Bleeding ulcers run in my family, we give them to each other.

You have to be careful who you let define your good.

Utterly bleak and black is not the sum of realism. All the other colors are real, too.

They stared at her curiously, and she caught snatches of conversation in two or three languages. It wasn't hard to guess their content, and she smiled a bit primly. Youth, it appeared, was full of illusions as to how much sexual energy two people might have to spare while hiking forty or so kilometers a day, concussed, stunned, diseased, on poor food and little sleep, alternating caring for a wounded man with avoiding becoming dinner for every carnivore within range - and with a coup to plan for the end.

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

Never do yourself, what you can con professionals into doing for you.

There is no more hollow feeling than to stand with your honor shattered at your feet while soaring public reputation wraps you in rewards. That's soul-destroying. The other way around is merely very, very irritating.