Quotes from Orson Scott Card

You did hurt me. And I hurt you. It's a popular pastime here.

The refreshments leave something to be desired." "Like what?" asked Banshee. "Refreshments," said Ezekiel.

But the Speaker for the Dead, the one who wrote this book, he's the wisest man who lived in the age of flight among the stars. While Ender was a murderer, he killed a whole people, a beautiful race of ramen that could have taught us everything—' 'Both human, though,' whispered the Speaker.

I divide officers into four classes: the clever, the lazy, the stupid, and the industrious. The man who is clever and lazy is fit for the very highest commands, he has the temperament and the requisite nerves to deal with all situations. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the high staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy, but whoever is stupid and industrious must be removed immediately.

He so careful, he piss on a plate and never splash.

Shy people might take their doses of companionship like an ill-tasting medicine, but they need it, and they suffer a thousand maladies, physical and mental, if they don't have it.

He had momentarily forgotten that at a restaurant everyone is supposed to pretend there's an eight-foot wall around each table. Except the waiters, of course, who are supposed to pretend that each table is the only one they're waiting on. Like living in a small town. Notice me when I want to be noticed, but why are you prying when I want to be left alone?

First thing we need to do," said Bean, "is split up." "No," said Petra. "I've done this before, Petra. Going into hiding. Keeping from getting caught." "And if we're together we're too identifiable, la la la," she said. "Saying 'la la la' doesn't mean it isn't true.

She knew, as few others did, that the power to coerce depended entirely on the fear or weakness of other human beings. It was possible to use coercion, yes, but in the end you found yourself surrounded only by the weak and fearful, with all those of courage and strength arrayed against you. And many of your strong, brave enemies would match you in evil, too. The more you coerced others, the sooner you would bring yourself to the moment of your doom.

Only the mother tree remained in the middle of the clearing, bathed in light, heavy with fruit, festooned with blossoms, a perpetual celebrant of the ancient mystery of life.

You're bigger than I remembered, she said stupidly. You too, he said. I also remembered that you were beautiful. Memory does play tricks on us. No. Your face is the same, but I don't remember what beautiful means anymore.

What if the first homo sapiens had felt that way? We'd all still be neanderthals, and when the Buggers came they would have blasted us all to bits and that would be that." "We didn't evolve from neanderthals," said Bean. "Well, it's a good thing we have that little fact squared away," said Petra.

Such feelings are natural. They come and go quickly. Only those who make them a way of life are to be condemned for them.

And why does Earth fail to learn its lesson?" Lem said. "Why do we persist in this divided idiocy? Because the world is full of prideful bastards, that's why. Everyone believes they're smarter than everyone else, more capable than everyone else, more justified than everyone else. Humility went extinct a long time ago.

Aunque no podía conocerse el futuro, probablemente sería mucho mejor que sus peores miedos y no tan bueno como sus mejores esperanzas. ¿No funcionaba así siempre el mundo?

but Ender knew that lies could not last long in America. So he believed.

Everything everybody does is a waste of time, until it isn't

He had led missions inside China before, but always for the purpose of sabotage or intelligence gathering, or "involuntary high officer force reduction," Peter's mostly-ironic euphemism for assassination.

Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.

Speakers for the dead apparently have an almost pathological reliance on the idea that people behave better when they know more.

Kovan?n yüzeyindeki buzu k?rsalar bile hemen tekrar donaca??n?, ama içeri s?cak bir yere koyduklar?nda, istedikleri gibi buzun çözüleceÄŸini onlara söylemedi.

Do the gods of different nations

his Calvinism would not outlast his undergraduate education, though its excision would be long and painful.

No hay más maestro que el enemigo. Nadie sino el enemigo te dirá lo que va a hacer el enemigo. Nadie sino el enemigo te enseñará a destruir y conquistar. Sólo el enemigo te enseña tus puntos débiles. Sólo el enemigo te enseña sus puntos fuertes. Y las únicas reglas del juego son qué puedes hacerle y qué puedes impedir que él te haga.