335 quotes
You resent death. You regret death. But as for your own life, you know perfectly well that no one can threaten it at all. Death is something that happens to someone else.
Treason (1988)
The great forces of history were real, after a fashion. But when you examined them closely, those great forces always came down to the dreams and hungers and judgments of individuals. The choices they made were real. They mattered.
He hated the way they thought. He hated the way they didn't think. It was hard to imagine which of them he hated more.
Earthfall (1995)
I'm nobody's child.
You're mine now. Not my child, but mine, to miss you when you go, to look out for you, to hope you'll be careful.
Homebody (1998)
You take responsibility for us all. Without ever waiting to be told.
So do all good people. That's what it means to be a good person.
The Ships Of Earth (1994)
Wasting our time? This is a waste of time, to live in peace and plenty with my wife and children? May I waste the rest of my life, then.
The Ships Of Earth (1994)
You as stupid as they come. Of course, I say this with your best interests at heart. Most people are stupid. I don't hold it against them.
Homebody (1998)
He could afford to be generous, since he didn't have to pay for it himself. Most virtues were like that. People could take pride in how virtuous they were, but the fact was that as soon as virtue got expensive or inconvenient, it was amazing how fast it gave way to practical concerns.
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
I was the last to know what was happening to me. Or at least I was the last to know that I knew.
Treason (1988)
Out of respect for custom he treats me as if all women were equally worthless. He gives custom more respect than he gives me.
Earthborn (1995)
I have no secret thoughts... Or rather, they're not secret because I've withheld them — if they're unknown, it's because no one asked.
Earthborn (1995)
"And you actually were cuddly," said Carn. "No offense, but you were spunky."
"If that's your word for 'bratty little asshole,' said Dink mildly.
Shadow of the Giant (2005)
“I see Alvin with a son. That what he want most.”
“I see him with a woman,” said Rien. “That is what he miss the most.”
“I see him kneeling by a child’s grave,” said Dead Mary. “That is what he fears the most.”
The Crystal City (2003)
Keep your freedom, keep your immortality, but somewhere along the line I hope you figure out what you're living forever for. What noble purpose you mean to achieve. Because you're no good to anyone here, not even yourselves.
Treason (1988)
She going to be free now. She can go home to Jesus.
Call me selfish, but I wanted her to go home with me.
Homebody (1998)
She had that irony in her eyes. Knowledge without wisdom. Power without purpose. Like me.
Treasure Box (1996)
She did not send for him until she was afraid; she was not afraid until he undid her work; he did not undo her work until he was past loving her.
Hart's Hope (1983)
Something had been given back to him. And because [she] had been a part of it, there was something between them now. A bond of loss, if loss could bind.
Homebody (1998)
And then he realized that he could never make anything out of the Unmaker, could never make the Unmaker do or be anything because it was only Undoing and Unbeing. It wasn't the Unmaker he needed to call to, it was all the living things around him, the trees, the grass, the earth, the air itself. It was the greensong that he needed to restore.
Prentice Alvin (1989)
And I says back to him, “Calvin, sounding like an educated man don’t make you educated,” and he says back to me, “I'd rather be ignorant and sound educated than be educated and sound ignorant,” and I said, “Why?” and he says to me, “Because if you sound educated then nobody ever tests you to find out, but if you sound ignorant they never stop.”
Alvin Journeyman (1995)