Orson Scott Card Quotes

Because human nature never changes.

Your motivation has to be rock solid. You have to want it so bad that even th threat of death won't take it from you.

We thought we were the only thinking beings in the universe, until we met you, but never did we dream that thought could arise from the lonely animals who cannot dream each other's dreams.

The kid is scary.

Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters.Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters.

He spent the afternoon alone in the streets.

Then, as Father had trained him, Rigg thought past his feelings.

I will never hurt you.I will always help you.If you are hungryIll give you my food.If you are frightenedI am your friend.I love you now.And love does not end.

(Rigg) had often complained that all these languages were useless, and Father had only said, "A man who speaks but one language understands none.

The emotion she could deal with best was anger.

I didn't want to hurt him!" Ender cried. "Why didn't he just leave me alone!

Carn Carby left, and ender mentally added him to his private list of people who also qualified as human beings.

For the first time, Ender had found a living mind he could admire.

That's why he hates you, because you didn't suffer when he tried to punish you.

Being here alone with nothing to do, I've been thinking about myself too. Trying to understand why I hate myself so badly.

In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him...

Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth.

Human beings *do* metamorphose. They change their identity constantly. However, each new identity thrives on the delusion that it was always in possession of the body it has just conquered.

Government is all show when it isn't murder in the dark ... or soldiers in the open.

Is it some law of human nature that you inevitably become whatever your first commander was?

Oh, people get used to so many things, " said Vadesh, "if only they give them selves a chance.

Do not shout at me, Mr. Quill, " said John [Adams]. "Justice may be blind, but she is not deaf.

I didn't know how you'd get us out of that last one. But you did. You were good.

Home was merely a dull ache in the back of his memory. A tiredness in his eyes.

He had so much damn respect he wanted to scream.

If you asked me to marry you all over again today I'd say yes, said Valentine.And if I had only met you for the first time today, I'd ask.

I came because I've spent my whole life in the company of the brother that I hated. Now I want a chance to know the brother that I love, before it's too late, before we're not children anymore.

In Russia you learn patience, " said Ivan. "In America you learn action.

Vanya soon found that America might be an exciting place to arrive, but living there could become, in time, as boring as anything else.

America. The enemy. The rival. The land of jeans and rock and roll, of crime and capitalism, of poverty and oppression. Of home and freedom.

When it comes down to it, though, the real decision is inevitable: If one of us has to be destroyed, let's make damn sure we're the ones alive at the end.

The classes were valuable, but the real education was the game.

It was the waiting and watching that cost the most. For during that time he had to endure.

Remember, I'm the only person her who's paid to be nice to you. But not too nice. Give me any lip and I'll break your face. OK?

These children had never looked death in the face and then chosen to live anyway.

But my eagerness to sacrifice little children in order to save mankind is wearing thin.

For the first time in his life, a teacher was pointing out things that Ender had not already seen for himself. For the first time, Ender had found a living mind he could admire.

If he did not speak his tale, it grew dank and musty, it shrank inside him, while with the telling the tale stayed fresh and virtuous.

Was that tragedy? Or was that comedy? Was there really any difference?

Quing-Jao: I am a slave to the gods, and I rejoice in it.Jane: A slave who rejoices is a slave indeed.

Just because they didn't know they were killing human beings doesn't mean they weren't killing human beings.

All dreams. If there was love or pity for him, it was only in his dreams.

[T]hat's the way of torturers of every age, to put the blame on the victim, especially when he strikes back.

So the I.F. is spying on Earth.""Just as a mother spies on her children at play in the yard.""Good to know you're looking out for us, Mummy.

We pray for a messenger from God—who knows but what the messenger also prayed for a place to take his message?

You deplore what I did, but you still want to know the results of my research.

It's a stupid leader who can't turn follower when somebody offers him a wiser course

A good commander, thought Ender, doesn't have to make stupid threats.

It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise.

Never believe a rumor of my death, ' said Peter. 'I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition.