Favorite Quotes

[katreus]

Book 5: Flag in Exile

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"Gentlemen, in case you missed it, this is Captain Brigham, my chief of staff. Keep an eye on her and don't let that calm demeanor fool you. She has a low and evil sense of humor."

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He saw one of the kids turn and look at him. It was a girl, no more than eleven, and Adam Gerrick saw her smile, unaware of what was happening. He saw her wave at him, happy and excited by all the activity . . . and then he saw eighty thousand metric tons of alloy and crystoplast and plunging horror come crashing down and blot that smile away forever.

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"Children," Lord Burdette groaned. "We've killed children!"
"No, My Lord," Marchant said. Burdette looked at him, blue eyes dark with horror, and the defrocked priest shook his head, his own eyes dark with purpose, not shock. "We killed no one, My Lord," he said in a soft, persuasive voice. "It was God's will that the innocent perish, not ours."

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-Bastards.
Book 6: Honor Among Enemies

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For all his pious opposition to "militarism," Houseman, like many theorists, was less moved by the thought of casualties than the "militarists" he scorned. After all, the people who died had all volunteered to be Myrmidons, and one couldn't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. Hauptman's own observation was that people who actually had to send others to die tended to consider their options far more carefully than armchair "experts."

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Then there'd been Gustav VI. His subjects had been willing to put up with him even when he started talking to his prize rose bush, but things had gotten a bit out of hand when he tried to make it chancellor. That had been too much even for the Andermani, and he'd been quietly deposed.

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-Rose bushes ftw.

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"You stay out of it, sweetheart," Horace Harkness told him softly, almost lovingly, "or I'll break your fucking back myself."

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It was a miracle sickbay had retained pressure. The surgeons were working on backup power only, and Ryder refused to let herself think about what happened when that power ran out. Anyone she saved would only die later. She knew that, but she was a physician. Her enemy wore no uniform, and she would fight him to the last ditch.

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--

Thanks to Basaken for the help.

[drakensis]

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I'm probably butchering the quote, but he said something along the lines of "They say evil triumphs when good men stand by and do nothing. Lets go out and do something."

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That was Utena when she took over the IPSF for Gryphon after Kei's death.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[ECSNorway]

Let me add one to your list for "Flag in Exile". Honor Harrington, on the occasion of her duel with Lord Burdette:

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"My lord, do you want this man crippled, or dead?

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--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[katreus]

Oh yeah. I don't know why I didn't have that quoted. :/ Thanks!
Anthology 1: More than Honor

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Her daughter, Marjorie thought with affection-laced exasperation, was entirely too prone to figure that anything which hadn't been specifically forbidden was legal . . . whether or not the opportunity to forbid it had ever been offered.

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- It's a key technique!

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"Commander Mincio, Royal Manticoran Navy, to see the liaison officer ASAP!" Mincio said in her driest tone. She'd used it only once on Nessler, the time he translated a Latin passage referring to twenty, viginti, soldiers as "virgin soldiers."

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Not to mention their habit of shooting anyone who lost, anyone related to anyone who lost, anyone who was a friend of anyone who lost, and all their relatives as well. That sort of thing could get alarming, and it certainly didn't encourage a bold, daring command style.

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- Just a tad.

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Rob S. Pierre looked at his Security chief. "Find her for me, Oscar. I think the lady has gone from a possibility to a certainty, and it would be excessive irony if she were dead."

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- I like Esther a lot. :/ I wish she'd survived. ;_;--

Thanks to Basaken for the help.

[ordnance11]

"A fighter pilot is a person who should have no fear of death. The best fighter pilot is a teen-ager."
- Fighter Pilot, "Dogfights"
Now we know why most of those mecha pilots are teen-agers.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Acyl]

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"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that "violence never solves anything" I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

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"Ah yes, [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness]... Life? What 'right' to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What 'right' to life has a man who must die to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of 'right'? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man's right is 'unalienable'? And is it 'right'? As to liberty, the heroes who signed the great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost. The third 'right'?the 'pursuit of happiness'? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain livesbut neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it."

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-- Lt. Col. Jean V. Dubois (Ret.) - Robert A. Heinlein, "Starship Troopers"
...
I don't know if I agree, but I've always considered those passages food for thought. Hell, if you've never read it, "Starship Troopers" is worth a look...especially if you're into military and nation-building issues. I've read it many times, and really seriously after my own basic training. I'm honestly not a great fan of Heinlein's work. But that book? Hmm.
-- Acyl

[DHBirr]

Concerning the reference to whether violence solves anything, one of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" characters was in the habit of calling violence "the last resort of the incompetent." But H. Beam Piper had an answer to that:

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Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.

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From the short story "A Slave is a Slave" in the book Empire.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[zojojojo]

speaking of RAH,

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A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

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this is from Time Enough For Love, though I only remember it from a section specifically dedicated to quotes from the main character...-Z, Post-reader at Medium
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If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
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If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[Bluemage]

I agree. Really, the movie was a decent military SF flick, but the book? Pure gold. First Heinlein I ever read, and still my favorite.Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines...

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My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Sirrocco]

---------------
WE DON'T KNOW WHO THESE MURDERING RAPING BASTARDS
ARE THAT WE PUT HERE. DON'T MUCH CARE EITHER. IF THERE
ARE ANY MORE OF YOU OUT THERE, BE WARNED. THIS AREA IS
NOW UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE UMWA. IF YOU TRY TO HARM
OR ROB ANYBODY WE WILL KILL YOU. THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER
WARNING. WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE. WE WILL NOT ARREST YOU.
YOU WILL SIMPLY BE DEAD.
WE GUARANTEE IT.
GO AHEAD. TRY US.
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1632, Eric Flint (available in the Baen Free Library)
If any of you haven't tried it yet, do yourself the favor. There are a *lot* of favorite quotes floating around in that one for me, but most are pretty spoilery.

[HoagieOfDoom]

"I watched [the doctors] for a long time. Squinting into the bright light, the blood on their green tunics could have been grease, the swathed bodies, odd soft machines that they were fixing. But the machines would cry out in their sleep, and the mechanics muttered reassurances while they plied their greasy tools."
From Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. The quote has to do with Haldeman's views on how the military(or -ies) treat their soldiers. It's generally considered to be the anti-war/military answer to Heinlein's Starship Troopers. It's a great read; I find in it the great irony that in order to stop an intergalactic, humanity ceases to be exactly that.*********
Touched By His Noodly Appendage
www.venganza.org

[VladimirTherin]

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H.L. Mencken, US editor (1880 - 1956)

[DHBirr]

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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H.L. Mencken, US editor (1880 - 1956)

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There've been two or three times lately that I've wanted to quote that very line in threads on this forum.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[drakensis]

The emptier your head is, the more room there is to pack with dreams.
- the beginning of most DragonBall Z movies
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[ordnance11]

"The path of underwear is the path of war."
3 guesses who said that. ^^
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[katreus]

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"Yeah, but it's worse for her. She has to be an example to him. Fortunately, by the time you make staff, you're so evolved you can piss into the wind and not get wet."

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from Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff

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"Yes, sir." Which could be, when necessary, a polite way of saying, "Fuk you." Torin couldn't remember it ever being quite so necessary before.

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from Better Part of Valor by Tanya Huff

[Norgarth]

"The difference between fiction and reality is, fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[WengFook]

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We have not forgotten how you stole our emperors eagle from us
Stole is such a hard word. I just found it in the middle of a French column and where Im from. Thats like Finders Keepers. Richard Sharpe to Ducos. -Sharpe's Enemy

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Thats from a television movie based on the book by Bernard Cornwell... that counts right? _______________________________
We are the swords in the darkness, the watchers on the walls. The fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn. The horn that wakes the sleepers. The shield that guards the realms of men. -The Brothers Black
_________________________________
Take Your Candle, Go Light Your World.

[DHBirr]

As far as I'm concerned, it counts. "Stole is such a hard word." I love it!
Of course, remember that's set in the days when a soldier, fearing his position would be overrun, would tear the unit colors off the pole and hide them inside his jacket, in hopes that the enemy wouldn't search his corpse closely enough to find and seize the colors. They took the unit symbols seriously back then.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[DHBirr]

This is the ending of James H. Schmitz's novella "The Demon Breed":

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I speak then as the Lord Ildaan, representing the Alliance of the Lords of the Sessegur, Chiefs of the Dark Ships. I address the Wirrollan delegation and all those they represent. To the ends of the area through which the influence of the Alliance extends there will be no further hostile action prepared or planned against the human Federation. The Alliance forbids it, and the Dark Ships enforce our ruling as they have done in past star periods. Be warned!
The Committee concurs. The meeting is closed.

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Translation: humans are scaaaaaary. Don't make 'em angry, or we'll clobber you for stirring up trouble for all of us.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Periwinkle Skyye]

Another starting point: there's a play called Translations by Brian Friel. It is basically an extended, passionate debate between a village priest in Ireland and the leader of an English survey team that has been traversing the countryside, mapping it carefully, and - more important - changing the names of the places, from Gaelic to English. Both men are aware of what is at stake: when you want to subjugate a people - to erase their sense of themselves as separate and distinctive - one place to start (and it is often enough) is with their language and names. Names link to history, and we need a sense of history to define ourselves.
-- Guy Gavriel Kay, Afterword to Tigana

[Florin]

But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they might be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.
-Robert Ardrey, by way of Britannica's entry on Philosophy by way of the book 'The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World'--
Comb your hair, damn anime hippies.
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If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

[Morganite]

From "Morning of Creation", by Mike Shupp:

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Every warship should have a name at commissioning.
Scent O'Claws. Harper stood on the ramp and inspected the metal plaque in his hands. The characters engraved in the plate were even and cleanly cut, he noted with pleasure, the bright red Roman letters and Algheran syllabics perfectly distinct against the white enamel. The sketch below, showing malevolent reindeer hitched to an M60-A1 tank, was understandable. The company making the sign had fulfilled his intentions, and he had no reason but ceremony to delay.

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-Morgan."I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)

[Guest]

From the end of 'Mad Tea Party', a SM fic by His Lordship Chaos:
I want but one epitaph when my time upon this
planet finds itself expired. No name of who I
was. No record of when I was. No grand speech
or witty rhetoric to trivialise the life that
was once one I called my own. I want but a
simple epitaph.
And it will say: here lies a man who sought
out his dreams, and found them.

Seems to fit writers in general.

[drakensis]

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Nimue Alban spent her entire life fighting against the inevitable destruction of her species. Now she's about to discover that dying in humanity's defense was the easy part.

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From the blurb of David Weber's latest series, which is quite simply the best book he's ever written.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.