When the time comes to leap in faith whether you have your eyes open or closed or scream all the way down or not makes no practical difference.

He's not too short. He's just... concentrated.

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that.

"It was suicide, wasn't it?" "In an involuntary sort of way," said Vorob'yev. "These Cetagandan political suicides can get awfully messy, when the principal won't cooperate." "Thirty-two stab wounds in the back, worst case of suicide they ever saw?" murmured Ivan, clearly fascinated by the gossip. "Exactly, my lord."

The good face pain. But the great? They embrace it.

Escapist literature gets a bad rap. But I think escape is important for a lot of people in a lot of places.

I've always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.