[Koudelka] looked back, "You?! I know you! You trust beyond reason!" [Cordelia] met his eyes steadily, "Yes, it's how I get results beyond hope, as you may recall.

Miles exhaled carefully, faint with rage and reminded grief. He does not know, he told himself. He cannot know... "Ivan, one of these days somebody is going to pull out a weapon and plug you, and you're going to die in bewilderment, crying, "What did I say? What did I say?" "What did I say?" asked Ivan indignantly.

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.

Never argue with a pedant over nomenclature. It wastes your time and annoys the pedant.

If you want to catch something, running after it isn't always the best way.

Not that I haven't leaped up into the blinding light of competence now and then. It's sustaining the altitude that defeats me.

When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.