The Curse of Chalion Quotes

“Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how, they may endure.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be. And I do not like feeling stupid.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I'd always thought kindness a trivial virtue, therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at ease before his own hearth.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“I need words that mean more than they mean, words not just with height and width, but depth and weight and, and other dimensions that I cannot even name.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“This wasn't prayer anyway, it was just argument with the gods.
Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“The world demands I make good choices on no information, and then blames my maidenhood for my mistakes, as if my maidenhood were responsible for my ignorance. Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be. And I do not like feeling stupid.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Well, what is a blessing but a curse from another point of view?”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“I'd storm heaven for you, if I knew where it was.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“When the souls rise up in glory, yours shall not be shunned nor sunderered, but shall be the prize of the gods' gardens. Even your darkness shall be treasured then, and all your pain made holy.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“So you’re saying that I could die at any moment!” “Yes. And this is different from your life yesterday in what way?”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“I don’t duel, boy. I kill as a soldier kills, which is as a butcher kills, as quickly, efficiently, and with as least risk to myself as I can arrange.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I'd always thought kindness a trivial virtue therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at his ease before his own hearth.'

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

-Bergon and Cazaril talking over the past”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Well, it is a particular sin to permit grief for what is gone to poison the praise for what blessings remain to us.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“His outflung hands traced over the threads of his rug, passed loop by loop through some patient woman's hands. Or maybe she hadn't been patient. Maybe she'd been tired, or irritated, or distracted, or hungry, or angry. Maybe she had been dying. But her hands had kept moving, all the same.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Not all prisons are made of iron bars, some are made of feather beds.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“In mysticism, knowledge cannot be separated from a certain way of life which becomes its living manifestation. To acquire mystical knowledge means to undergo a transformation; one could even say that the knowledge is the transformation. Scientific knowledge, on the other hand, can often stay abstract and theoretical. Thus most of today’s physicists do not seem to realize the philosophical, cultural and spiritual implications of their theories.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how, they may endure.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“It wasn't a case of storming heaven. It was a case of letting heaven storm you.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“A saint is not a virtuous soul, but an empty one. He—or she—freely gives the gift of their will to their god. And in renouncing action, makes action possible.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“You were kind.”

Cazaril shrugged. “Why not? What could it cost me, after all?”

Bergon shook his head. “Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I’d always thought kindness a trivial virtue, therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at his ease before his own hearth.”

“Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice—if not whether, then how, they may endure.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“But personally, I think [sainthood] is not so much the growth of virtue, as simply the replacement of prior vices with an addiction to one's god.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“To a man of certain age... all young ladies start to look delightful. It's the first symptom of senility.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“The gods do not grant miracles for our purposes, but for theirs. If you are become their tool, it is for a greater reason, an urgent reason. But you are the tool. You are not the work.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“You cannot outguess the gods. Hold to virtue—if you can identify it—and trust that the duty set before you is the duty desired of you. And that the talents given to you are the talents you should place in the gods’ service. Believe that the gods ask for nothing back that they have not first lent to you. Not even your life.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Your Reverence, I do not hate any man in this world enough to inflict the results of my prayers upon him.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“We lords, at our oars, then? We sweating, pissing, swearing, grunting gentlemen? I think not, Palli. On the galleys we were not lords or men. We were men or animals, and which proved which had no relation I ever saw to birth or blood. The greatest soul I ever met there had been a tanner, and I would kiss his feet right now with joy to learn he yet lived. We slaves, we lords, we fools, we men and women, we mortals, we toys of the gods—all the same thing, Palli. They are all the same to me now.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“You may have slandered an honest man. Or you may have struck a blow for justice. I don't know. The point is... neither do you.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Your divine should not have used water. It just doesn't hold the attention properly. Wine. Or blood, in a pinch. Some liquid that matters.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion

“Take heart, sir," Cazaril consoled him. "It is not your destiny today to win a royacy for your son. It is to win an empire for your grandson.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion