19 quotes
Assassination is just diplomacy by other means.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
Management’s never been interested in really doing the job, not at any point in human history. Management’s true agenda has always been making things more pleasant for Management.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
It occurred to me a long time ago, Mr. Lastogne, that diplomacy has very little to do with making friends.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
Middle management has always favored underlings friendly to middle management. It’s corruption, all right, but of a minor and probably unavoidable sort.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
“Any messages?”
Oscin said, “Just a lot of people dreading whatever you plan to do next.”
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
She’s a little bit below mediocre, isn’t she? And the worst kind of below-par personality at that: the kind who believes herself destined for great things.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
It’s almost comical. Nobody knew anything, but everybody took that as proof of the hypothesis.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
I could only read the delay as a dramatic pause. Theatrics. Or diplomacy; wise men throughout history had already noticed that sometimes there wasn’t much of a difference between the two.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
“Are you refusing a direct order?”
“Tell me to die for no good reason and I’ll do more than refuse, I’ll shove the order up your ass.”
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
“In my experience, mediocrity in life-or-death situations gets people killed.”
He looked knowing. “Read your history. Greatness kills more.”
There was nothing I could say to that.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
“You know what murder investigators call the ex-lover who says the dead woman slept around?”
“I think I can guess.”
“The most likely suspect.”
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
His smile was the wholly unpersuasive kind that only a professional diplomat could carve. Damned if there wasn’t some pretense of compassion in his voice, some veneer of fatherly understanding that gave every word out of his mouth an extra, oily sheen.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
You want to know why humanity’s never been involved in a serious interspecies conflict? Because it’s like going out to eat when you have a pantry full of food at home. Why bother sampling the buffets elsewhere when we haven’t worked out all the great ways to kill each other yet?
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
What followed was the well-known phenomenon of a group, asked a simple question with an obvious answer, that nevertheless remains silent as everybody waits for somebody else to trigger a suspected rhetorical trap.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
“What do you think about their position? Do you think it’s right for sentient creatures to be owned?”
He emitted a short, cynical laugh, driven by the kind of anger that drives entire lives. “We’re all owned, Counselor. It’s just a matter of choosing who holds the deed.”
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
It was stupid to feel fear. Fear was nothing but the body’s involuntary response to perceived threats. Fear increased heartbeat, respiration, and perspiration; fear clouded the mind and paralyzed the limbs, and I’m going to die wasn’t subject to logical arguments about its counterproductivity.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
It was nobody’s idea of luxurious travel, but then I’d known luxurious travel once or twice in my life and found that it just got me to places at the same speed while forcing me to interact with the kind of people who could afford such passage.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
When you get to the core of it, we’re all aliens to one another, raised according to some common precepts but otherwise ruled by paradigms far removed from those of the people around us. The tragedy is that we tend to judge others by standards that may make perfect sense to us but which are most likely totally irrelevant to them.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)
Human bureaucracies, and most alien ones, are slow by design, their response times slowed to a crawl despite all the technologies we employ to make their progress visible to the naked eye. That’s because they’re still subject to all the delays native to organic life: the mistakes, indecision, the malice, the covering of asses, and the reluctance to transmit even the most urgent message until after a leisurely break for lunch.
Emissaries From the Dead (2008)