Quotes from work
Vorkosigan Saga

Lois McMaster Bujold

The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories set in a common fictional universe by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. The first of these was published in 1986 and the most recent in May 2018. Works in the series have received numerous awards and nominations, including five Hugo award wins including one for Best Series.

“There are weapons all around us here, we just don’t recognize them because we call them “tools.””

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Falling Free (1988), Chapter 8 (p. 142)

“I don’t know whose judgement is worse, yours or the jerk’s who hired you—”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Falling Free (1988), Chapter 5 (p. 101)

“Of all the times to pick for this outbreak of idiocy, this has gotta be the worst possible. It’s got to be deliberate. Nothing this fouled up could be by chance.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Falling Free (1988), Chapter 4 (p. 78)

“Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie-detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool the metal. That’s all.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Falling Free (1988), Chapter 2 (p. 36)

“Stupidity, yes, but not unilateral stupidity. Something this screwed up had to have taken a committee.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991), Chapter 10 (p. 411)

“You think like a soldier, m’lady.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Kly sounded approving.
Cordelia wrinkled her brow in dismay. What an appalling compliment. The last thing she wanted was to start thinking like a soldier, playing their game by their rules. The hallucinatory military worldview was horribly infectious, though, immersed in it as she was now.

Chapter 13 (p. 458)
Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

“For all you Betans seem soft, you have an appalling cold-blooded streak in you.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

“Rational streak, sir. Rationality has its merits. You Barrayarans ought to try it sometime.”

Chapter 9 (p. 393)
Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

“There was no way he could anticipate every contingency. When the time came to leap in faith, whether you had your eyes open or closed or screamed all the way down or not made no practical difference.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986), Chapter 19 (p. 320)

“That idea only makes sense if you don’t think too hard about it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Chapter 18 (p. 308) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“In the long run more mercenaries have had their asses shot off by their contractors than by their enemies.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Chapter 13 (p. 223) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“A mercenary who can’t honor his contract when it’s rough as well as smooth is a thug, not a soldier.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Chapter 13 (pp. 221-222) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“Some saw stars, it seemed, and some saw the spaces between them.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Chapter 13 (p. 215) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“Ask a simple question, get a simple brick wall.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Chapter 3 (p. 44) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“To kill a man, it helps if you can first take away his face. A neat mental trick. Handy for a soldier.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Chapter 2 (pp. 29-30) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“No amount of money can make one stay bought. Who does not freely choose to.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 24 (p. 540)

“There are two possible ways to solving a dilemma, in justice or elsewhere; begin with the facts, and follow out their logic where it leads one, or begin with the desired outcome, and reason backward to the necessary steps to achieve it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 24 (p. 527)

“Maybe only love gave you more than what you’d dealt for.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 22 (p. 492)

“Let’s be sensible and wish for both of us there, while we’re wishing. I mean, it’s not like wishes are rationed.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 22 (p. 490)

“The limits of trust depend much on whether you mean to do business more than once.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 20 (p. 442)

“It’s been a long time since I wagered so much on a single throw. Though if I’m to revisit the desperation of my youth, I want the body back, too.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 15 (p. 337)

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