Lois McMaster Bujold on Philosophy

"East is west, up is down, and being falsely arrested for getting your C.O.’s throat cut is a simplification. I must be on Barrayar."

"But at least think about it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being who needed to get laid worse than you do now."

"You can’t choose between evil and evil, in the dark, by logic. You can only cling to some safety line of principle."

"There is a subtle difference between being a prisoner and being a slave. I don’t mistake either for being free. Neither do you."

"I’ve seen planetary invasion plans less complex than what’s being booted about for this Imperial Wedding."

"I am increasingly convinced that technological culture is the entire root of women's liberation."

"I can’t quit, once I’ve started. I’ve been told I’m pathologically persistent. I can’t quit."

"It wasn’t fair, for people to go and change on him, while his back was turned being dead. To change without giving notice, or even asking permission."

"The line of logic trailed off in confusion; he turned his thoughts impatiently from it. Mental wheel-spinning, as unproductive as philosophy class in college."

"“So much for that line of reasoning, Lord Richars,” Ekaterin finished. She sat back with a hand-dusting gesture, and added, by no means under her breath, “Twit."

"When a normal ensign looked at his commander, he ought to see a godlike being, not a, a...future subordinate. New ensigns were supposed to be a subhuman species anyway."

"To get the right answer, one must first correctly frame the question."

"I've described my usual writing process as scrambling from peak to peak on inspiration through foggy valleys of despised logic. Inspiration is better — when you can get it."

"He was borrowing trouble, reasoning in advance of his data."

"Ask a simple question, get a simple brick wall."

"What you are is a question only you can answer."

"An honor is not diminished for being shared."

"Why shouldn’t a madman dream of being sane?"

"Second sight is redundant to reason anyway."

"Curiosity is not a theological virtue."

"But pain...seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?"

"I attack both from the logic-side, scribbling outline after outline, and the long-walk relaxed-visualization-side, and while neither alone is enough, the combination synergizes. Which is just a fancy way of saying, "I think about it a lot, day and night."

"She’d have no objection to the principle of the thing, but she didn’t exactly approve of the military. She didn’t exactly disapprove, either; she just made it plain that she thought there were better things for intelligent human beings to do with their lives."