"There is when the cost of your cowardice falls on other people."

The heels of his hands come up to his eyes, whether to stop the tears or to try to blot out the memories he doesn't know. Cid's dead gaze is in his mind. And Thorin's face, pleading with him. And his mother's, the fuzzy pieces of memory he has left. The absolute desolation at Nabudis. The scores of refugees and and widowed spouses and orphans in the wake of the war.

If he had any better control of himself, he would smugly point out that David is now making the same argument he was just moments before. As it is, he doesn't even notice.