“Diplomacy is about dealing with those you rather avoid.”

“That’s the worst thing about having chakaare like us around. We just wander off, find someplace you don’t know about, and hole up in it and get into all sorts of mischief that you know nothing about. And then we bill you for it. Dreadful.”“Dreadful. Is this the kind of thing that CSF might notice?”“Were we to get out of hand, I imagine very senior officers in CSF might need to be reassured, but not by you.”“Dreadful. Hypothetically, anyway.”

“The ambition of most beings is just to stay alive, overeat, spend too much, and avoid hard work. I’m happy that I can achieve much more than that…and we all die sooner or later. A death in service of a great ideal is a fine thing.”

“Sergeant Skirata said that civvies didn't have a clue, and that it was alright for them to have lofty ideas about peace and freedom as long as they weren't the ones being shot at.”

“So you want a knife, a nice sharp knife. You hone that blade to its limits. It even cuts through stone when you want it to. It saves your life. And then you're outraged when it cuts you accidentally. You see, knives don't switch off. And neither do people, not when you hone them to a fine edge.”

“It ain't what you say: it's how you say it.”

“If you take a shot at someone, you keep firing until they can no longer return fire. Wound them, and you have an angry enemy who knows your position.”