H. R. McMaster Quotes

Women shouldn't be in combat, " said Vorkosigan, grimly glum. "Neither should men, in my opinion.

I'm afraid even ImpSec has no explanation for women's tastes in men.

At some stage of development an officer had to stop following orders and start generating them.

Everybody has it wrong way round. Parents don't make children--children make parents. They shape our behavior from the first wail. Mold us into what they need. It can be a pretty rough process, too

And whose fault was it that the boy swallowed down lies, when no one would feed him the truth?

This wasn't prayer anyway, it was just argument with the gods.Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same.

You? I know you! You trust beyond reason."She met his eyes steadily. "Yes. It's how I get results beyond hope. As you may recall.

There will be grace and forgiveness enough, old dog, even for you. I pray you will spare me a drink from that cup, when it overflows for you.- Miles Vorkosigan

Well, it is a particular sin to permit grief for what is gone to poison the praise for what blessings remain to us.

I will give you my days... but, my dear sorceress, your nights are mine.

You must learn to give, from sufficiency, not only take, from neediness.

Lately I have come to believe that the principle difference between Heaven and Hell is the company you keep there....

You want to be good. All right, I can understand that. But you have to be careful who you let define your good.

Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you’ll be so close as to be living inside each other’s skins.

People do get hypnotized by the hard choices and stop looking at the alternatives. The will to be stupid is a powerful force

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.~Dag Redwing Hickory Bluefield

It’s just a thing. You deal with it." "As in, one damn thing after another?""Yes, very like.

Riley, you're the Devil, and I'd gladly sell you my soul, if you didn't already own it..." - Luc Wade

Kidnapping you was the worst idea I ever had." - Luc Wade

It was hell to be so tired, and still care.

He who plots revenge must dig two graves.

But when he’s cut, I bleed.

everyone has their folding-point, Miles. Their mortal vulnerability. Some just keep it in a nonstandard location.

I am not schizoid. A little manic-depressive, maybe.""'Know thyself.'" "We try, sir.

The fourth approved approach for the problem of frontally attacking a guarded wormhole was to shoot the officer who suggested it.

That civet-jasmine blend you're wearing tonight absolutely clashes with the third-level formal style of your dress, you know.

Her smile grew bitter as desert brine. "The gods may forgive Ista all day long. But if Ista does not forgive Ista, the gods may go hang themselves.

Change is possible.''Change is inevitable.

God save me from another such victory.

Lord X was a tyrant, not a revolutionary. He wanted to take over the system, not change it.

When I was a wee little kid, " remarked Roic, watching over their shoulders, "there was a time I thought that any skinny old man I saw was my grandfather. It was pretty confusing.

It wasn't a case of storming heaven. It was a case of letting heaven storm you.

But personally, I think [sainthood] is not so much the growth of virtue, as simply the replacement of prior vices with an addiction to one's god.

If there’s no game, isn't winning a pretty meaningless concept?

He was shaken by an unwelcome insight. Lives did not add as integers. They added as infinities.

Hunting hawks did not belong in cages, no matter how much a man coveted their grace, no matter how golden the bars. They were far more beautiful soaring free. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Bombing, particularly from the perspective of the receiving end, is not 'communication.' Bombs result in death and destruction.

Be skeptical of concepts that divorce war from its political nature, particularly those that promise fast, cheap victory through technology.