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.

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Taura nailed it. She'll do for m'lord, all right. And God help their enemies.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Winterfair Gifts (2008)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“It didn't work, so let's do it some more'? In my line of work, they call that military stupidity. I don't know what they call it in civilian life.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Brothers in Arms (1989)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“I have an aversion to closed doors anyway. You never know what's on the other side.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986), Chapter 5 (p. 78)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“It's an ancient and honorable term for the final step in any engineering project. Turn it on, see if it smokes.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Falling Free (1988)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“"Do you know what this is, Lord Vorkosigan?" Giaja asked.
Miles eyed the medallion of the Order of Merit on its colored ribbon, glittering on a bed of velvet. "Yes, sir. It is a lead weight, suitable for sinking small enemies. Are you going to sew me into a silk sack with it, before you throw me overboard?"”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Cetaganda (1996)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“How could I have died and gone to hell without noticing the transition?”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Borders of Infinity (1989)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Some fellows you have to hit with a brick to get their attention. Some you have to hit with a BIG brick.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Memory (1996)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Adversity does teach who your real friends are.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“The deadly weapon seemed unnaturally light and easy in his hand. Something that lethal should have more heft, like a broadsword. Wrong, for murder to be so potentially effortless — one ought to at least have to grunt for it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Mark's own taste in women, if ever he should live to exercise it, ran more to something like that little blonde clone…Somebody short, soft, pink, timid, somebody who wouldn't kill and eat him after they mated.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“There are always survivors at a massacre. Among the victors, if nowhere else.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Ethan of Athos (1986)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“The last thing a monster wanted was a fellow to follow him around all day long with a mirror.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Memory (1996)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Cynicism did not seem nearly so impressively daring to her now as it had when she was twenty.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Komarr (1998)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Hands are integral with brains, almost another lobe for intelligence. What one does not know through one's hands, one does not truly know.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Cetaganda (1996)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Vor Game (1990)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Live, and so confound our enemies.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Like integrity, love of life was not a subject to be studied, it was a contagion to be caught. And you had to catch it from someone who had it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Those who do not know their history are doomed to keep stepping in it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

This evokes the famous statement by George Santayana in The Life of Reason Vol. 1 (1905): "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Vorkosigan Saga, The Vor Game (1990)