Home > Work > Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (Vorkosigan Saga, #16)
1 " Everybody has it wrong way round. Parents don't make children--children make parents. They shape our behavior from the first wail. Mold us into what they need. It can be a pretty rough process, too "
― Lois McMaster Bujold , Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (Vorkosigan Saga, #16)
2 " Hey, let’s try speed-starting the fire with an infusion of pure oxygen!” Because inside every senior tech officer was a junior tech officer who’d been on a short leash for a long time. "
3 " When your young life offered its first disaster, naturally it loomed large. After you’d survived dozens, you basically just told the next one to take a number and get in line. "
4 " Miles, when he was contemplating this technology for my future grandchildren, wanted to start twelve at once and do them all in one efficient batch. Like growing his own platoon, I gather. I offered to take turns with Ekaterin holding his head under water till he had a better idea, but as it turned out, she didn't need my help. Wonderful girl, my daughter-in-law. I still don't know what he did to deserve her. "
5 " What’s in the box? Not a severed head—again—I trust?” It seemed too small for that, fortunately. Cordelia’s gray eyes glinted. “Now, now, Oliver. Bring home one dismembered body part, once, mind you, once, and people get twitchy about checking your luggage ever after. "
6 " She considered the familiar conundrum inherent in complimenting a child for doing something well in the course of what ought not to have been done at all, and kept her peace. "
7 " Truth is always War’s first victim, the old saying went. "
8 " It could be surprisingly hard to counter Plain Stupid. Even by heroic measures. "
9 " And then his world turned into a pelting rain of flaming snot. "
10 " he’d looked as tall and cool as ever, but a faint panicked light in his blue eyes had put her oddly in mind of a cat that had just had an inadvertent ride in a dryer. "
11 " inside every senior tech officer was a junior tech officer who’d been on a short leash for a long time. "
12 " the Barrayaran officer corps favored heterosexual marital stability in its senior members mainly to cut down on the potential for ambient personal dramas slopping over into work, as they tended to do. "
13 " I will tell you, parenting is a team sport. You need backup, reserves. "
14 " Everybody has it wrong way round. Parents don’t make children—children make parents. They shape our behavior from the first wail. Mold us into what they need. It can be a pretty rough process, too. "
15 " So, how long has my mother had this questionable fetish for bisexual Barrayaran admirals? I don’t think even the Betans have earrings for that one. "
16 " What is love but delight in another human being? He delights me daily. "
17 " What do you most want for your birthday picnic, Admiral?” Taken by surprise, he answered honestly: “No casualties. "
18 " If she finished her work—hah, now there was a fantasy, this work would never be finished, only abandoned, or, all right, passed on—she might squeeze out another day off by next weekend. "
19 " Her lips curved up despite themselves at the memory of Oliver in the crystal canoe, gazing as entranced as a boy at his newly discovered underwater Sergyar. "
20 " Surrounded by them all, she was reminded of the old parental curse—May you have six children just like you. Except that this curse seemed to have gone awry. Miles would have reveled at six children just like himself; he’d have known exactly what to do. Instead, he seemed to have received six children, none in the least like himself, and furthermore, each one different from all the others. As parental revenges went, this was actually much better. "