If the Star League had survived, I'd have worn the uniform proudly.
-In Honor of the Past, R.R. Andrews, ComStar historian and Collector, ComStar Press, Terra, 3024

If written accurately, history is always a terrible disappointment for the idealistic, the romantic, and the opportunistic.
-From History and Culture, by James Dugan, University of Washington Press, 2031

Attention all AGM members currently participating in the barbarities. Cease all hostile actions and return to your barracks or I will bombard you into oblivion.
-Communique from Admiral James McKenna to AGM ground forces fighting on Terra, June 2, 2315

The dictionary defines hegemony as "preponderant influence or authority, especially of one nation over others." In our own Terran Hegemony-the name given to our shiny new government-freedoms have been exchanged for "decisiveness" and personal rights abrogated in favor of blindly following one charismatic man.
-From The Terran Hegemony: Monumental Fraud, by Richard Thury, HBJ Press, 2321

The reason the colonies broke from Terra was that the previous government treated them with either indifference or outright contempt. Now things are different and there is no longer any reason for them to remain out there in the cold.
-Director-General James McKenna, as quoted in The First Lord Protector, by Gregory Donn, HBJ Interplanetary Press, 2345

I've spent much of my life in the military, I'm used to being forced to volunteer.
-Michael Cameron, as quoted in The Life of Michael Cameron, by Henrietta Vela, New Earth Books, 2399

The reason I have created the Peers List is not to reward people who I feel are somehow "superior" to the rest. Nor will I grant titles to people who follow some sort of approved religion, or who are of a "proper" race of lifestyle, or who blindly support my rule. To do so would surely spell ruin for the Hegemony. No, the reason I have reintroduced the concept of nobility is to reward people who have done more than what was expected of them, and have thus advanced all mankind's fortunes. It is a reward for action, not attributes.
-From a speech by Director-General Michael Cameron before the Terran Congress, January 1, 2351

Civilian deaths estimated at about a hundred thousand. Civilian casualties estimated about three times that. The number of dead is only a rough estimate because the threat of disease from the decomposing bodies forces us to bury the dead as quickly as humanly possible.
-Transmission by a member of the Interstellar Relief Force concerning genocide in the Tintavel system in November, 2412

It's not Peace through Strength but Strength through Peace that will be our motto.
-Director-General Deborah Cameron to assembled nobles and political leaders, April 2509

If push comes to shove, I'll push harder than you could ever dream of shoving.
-Lord Ian Cameron's warning to units participating in the September Revolt, quoted in The Cameron Dynasty, Volume X, by Duke Brian Dekerny, 2899

The unification of all Humanity into one realm is an obvious path. What I don't understand is why we broke up into petty realms in the first place.
-Lord Ian Cameron to his High Advisors, quoted in The Statesman of the Stars, by Duke Torrence Ferl, Belgrade Press, 2599

Why don't some maps show Andurien? Don't you know your history, man? Andurien is where the Age of War started! Almost 200 years of misery were let loose there. It's not on the maps because it's a place best forgotten. The land is cursed with lost souls, the water polluted with the iron taste of blood. Andurien? Friend, it's just Hell with jump points.
-Captain Helen Redoar, quoted in An Informal History of the Age of War, by Nicholas VanBurn, Tharkan Press, 2549

A secret is like keeping your virtue. You either feel smugly pious keeping it or deliciously wicked losing it with a friend.
-Grethella Dallas, infamous madam of "The Jade Gates," high-class brothels and escort services on Terra, ca. 2560

The Periphery? It's like one big booby hatch. You don't lock up that crazy guy walking around your city screaming about God at the top of his lungs or exposing himself to school girls. You just give him a ticket to the Periphery.
-Duke Mitchell Frenser of Caph, quoted in The Periphery Mistake: An Exercise in Misconceptions, by Duchess Bethella Ganis, Terran Press, 2811

We've given a million men and woman the knowledge to kill in new and exciting ways, then taken away their weapons and told them that they can't practice what they've learned.
-From a letter by General Shandra Cameron to Lord Ian Cameron, October 2569

This is the Grex-Dex Mining Station on Fontana in the Malagrotta System. We will soon be under attack by five Taurian Concordat naval vessels. Mitchell Hensley, our foreman and a Navy veteran, tells me that the ships are a Winchester Class cruiser, two Wagon Wheel frigates, and one Pinto corvette, all armed and headed this way. For the love of God, help us. We're loyal to the Federated Suns and have no wish to end up as slaves to a bunch of gun-happy hooligans.
-Dispatch from a Davion mining colony on Fontana to the government of the Federated Suns, February 19, 2573

I hereby swear my allegiance to the Rim Worlds Republic, its laws and its leaders. I also swear my heartfelt admiration for the actions and ways of distant mother Terra. May her beauty never dim. May her light ever be our beacon.
-From the Loyalty Oath required of eac citizen of the Rim Worlds Republic, 2573

As I see it, you have two choices: you can join the Star League, or you can join the Star League. Either way you'll join. Whether you join as a full partner, sharing in the benefits of the League's wealth, or as beaten and bloody slaves forever in chains, is a decision totally your own.
-Duke Gregory Webbson, Star League emissary to the Taurian Concordat, 2575

As of midnight September 3, 2596, the Provisional Government of the Rim Worlds Republic does hereby surrender unconditionally to the forces of the Star League. All citizens are ordered to cease hostile actions and lay down their weapons... I realize that the fight has been long and hard and to surrender now is a bitter pill, but to fight any longer would damn us to oblivion. May God have mercy on our souls, we don't want to see everyone die.
-Senator Benjamin Trivallor, spokesperson for the Provisional Government of the Rim Worlds Republic

In the grand and everlasting debate on which is more vital for a man, a well-built slut or a slug from a bottle, one thing must be said in defense of the bottle: it's always willing.
-Remarks attributed to Coordinator Leonard Kurita

I resent being called a warmonger. Just because I have an interest in keeping our military up to date does not mean the passion of a conqueror flows through my veins. In fact, the opposite is true. I want to so fortify our league that it would be foolhardy for even the strongest militaries to attack us.
-First Lord Jonathan, responding to reporters' questions about whether his massive military buildup was the prelude to war, 2694

My greatest nightmare is that of Terra dying in explosion and flames. No hope exists amid the rubble, only the step of hulking 'Mechs, the smell of smoke and death, and the wail of orphaned children.
-From a letter by Jonathan Cameron to his wife, 2704

I see nothing that indicates the Star League will not last for a thousand years. We are stronger than ever before. Our lives are better than ever before. We are a better people than we were before. Why should not the Star League last into and beyond the next millennium?
-Simon Cameron, 2739

During these sad times it is the responsibility of us, the Council Lords, to ensure that the Star League survives and that the Camerons continue on as its unbroken heart...
-From the joint statement issued by the High Council, April 3, 2751

It's nice having a hero as our leader. His aura shines so brightly that it tends to blind anyone trying to watch us, making it much easier for us to get the job done.
-Chancellor Warex Liao, from private tapes of the Winter Meeting of the High Council, 2752

There was always an air of disappointment hanging heavy about him. He looked as if the world around him were a poorly written novel.
-From Richard Cameron: An Unauthorized Biography, by G. R. Tillers, Sian Press, 2775

My loyalty to the Star League and to the young First Lord is unswerving. May God strike me dead if I ever do anything to harm the glory of the Star League and the Camerons.
-Stefan Amaris, October 2754

...I dreamt again last night, Jocasta. I dreamt of seeing the wheel again, but this time upon its rim were vultures black as night who looked expectantly at the young child who was laughing and playing with swords in the wheel's center...
-Excerpt from a letter by First Lord Jonathan Cameron to his sister, Mother Jocasta, 2729

Days of infamy, when some heinous act or crime is committed, are almost always bright and sunny. All have their faces pointed to the peaceful heavens above, making it that much easier to slip them the knife.
-Stefan Amaris to his officers the day after he usurped the Throne of the First Lord

Surprise is the best weapon to have in any arsenal. With it, all things become possible.
-Excerpt from the testimony of General Patrick Scoffins, Commander-in-Chief of the Republican forces in the Terran Hegemony, August 2780

While we fought and died trusting that all was well back home, a cancer was allowed to grow that has now seized our hearts and souls. The Hegemony is lost and our hopes with it.
-General Aleksandr Kerensky, announcing the Amaris coup to his troops, February 15, 2767

You have your orders. All I can add is that I hope and pray some sort of sense will come out of this horror story because I certainly can't see any at the moment.
-From General Kerensky's address to his commanding officers, February 12, 2772

You will fight to the last soldier, and when you die, I will call upon your damned soul to rise and speak horrible curses at the enemy.
-Orders of Emperor Stefan Amaris to his troops

To those that we leave behind, let me say that we see no way to continue living in a civilization that spurns the ideals it once professed to hold so dear. Though we depart, our hope is that one day we might return.
-Last known transmission from the warship McKenna's Pride, assumed to have been written by General Kerensky

The League, Liberty, and the Accords.
-Official motto of the Seventh Royal BattleMech Division (The Keid Division)

No matter how wonderful the Accords might be, they are nothing until each and every citizen of the Star League bothers to acquaint himself with the new government. Only then will they realize that it really means nothing and that everything rests on the characters of their new rulers.
-First Lord Ian Cameron, from his diaries, October 2575

I am the defender of the Star League; my strength is in loyalty.
-Motto of the Star League Defense Forces inscribed into the marble archway above the main entrance of the War Academy on Mars