20 quotes
Sometimes, thinking just didn’t do any good, didn’t provide any answers. Because for some questions—such as the arbitrariness of life and death during wartime—there weren’t any answers.
Trial by Fire (2014)
Beings that can laugh at themselves, particularly their own foibles, stand the greatest chance of attaining wisdom.
Trial by Fire (2014)
If there are any competent journalists here, I’m ready for their inquiries.
Trial by Fire (2014)
“Damn,” muttered Opal, staring after him, “guess he flunked charm school.”
Trial by Fire (2014)
You are to be congratulated on your talent for deception.
Trial by Fire (2014)
“So nothing has really changed.”
“Sometimes, when your adversary is trying to precipitate dramatic change, stability is the best victory.”
Trial by Fire (2014)
The total lack of information is a kind of information in itself.
Trial by Fire (2014)
Besides being grossly unprofessional and misinformed, just why is that a relevant inquiry?
Trial by Fire (2014)
“Stosh, you are insane.”
“I am inspired. They are frequently confused.”
Trial by Fire (2014)
The only proper course of action regarding humanity was to leave it alone, and, if possible, isolate it. Just as one would handle any other sophont that was quite irremediably and dangerously insane.
Trial by Fire (2014)
Nice bluff—but I was born on the planet that invented poker.
Trial by Fire (2014)
And in the time it had taken to reflect upon the significance of the moment, the moment was past. That was, after all, the nature of moments.
Trial by Fire (2014)
It’s bad enough that you’re plying a trade for which you haven’t the aptitude or integrity, but you could at least check your conclusion against the facts.
Trial by Fire (2014)
I find it interesting how many of you, when watching a plan go awry, are so blinded by your frustration that you are unable to learn from what you have witnessed.
Trial by Fire (2014)
That means we have nothing to shoot at, no efficacious response. So we do something pointless. And we feel better.
Trial by Fire (2014)
You gotta remember that in war, you’re not deciding between the bad thing to and the good thing. You’re choosing between the bad and the worse. And you can’t control the shit that happens after you choose.
Trial by Fire (2014)
“Caine has a serious flaw when it comes to working for the government.”
“Which is?”
“Well, he has this real bad habit of telling the truth.”
Trial by Fire (2014)
Zkhee’ah Drur the Elder had once observed that while one is yet alive to complain of misfortune, the greatest of all misfortunes has not yet occurred. But this turn of affairs seemed very close to disproving that ancient axiom.
Trial by Fire (2014)
“You are a traitor to your own race, servitor.”
“No. I am its true servant, because the prerequisite of success is a ruthlessly clear understanding of reality, of the facts with which we must contend. Without that, all plans begin in error, and so, they must end in disaster.”
Trial by Fire (2014)
Richard, we have fallen into the common trap of seeing ourselves at the center of the universe: all that goes on around us somehow has us as its subject and raison d’etre. But in reality, all the events, all the plans, all the acts we interpret as intentionally malign—or benign—to us may, in fact, have almost nothing to do with our species.
Trial by Fire (2014)