“I liked this because of the elimination of the essential in the composition. I cut it down and down, and down. This squeezed up to make it vivid.”

“I just want to be able to stand up straight for a little while before I get cut down.”

“Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down and cuts it up into little pieces hoping to turn it into grains of truth. But the ultimate atom will always essentially be an error, a miscalculation.”

“So if you are the big tree, we are the small axe. Ready to cut you down, to cut you down.”

“Well I won't back down,
No I won't back down.
You could stand me up at the gates of hell,
But I won't back down.”

“This is my child . I planted it . I saw it grow . I loved it . Don't cut it down .”

“Deep down, Clark's essentially a good person… and deep down, I'm not”

“East is west, up is down, and being falsely arrested for getting your C. O.'s throat cut is a simplification. I must be on Barrayar.”

“You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted.”

“Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realize that reciting red Indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking Muppet.”