Cordelia's Honor Quotes

“The rule for finding plots for character-centered novels, which is to ask: 'So what's the worst possible thing I can do to *this* guy?' And then do it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an independent business creator. In service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Becoming a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe- if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link. The demands of motherhood especially consume the old self, and replace it with something new, often better and wiser, sometimes wearier or disillusioned, or tense and terrified, certainly more self-knowing, but never the same again.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“I can love you. I can grieve for you, or with you. I can share your pain. But I cannot judge you.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“Sorry, Bill. I just have this awful vision of being p-peeled like an onion, looking for the seeds."
He grinned. "Onions don't have seeds, Cordelia."
"I stand corrected," she said dryly.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“Are you sure this isn't instant boots?" asked Cordelia sadly, for in color, taste, and smell they closely resembled pulverized shoe leather pressed into wafers.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“You should have fallen in love with a happy man, if you wanted happiness. But no, you had to fall for the breathtaking beauty of pain.
Cordelia's Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“Exile, for no other reason than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“He wanted to know what I saw in you. I told him..." he paused again, and continued almost shyly, "that you poured out honor like a fountain, all around you."

"That's weird. I don't feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion."

"Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“But 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.... If you think it's really wrong...that's one thing. Maybe that's the test. But if it's only the fear of failure, you have not the right to refuse the gift for that."

"It's an impossible job."

"That happens sometimes.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“And as for absolute power, you sir, know what a false chimera that notion is. A shaky illusion, based on—God knows what. Magic. Sleight of hand. Believing your own propaganda.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor

“Tell me truly, now—what do you see in him, a broken-down, ah, what was that phrase? hired killer?"

"Aral has told you something, it seems," she said, startled to hear her own words in his mouth. She stared back at him with equal curiosity. The question seemed to demand an honest answer, and she struggled to frame it.

"I suppose—I see myself. Or someone like myself. We're both looking for the same thing. We call it by different names, and look in different places. I believe he calls it honor. I guess I'd call it the grace of God. We both come up empty, mostly.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor