A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.

The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business.

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.

All the geniuses I ever met were so just part of the time. To qualify, you only have to be great once, you know. Once when it matters.

Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how, they may endure.

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

Our children change us... whether they live or not.