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7cb06a5
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They're human beings, and the two things humans make are tools...and mistakes. But sometimes we get stuff right, too, and there are some really good models out there
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David Weber |
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6d6d127
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A people or a faith divided against itself became the sum of its weaknesses, not its strengths, and anyone who didn't know that was doomed.
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David Weber |
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7cc7fc4
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The other side's version," Kolokoltsov thought. Even here, he's not willing to call it "the truth." Whoever said truth is the first casualty of war damned well knew what he was talking about!"
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David Weber |
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7dfd76c
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There could be no compromise with those who rejected one's own beliefs, for compromise and coexistence only opened the door to schism. A people or a faith divided against itself became the sum of its weaknesses, not its strengths, and anyone who didn't know that was doomed.
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David Weber |
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5f73c35
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Courtesy seldom costs anything, and the willingness to extend it can be its own subtle declaration of strength. There
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David Weber |
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02b37ba
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The problem is that we won't ever know that, and a lack of data never wins debates.
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David Weber |
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1dc89b6
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People at the apex felt unbridled contempt for the people who spent their lives laboring to support their "betters" in the style to which they had become accustomed. After all, if those lesser being had mattered, they'd have been the ones making the decisions, right? The fact that they weren't was directly attributable to their inherent inferiority and general stupidity, not the inequality of opportunity."
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David Weber |
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b74749a
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you will abide by justice, by keeping faith with that which you know is right. You will do justice not in the heat of battle or the white fury of your anger, be that anger ever so justified. You will do justice soberly, with reverent respect for that love of one another God has placed within you. You will not condemn out of hatred, and he who uses justice for his own ends, he who perverts justice into that which he wishes it to be rather th..
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David Weber |
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0091a52
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But his only alternatives were to play for the possibility, however remote, that he could pull one of them off or else to simply surrender everything he'd spent the last forty-six T-months trying to achieve. He couldn't do that. Even running the very real risk of slipping back over into a brief, bloody clash with the Republic was better than that.
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David Weber |
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e62dcb0
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Jesus Christ!" Foraker's shocked exclamation burned across the bridge like a buzzsaw, and Caslet's mouth fell open as his plot suddenly changed. One instant, his ship was charging into the teeth of two opponents' fire; the next instant, there were no opponents. The warships' acceleration had carried them within less than three hundred thousand clicks of the Manty merchantman, which had suddenly rolled back down to present her own broadside ..
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David Weber |
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2ed1583
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People who made the Kingdom better than it dreamed it could be, made it live up to its ideals whether it wanted to or not, because they believed in those ideals and made others believe with them.
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David Weber |
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80e5502
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it. But taking that route never gets you anywhere; you get trapped in an eternal round of massacres and counter massacres. It's only after you break the cycle and create strong groups--nations--that enforce the laws and demand some sort of international standard of acceptable behavior, that things start to improve.
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David Weber |
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a35ae21
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clearly used captured data and documents, and the handful of broken, scarred human prisoners who'd been recovered from them had been "interrogated" with a casual, dispassionate brutality that was horrifying."
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David Weber |
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cf16807
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as it did. The crest said "PNS Farnese" and that always irritated him. After all, the battlecruiser wasn't a Navy ship; she belonged to State Security, and her designation should reflect that. Except that the Navy's position was that she was only a Navy ship which was assigned to StateSec, as if the true guardians of the People's safety had no right to put on the airs of "real" warriors. Of course, Thornegrave conceded, hanging SSS on the f..
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David Weber |
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32707bd
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He really did have far too many things to do, and as soon as this foolishness - whatever it was - was out of the way, perhaps he could get back to them and- He froze, hazel eyes flaring wide as they locked on the tall, slim figure in a blue-on-blue uniform identical to his own, and his mental grousing slithered to an incoherent halt. He could not possibly be seeing what he thought he was, a small, still voice told him logically. Only one wo..
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David Weber |
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d368878
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And now the same people who'd already infuriated Grayson public opinion had falsely and publicly attacked their greatest planetary hero, who was also the second ranking officer of their navy, the Protector's Champion, only the second person in history to have received the Star of Grayson not merely once, but twice, and one of the eighty-two steadholders. And a woman. Even now, the surviving strictures of Grayson's pre-Alliance social code a..
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David Weber |
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7ab9349
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I wonder if treecats pray?
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David Weber |
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4ce6042
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you should never ascribe to malice what can be put down to incompetence.
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David Weber |
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953f60d
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But when they arrived, Honor reached out and pressed the override button, holding the lift doors closed, and turned to him. "Mr. Hauptman," she said in a vioce of frozen helium, "you've seen fit to insult me and my officers and to threaten my parents. In fact, you have descended to the tactics of gutter scum, and that, in my opinion, Sir, is precisely what you have proven yourself to be." Hauptman's nostrils flared in a congested face, but ..
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hauptman
threat
honor
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David Weber |
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3d0cc60
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There's panic, and then there's panic, Commander. Fear of the odds, of the enemy, even of death is one thing. All of us feel that. We'd be fools if we didn't. But we learn not to let it dictate our responses. We can't, if we're going to do our jobs. But there's another sort of terror: the terror of failure, of being blamed for some disaster, or of assuming responsibility. It's not just the fear of dying; it's the fear of living through some..
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responsibility
panic
terror
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David Weber |
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f761e3a
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What's conquered by the sword is owned only so long as the sword stays sharp. What's brought together in amity, in recognition of common needs and purpose--of common enemies--has the strength to stand even after swords are no longer required.
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David Weber |
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8569311
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high-pitched wail of the emergency General Quarters
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David Weber |
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a6e1233
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fast courier vessel.
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David Weber |
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87290fc
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TFNS Swiftsure moved to position herself between the planet whose human colonists had named it Crestwell's World and the mammoth armada bearing down upon
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David Weber |
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e7e5d8d
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in some sort of mad spasm of suicidal fury.
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David Weber |
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e5706d5
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com screen.
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David Weber |
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e99852e
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Alban looked thoughtful for a moment, her blue eyes intent on something only she could see, then returned her attention to the admiral.
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David Weber |
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d756857
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and a cold, ugly wave of fear came with the news. Not panic, perhaps, because every single member of the murdered Federation's final fleet had known in his heart of hearts that this moment would come.
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David Weber |
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21d6ca3
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Of course. And you already know you have hers," Pei said. And then, whatever his culture might have demanded, he cleared his throat hard, harshly. "And mine," he said huskily."
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David Weber |
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44bb8e0
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genocidal attack had punched inward past Crestwell to take out three of the Federation's fourteen major extra-Solar star systems, with one hundred percent civilian casualties. But
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David Weber |
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49f2978
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If you ever mention my uncle to me again, I will personally push your face through the top of this table," Elizabeth told him in a flat, deadly tone, and the baron recoiled physically from her."
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threat
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David Weber |
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325337c
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The message she'd just ordered Webster to send and Venizelos to relay to Manticore was never sent in drills, not even in the most intense or realistic Fleet maneuvers. Case Zulu had one meaning, and one only: "Invasion Imminent."
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David Weber |
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5db4b14
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Hatred is a poison, but anger--good, honestly-come-by anger, the kind that stems from outrage, from the need to protect the weak or lift the fallen or stop the cruel--that's not poison. That's strength. Too much of it can lead to hatred, and from there it's one slippery step to self-damnation, but never underestimate the empowering strength of the right sort of anger.
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David Weber |
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92a1fc1
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eyelashes, and the dimples of the devastating smile which was going to get him into all sorts of trouble in another few years danced at the corners of his mouth.
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David Weber |
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4924a0b
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Victimology's all about emotions and finding someone--anyone--else to blame for your situation. And of course, that 'someone' has to've done it out of pure malevolence! After all, you're the victim, the pure and innocent injured party who never did a single thing to deserve what's happened to you.
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David Weber |
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a49c76b
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I'll bring the rest through as quickly as I can," Honor promised after the inevitable delay. "And I'll try to make sure there's still a Star Kingdom when you do," Kuzak replied."
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David Weber |
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3fcfde3
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Lester Tourville stared at his plot in horror as the impeller signatures of sixty-eight Republican ships of the wall abruptly vanished. Seventeen continued to burn on the display for another handful of seconds. Then they, too, vanished in what he devoutly hoped was a frantic hyper translation.
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David Weber |
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380c08a
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A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom,'" Massingill quoted. "'A republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water.' I don't remember the source."
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David Weber |
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7050c5d
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There's got to be at least some contact if they aren't going to lose their assets simply because someone dies before she gets around to telling her son or daughter "Oh, by the way. We're actually secret agents for the Mesan Alignment. Here's your secret decoder kit. Be ready to be contacted by the Galactic Evil Overlord on Frequency X with orders to betray the society you've been raised all your life to think of as your own."
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secret-agents
science-fiction
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David Weber |
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47f789b
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Constitutional irregularities, is it? Interesting concept -- given that Torch hasn't yet adopted a formal constitution." "Yup. He listed that as Irregularity Number One."
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politics
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David Weber |
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e29d146
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She'd headed the terraforming teams, and it was her leadership which had carried the task through to success. She and her people, watched over by Kau-yung's flagship, TFNS Gulliver, had battled the planet into submission while most of the colony fleet had waited, motionless, holding station in the depths of interstellar space, light-years from the nearest star.
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David Weber |
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319170c
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swung the door shut behind him.
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David Weber |
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c8c94c7
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You might as well have called them Amygdalum and Amygdalee. He could only hope they didn't do anything really foolish. Too much too hope, of course, that they wouldn't drool.
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David Weber |
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5cabf83
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He seemed quite a cheerful fellow, too. Even puckish, you might say--at least if, like Brice, you had just recently encountered the term and been taken by it, but hadn't yet read enough literature to realize that "puckish" was by no means the same thing as "harmless."
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David Weber |