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I’ve always thought—tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune. Do you understand what I’m saying?

— Lois McMaster Bujold Shards of Honor (1986)

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More quotes by Lois McMaster Bujold

One learns better than to hand one's choices to fear. With age, with every wound and scar, one learns.

Paladin of Souls (2003)

I for one find a casual destruction of a man's life even more repugnant than a determined one.

The Curse of Chalion (2000)

If it ever came down to exerting power by force, it would mean I’d already lost it.

Shards of Honor (1986)

If you make it plain you like people, it’s hard for them to resist liking you back.

Diplomatic Immunity (2002)

Women do desperately need models for power other than the maternal.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Lois McMaster Bujold (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.