“It must be quite a shock to suddenly find out you're pregnant, seventeen times over—at your age, too.”

“Don't wish to be normal. Wish to be yourself. To the hilt. Find out what you're best at, and develop it, and hopscotch your weaknesses. Wish to be great at whatever you are.”

“Cecil flashed a grin. "Quite. Plus your rather irritating habit of treating your superior officers as your, ah..." Cecil paused, apparently groping again for just the right word."Equals?" Miles hazarded."Cattle," Cecil corrected judiciously.”

“Growing up, I have discovered over time, is rather like housework: never finished.”

“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?”

“That civet-jasmine blend you're wearing tonight absolutely clashes with the third-level formal style of your dress, you know.”

“Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.”