“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.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“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, quote from Shards of Honour
“An honor is not diminished for being shared.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“The good face pain. But the great? They embrace it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“But when he’s cut, I bleed.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Yes," Vorkosigan agreed, "I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“It was hell to be so tired, and still care.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“He wanted to know what I saw in you. I told him..." he paused again, and then continued almost shyly, "that you poured out honor like a fountain, all around you."
"That's weird. I don't feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion."
"Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“And this was your friend?" Cordelia raised her eyebrows. "Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long the stand around chatting before they shoot you.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“They stared at her curiously, and she caught snatches of conversation in two or three languages. It wasn't hard to guess their content, and she smiled a bit primly. Youth, it appeared, was full of illusions as to how much sexual energy two people might have to spare while hiking forty or so kilometers a day, concussed, stunned, diseased, on poor food and little sleep, alternating caring for a wounded man with avoiding becoming dinner for every carnivore within range - and with a coup to plan for the end.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Women shouldn't be in combat," said Vorkosigan, grimly glum.
"Neither should men, in my opinion.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“No, amusing me only, I wonder if they realize how they are used?"
"Not a bit. They think they are the emperors of creation."
"Poor lambs."
"That's not how I'd describe them."
"I was thinking of animal sacrifice."
"Ah. That's closer.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“the unknown breeds dragons in map margins”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Leadership is mostly a power over imagination, and never more so than in combat.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“He said that permitting private judgments to turn my duty in the smallest matter would be just like getting a little bit pregnant -- that the consequences would very soon get beyond me.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Wait." He paused, and she held out a hand to him. His thick fingers engulfed her tapering ones; his skin was warm and dry, and scorched her. "Before we go pick up poor Lieutenant Illyan again..."
He took her in his arms, and they kissed, for the first time, for a long time.
"Oh," she muttered after. "Perhaps that was a mistake. It hurts so much when you stop."
"Well, let me..." his hand stroked her hair, gently, then desperately wrapped itself in a shimmering coil; they kissed again.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“I thought you saw meaning in that sort of thing," said Vorkosigan.
"In the abstract. Most days it's just stumbling around in the dark with the rest of creation, smashing into things and wondering why it hurts.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“It must be quite a shock to suddenly find out you're pregnant, seventeen times over—at your age, too.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Koudelka puzzled over this attempted readjustment of his point of view, then let it bounce harmlessly off his impermeable habits of thought.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“A Caligula, or a Yuri Vorbarra, can rule a long time, while the best men hesitate to do what is necessary to stop him, and the worst ones take advantage.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“I believe," she said slowly at last, "that the tormented are very close to God. I'm sorry, Sergeant." He”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“It was a curious insight into Vorkosigan that he should so automatically accept her bare word as binding; he evidently thought along the same lines himself. The”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Barrayar is bred in my bones. I cannot shake it, no matter how far I travel. This struggle, God knows, has no honor in it. But exile, for no other motive than ease—that would be to give up all hope of honor. The last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“Are you glad, or sorry?” “About children?” She glanced at his face. He seemed to have no awareness of having hit a sore point dead on. “They just haven’t come my way, I guess.” The”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“So in the physics of the heart, distance is relative; it's time that's absolute.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“I am surprised.” She scanned the script rapidly. “Th-this is a p-pack of lies!” He looked worried. “Have you always had that little speech impediment?” he asked cautiously. “N-no, it’s my souvenir from the Escobaran psych service, and the l-late war. Who came up with this g-garbage, anyway?” The line that particularly caught her eye referred to “the cowardly Admiral Vorkosigan and his pack of ruffians.” “Vorkosigan’s the bravest man I ever met.” Gould took her firmly by the upper arm, and guided her to the shuttle hatch. “We have to go, now, to make the holovid timing. Maybe you can just leave that line out, all right? Now, smile.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“If only the president hadn’t tried to dodge, he would have been all right. As it was, the toe of her jackboot caught him in the groin with perfect unplanned accuracy. His mouth made a soundless “O” and he went down behind the rostrum. Cordelia,”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“You will,” said Vorkosigan wearily, “sit in that fortified palace that half the engineers are going to be tied up constructing, and party in it, and let your men do your dying for you, until you’ve bought your ground by the sheer weight of the corpses piled on it, because that’s the kind of soldiering your mentor has taught you. And then send bulletins home about your great victory. Maybe you can have the casualty lists declared top secret.” “Aral, careful,” warned Vorhalas, shocked.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
Lois McMaster Bujold
Born place: in Columbus, Ohio, The United States
See more on GoodReads
“There is one Psyche for every Eros, an Elizabeth for every Darcy, and an Abby for every Travis.”
― Erin Noelle, quote from Metamorphosis
“Sometimes things don’t work out as they’re planned, and there have to be sacrifices in order to make things better again.”
― Gail Tsukiyama, quote from Women of the Silk
“For a moment, there was silnece, and then at Brooke's nod, the rest of the Squad, minus me, chimed in. "Yes, sir."
I said nothing. For one thing, I wasn't exactly keen on speaking in unison, and for another, I wasn't about to make any promises I couldn't keep.
"Toby."
I jumped in my seat. The Voice actually knew my name. And somehow, he had the freaky ability to ascertain that of all of us, I was the one who hadn't responded.
"Do you understand?"
I contemplated telling him what I didn't understand was his familial relationshiops, but stayed momentarily silent, causing everyone within a three-foot radius to kick me under the table at once.
"Ow!" I cleared my throat. "I mean, yes." I didn't throw the sir on the end, but apparently, that was good enough for the Voice.
"Excellent. Report in tonight, and we'll have more information for you all tomorrow. And girl?"
"Yes?"
"Congratulations on the homecoming nominations. We're all very proud.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, quote from Killer Spirit
“Cuando el cielo se une a una batalla en tu contra, ¿quién puede resistirlo?”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, quote from Hood
“He had the tool to break down the walls that imprisoned his people. He had the tool to rip away the veil to the Holy of Holies so that his flock could come before the Lord and be cleansed, made whole, transformed, and have a personal, loving relationship with their creator. That very tool san on Hannah's bookshelf right now, gathering dust until Sunday morning. Her Savior was there, waiting to speak to her and show her the way home again, the way back to love. YOUR WORD IS LIFE! Why didn't more people understand that?”
― Francine Rivers, quote from The Atonement Child
The Murder on the Li...
Speaking from Among...
The Royal We
The Bacchae
The 42nd Parallel
The Whole TruthBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
