“Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword.
Like punching underwater,
You never can hit who you're trying for.
Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried,
It's the chemical weapon for the war that's ragin' on inside.”

Source: Tower at the Edge of Time (1968), Chapter 9, “Slaves of Chan” (p. 86)

Source: City of Glass

Source: First Lord's Fury

Source: Steelheart

Source: Among the Missing

Vorkosigan Saga, Memory (1996)

I Ain't Got Time To Bleed (1999)
Context: I'd like to clarify my comments about religious people being weak-minded. I didn't mean all religious people. I don't have any problem with the vast majority of religious folks. I count myself among them, more or less. But I believe because it makes sense to me, not because I think it can be proven. There are lots of people out there who think they know the truth about God and religion, but does anybody really know for sure? That's why the founding fathers built freedom of religious belief into the structure of this nation, so that everybody could make up their minds for themselves.
But I do have a problem with the people who think they have some right to try to impose their beliefs on others. I hate what the fundamentalist fanatics are doing to our country. It seems as though, if everybody doesn't accept their version of reality, that somehow invalidates it for them. Everybody must believe the same things they do. That's what I find weak and destructive.

Real Real Gone
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)