Honorverse favorite one-liners

If they rebelled successfully here in the compartments and corridors, someone in the inaccessible control room would just push a button and they’d all be expelled into vacuum.

A bit disgruntled by the silly business of taking prisoners but obedient to orders, Kabweza fired at the lower legs of the man sitting in front of her. The shot shredded the limbs below the knees so badly that they’d have to be amputated. But with quick care he’d survive and he didn’t need legs to talk.

Thandi shrugged. "Got no idea. Spook-think doesn't come naturally to me. Victor, would you care to enlighten us?"
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should rephrase that. If you don't explain yourself I'm going to take up a new aerobic exercise. It's called the Cachat Curl."
"Can I watch?" asked Berry.

...

"You're making me dizzy. I don't understand—" [Jacques BR&C] broke off sharply, his eyes widening. "Oh, dear God in Heaven. That's ... brilliant."
Thandi started whistling tunelessly. "If anybody thinks I can't turn the Cachat Curl into a general-purpose workout routine, you'd best start thinking again. What the hell are you all talking about?"

Bill Woods wrote:In Cauldron of Ghosts, Thandi gets a bit impatient with people talking over her head:

Thandi shrugged. "Got no idea. Spook-think doesn't come naturally to me. Victor, would you care to enlighten us?"
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should rephrase that. If you don't explain yourself I'm going to take up a new aerobic exercise. It's called the Cachat Curl."
"Can I watch?" asked Berry.

...

"You're making me dizzy. I don't understand—" [Jacques BR&C] broke off sharply, his eyes widening. "Oh, dear God in Heaven. That's ... brilliant."
Thandi started whistling tunelessly. "If anybody thinks I can't turn the Cachat Curl into a general-purpose workout routine, you'd best start thinking again. What the hell are you all talking about?"

“Hey, look, I just thought she was cute,” Sergeant Supakrit X later explained to the battalion commander.

“There she was, surrounded by apes armed to the teeth and armored to boot, but she still insisted on getting a weapon herself. If you can call a glorified toothpick a weapon.”

“Cute,” said Kabweza, looking disgusted.

Supakrit X made a face. “Look, Chief, I’m sorry. I misjudged.”

“Cute,” Kabweza repeated. “Glorified toothpick.”

She'd barely brought her terminal alive when MacGuiness appeared with a steaming mug, and she wondered yet again if he had a power meter on her computer circuits. He always seemed to appear, as if by magic, the instant she booted the system, and this late at night he could be counted upon to ply her with the rich, sweet cocoa she loved while she worked.
"Thank you, Mac," she said as she took the cup.
"You're welcome, Ma'am." MacGuiness completed the ritual with a smile. The chief steward had followed her from her last command, and they'd settled into a comfortable routine over the past twenty-seven months. He was a bit too inclined to fuss over her, but Honor had discovered (somewhat guiltily) that she had no particular objection to being spoiled

They stood that way for quite some time, with Nimitz leaning forward from Honor’s shoulder to rub his cheek against Samantha’s. Then Honor straightened and stepped back with a ghost of a smile.
“It’s all right, Mac,” she called out, raising her voice slightly. “You can come out now.”
Hamish made a sound which might someday turn into a chuckle again as James MacGuiness poked his head through the hatch from his steward’s pantry.

White Haven reached out, his fingers trembling, and touched her face on the com as gently as he might have touched a terrified bird, yet the terror was his, and he knew it.

Yet from the perspective of securing its prizes, Tenth Fleet was in the position of someone who'd chartered a small boat to fish for near-tuna and landed a twelve-meter fluke-shark, instead. An impressive achievement, yes, but what did you do with the thing?