543 quotes
If we get straight truth in, maybe we’ve got half a chance of getting good judgment out. No damn chance otherwise, that’s for sure.
Memory (1996)
Those who do not know their history, his thought careened, are doomed to keep stepping in it. Alas, so were those who did, it seemed.
The Vor Game (1990)
No fear trembled his voice. Well, she reflected, perhaps he was not old enough yet to have really come to believe in death after life.
Shards of Honor (1986)
Still, what d’you expect of the descendants of a colony that started as a hijacker base? Naturally they developed into an aristocracy.
Brothers in Arms (1989)
He's not even a mad scientist. He's merely a very upset engineer.
Komarr (1998)
I despise internal investigations. Even if you win, you lose.
Memory (1996)
I think it (i. e., sainthood) is not so much the growth of virtue, as simply the replacement of prior vices with an addiction to one's god.
The Curse of Chalion (2000)
How many details had to point in the same direction before one decided they pointed true? Depends on how costly it is to be mistaken, maybe?
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012)
One gives you the shirt off his back, mused Des, and the other offers to help you bury bodies. I do believe you have made some new friends, Pen!
The Prisoner of Limnos (2017)
Babies are just a challenge. Teenagers are a nightmare.
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (2016)
Some places have religion. Here we have safety drills.
Ethan of Athos (1986)
Be careful who you pretend to be. You might become it.
Mirror Dance (1994)
I could be a virgin again. What a dreadful thought.
A Civil Campaign (1999)
He’s not like anything, Ahn. He’s the original.
The Vor Game (1990)
You are what you do. Choose again, and change.
Brothers in Arms (1989)
I've described my usual writing process as scrambling from peak to peak on inspiration through foggy valleys of despised logic. Inspiration is better — when you can get it.
Young Miles (1997)
I won’t dismiss it from the list just yet. But it needs verification. Everything needs verification.
Penric's Fox (2017)
To kill a man, it helps if you can first take away his face. A neat mental trick. Handy for a soldier.
The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
Forward momentum only worked as a strategy if one had correctly identified which was was forward.
Komarr (1998)
Just once, Pen thought glumly, he’d like to get an answer to prayers, instead of being delivered as one.
The Orphans of Raspay (2019)