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The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present—they are real.

— 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.