Shards of Honour (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

So the unknown breeds dragons in map margins, she reflected, and suppressed her panic.

If your ranks denote anything but pay scale, it’s not apparent to me.”

“I had a teacher who used to reflect back my questions that way. I thought it was the Socratic method, and it impressed me immensely, until I found out he used it whenever he didn’t know the answer.”

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

“No, you don’t. You prefer to keep things looking like they’re on a casual basis. I appreciate the difference.”

“A price is something you get. A cost is something you lose.

So True...

“Think of all the work he represents on somebody’s part. Nine months of pregnancy, childbirth, two years of diapering, and that’s just the beginning. Tens of thousands of meals, thousands of bedtime stories, years of school. Dozens of teachers. And all that military training, too. A lot of people went into making him.”

“The dead cannot hurt you. They give you no pain, except that of seeing your own death in their faces. And one can face that, I find.”