Any community's arm of force—military, police, security—needs people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.

About Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold ( boo-ZHOHLD; born November 2, 1949) is an American speculative fiction writer. She has won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record (not counting his Retro Hugos). Bujold is best known for her Vorkosigan Saga, a series of science fiction novels...

More quotations from Lois McMaster Bujold

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that. Only the use made it mean something.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

Our children change us… whether they live or not.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

You have to be careful who you let define your good.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

What you are is a question only you can answer.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

History

23 Feb 2024 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Any community's arm of force - military, police, security - needs people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.