Ancillary Sword Quotes
"Considering the circumstances, you could use another lieutenant."
"Under normal circumstances no one ever saw such young versions of the Lord of the Radch, but these were not normal circumstances."
"I ought to have added a respectful my lord but did not."
"Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m working for you."
"Nothing you can do to me could possibly be worse than what you’ve already done."
"The flower of propriety is beauty in thought and action."
"Tisarwat was dead from the moment they put those implants in."
"If you have any concerns at all about her health, or if her behavior is odd—if she seems confused about something she shouldn’t be, or just doesn’t seem right in any way at all—you’re to report it to Medic. Even if Lieutenant Tisarwat orders you not to."
"I am asking if you had a private conversation with Anaander Mianaai, one no one could overhear."
"In the meantime, factions in the military—also fostered by the Lord of the Radch, with an eye toward an advantage if this ever came to actual physical battle—have begun fighting."
"I suspect they're still trying to keep information back."
"And they don't particularly care how many citizens die in the process."
"Life is unpredictable, and we are not always the people we think we are."
"You can admit the error and resolve never to repeat it, or you can refuse to admit error and throw every effort behind insisting you were right."
"The trigger, the precipitating event, was the destruction of the Garseddai."
"I think it wasn’t merely admitting error that the Lord of the Radch has been resisting, but admitting her own mortality."
"How can she not be? Constantly growing new bodies to replace the old, how could she ever die?"
"If something like that happens, you have two choices."
"The Lord of the Radch couldn’t continue expanding forever."
"There has been some suspicion that my not being familiar with the practice when I arrived indicates that my upbringing wasn’t what it might have been."
"If it weren’t for Horticulture no one on this station could eat or breathe. You don’t seriously think you’re doing some unimportant, useless job."
"And frankly, you take after her. If someone’s been telling you otherwise… they’ve been lying to you."
"Because you took the aptitudes... And the tests said you should be running something important."
"Your mother probably got her first assignment for political reasons. Which probably included the fact that she could do the job."
"You can see it’s pretty old. We’ll pull it in—it’s large enough to be a hazard."
"The air was 20.8 degrees C, the breeze light and pleasant and smelling of leaves and cold water."
"But we were under the impression there was no one on the other side of that gate, and never had been."
"So if the growers run out of Valskaayans, who’s going to pick tea for miserable food and hardly any wages?"
"And propriety, like mourning, is for public view."
"She feels inadequate, you know, because her mother is station administrator and so beautiful on top of it."
"We’ve gotten along fine here all this time. Now, suddenly, you’re concerned about us."
"We can talk about them right now if you like. And then you and I can take those concerns directly to Station Administrator Celar."
"Did you expect us to be grateful? This isn’t about us. You didn’t even take a moment to stop and ask what we wanted."
"It’s always for show, Citizen. It is entirely possible to grieve with no outward sign."