The Honor of the Queen

There are two sides to every dialogue, but if you accept the other side's terms without demanding equal time for your own, then they control the debate and its outcome.

The world’s best swordsman doesn’t fear the second best; he fears the worst swordsman, because he can’t predict what the idiot will do.

And if I’ve learned one thing over the years, it’s that when it comes down to raw emotion against reason, emotion wins.

sweeping, simplistic solutions to complicated problems are much more appealing than tackling the real thought that might actually solve them.

overtures from a cold-blooded consideration of advantages to an emotional rejection based on their own bigotry. And if I've learned one thing over the years, it's that when it comes down to raw emotion against reason, emotion wins." *

sweeping, simplistic solutions to complicated problems are much more appealing than tackling the real thought that might actually solve them. "At

War may represent the failure of diplomacy, but even the best diplomats operate on credit. Sooner or later someone who’s less reasonable than you are is going to call you, and if your military can’t cover your I.O.U.s, you lose.

It wasn’t his fault he’d been reared in a nice, safe, civilized society that protected him from the harsh reality of an older and grimmer set of imperatives.

A people or a faith divided against itself became the sum of its weaknesses, not its strengths, and anyone who didn't know that was doomed.

There could be no compromise with those who rejected one’s own beliefs, for compromise and coexistence only opened the door to schism. A people or a faith divided against itself became the sum of its weaknesses, not its strengths, and anyone who didn’t know that was doomed.

if I've learned one thing over the years, it's that when it comes down to raw emotion against reason, emotion wins.

one certain thing in life is that no one can make the truth untrue simply because it hurts.

Extremists tend to grow more extreme, not less, as problems get closer to solutions,

How do I know where my doubts over their capability stop being genuine love and concern? When my belief that they must be reeducated before they can become my equal stops being a realistic appreciation of the limitations they've been taught and becomes sophistry to bolster the status quo and protect my own rights and privileges?

They never saw the other side of the coin, the responsibility to keep going because your people needed you to and the agony of knowing misjudgment or carelessness could kill far more than just yourself. Or the infinitely worse agony of sentencing your own people to die because you had no choice. Because it was their duty to risk their lives, and it was yours to take them into death’s teeth with you . . . or send them on ahead.

People who made the Kingdom better than it dreamed it could be, made it live up to its ideals whether it wanted to or not, because they believed in those ideals and made others believe with them.

Mother’s casting hungry looks at my exec again,” she complained. “Not to worry,” her father replied. “She looks a lot, but she’s never had any reason to roam.” “You’re as bad as she is!

...the one certain thing in life is that no one can make the truth untrue simply because it hurts.