Mirror Dance Quotes

“Since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“I do think, half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“It’s important that someone celebrate our existence," she objected amiably. "People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is…the higher achievement.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“All true wealth is biological (Aral Vorkosigan)”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Realize this, though. Half my genes run through your body, and my selfish genome is heavily evolutionarily pre-programmed to look out for its copies. The other half is copied from the man I admire most in all the worlds and time, so my interest is doubly riveted. The artistic combination of the two, shall we say, arrests my attention.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“He didn't think he was edging into dementia. He suspected he was edging into sanity, the long way around. The hard way.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“If anyone was sane here, he swore it was by accident.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“He was shaken by an unwelcome insight. Lives did not add as integers. They added as infinities. I”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“There are, as you have just seen, two agendas being pursued here tonight," the Countess lectured amiably. "The political one of the old men—an annual renewal of the forms of the Vor—and the genetic agenda of the old women. The men imagine theirs is the only one, but that's just an ego-serving self-delusion. The whole Vor system is founded on the women's game, underneath. The old men in government councils spend their lives arguing against or scheming to fund this or that bit of off-planet military hardware. Meanwhile, the uterine replicator is creeping in past their guard, and they aren't even conscious that the debate that will fundamentally alter Barrayar's future is being carried on right now among their wives and daughters. To use it, or not to use it? Too late to keep it out, it's already here. The middle classes are picking it up in droves. Every mother who loves her daughter is pressing for it, to spare her the physical dangers of biological childbearing. They're fighting not the old men, who haven't got a clue, but an old guard of their sisters who say to their daughters, in effect, We had to suffer, so must you! Look around tonight, Mark. You're witnessing the last generation of men and women on Barrayar who will dance this dance in the old way. The Vor system is about to change on its blindest side, the side that looks to—or fails to look to—its foundation. Another half generation from now, it's not going to know what hit it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Lady Peace is the first hostage taken when economic discomfort rises.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Modern warfare wasn't supposed to have this much blood in it. The weapons were supposed to cook everyone neatly, like eggs in their shells. (Mark Vorkosigan's first experience with warfare, on seeing Miles Vorkosigan splattered before him)”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Learn everything that existed in the universe, and whatever was left, that
dwarfish-man-shaped hole in the center, would be him by process of elimination.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Everybody makes that same damned argument. 'I can't do it all, so I'm not going to do any.' And they don't. And it goes on, and on.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“So what's the test?"
"Ah, that's the trick of it. It's not a test. It's real life.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“In fact, since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“You will never regret having done so. But you may deeply regret not having done so.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“I admit, he has far too much on his mind at the moment. Suppressed panic turns him into a prick every time; it's what he does instead of running in circles screaming. A way of coping, I suppose.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“What is this?” demanded Sergeant Framingham. Quinn took a deep, slow breath. “Framingham, we left the Admiral downside.” “Have you lost your mind, he’s right there—” Framingham’s finger sagged in mid-point at Mark. His hand closed into a fist. “Oh.” He paused. “That’s the clone.” Quinn’s eyes burned; Mark could feel them boring through to the back of his skull like laser-drills. “Maybe not,” Quinn said heavily. “Not as far as House Bharaputra has to know.” “Ah?” Framingham’s eyes narrowed in speculation. No! Mark screamed inside. Silently. Very silently.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Well, you go straight back to bed, then!” “Yes.” He wheeled. She swatted him on the butt. He bit his tongue. She said, “At least you’ve been eating better. Take care of yourself, huh?” He”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Captain Quinn have the details, as usual?” She cocked a furry eyebrow at him. “Captain Quinn . . . will not be coming on this mission.” He swore her gold eyes widened, the pupils dilating. Her lips drew back baring her fangs further in what took him a terrifying moment to realize was a smile. In a weird way, it reminded him of the grin with which Thorne had greeted that same news. She glanced up; the bay had emptied of other personnel. “Aah?” Her voice rumbled, like a purr. “Well, I’ll be your bodyguard any time, lover. Just give me the sign.” What sign, what the hell— She”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Those five days we were locked up together at Vasa Luigi's, that wasn't an effect of the imprisonment, was it? That's the way you really are, when you're well?"
"Pretty much," he admitted.
"I've always wondered what adult hyperactives did for a living.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Lives did not add as integers, they added as infinites.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Like integrity, love of life was not a subject to be studied, it was a contagion to be caught. And you had to catch it from someone who had it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Go dance with the girl, Mark. She thinks you’re interesting. Mother Nature gives a sense of romance to young people, in place of prudence, to advance the species. It’s a trick—that makes us grow.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Every day was a gift, each year a miracle. She was living her whole life as a smash-and-grab, and he heartily approved.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Funny mutie,” said one of the older ones. He wasn’t laughing. The attack was sudden, and almost took Mark by surprise; he thought etiquette demanded they exchange a few more insults first, and he was just working up some good ones.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

“Your birthday was the seventeenth of last month, in point of fact.” “I missed it anyway, then.” He closed the bag and stuffed the uniform far back in his closet. “Not important.” “It’s important that someone celebrate our existence,” she objected amiably.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance