WIST Quotations

Bujold, Lois McMaster -- A Civil Campaign (1999)

Dave — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:52:25 +0000

You don’t pay back your parents. You can’t. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It’s a sort of entailment. Or if you don’t have children of the body, it’s left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.

Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949) American author
A Civil Campaign (1999)

Bujold, Lois McMaster -- A Civil Campaign (1999)

Dave — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:22:37 +0000

Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards.

Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949) American author
A Civil Campaign (1999)

Bujold, Lois McMaster -- Barrayar (1991)

Dave — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:17:49 +0000

Suicidal glory is the luxury of the irresponsible. We’re not giving up. We’re waiting for a better opportunity to win.

Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949) American author
Barrayar (1991)

Bujold, Lois McMaster -- Cordelia’s Honor, “Afterword” (1996)

Dave — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:06:20 +0000

All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Become a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe — if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link.

Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949) American author
Cordelia’s Honor, “Afterword” (1996)

Bujold, Lois McMaster -- The Vor Game, ch. 5 (1990)

Dave — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 18:18:19 +0000

A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.

Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949) American author
The Vor Game, ch. 5 (1990)
(Source)

Protagonist Miles Vorkosigan recalling a saying of his father's.