his eyes steadily, "Yes, it's how I get results beyond hope, as you may recall."
"You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.The family economy evades calculation in the gross planetary product. It's the only deal I know where, when you give more than you get, you aren't bankrupted - but rather, vastly enriched."
"You? I know you! You trust beyond reason."She met his eyes steadily. "Yes. It's how I get results beyond hope. As you may recall."
"You want to be good. All right, I can understand that. But you have to be careful who you let define your good."
"Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you’ll be so close as to be living inside each other’s skins."
"everyone has their folding-point, Miles. Their mortal vulnerability. Some just keep it in a nonstandard location."
"I miss it every minute, and I have no wish at all to go back."
"Not that I haven't leaped up into the blinding light of competence now and then. It's sustaining the altitude that defeats me."
"I wanted to give you a victory. But by their essential nature triumphs can’t be given."