Orson Scott Card Quotes & Sayings

I will never hurt you. I will always help you. If you are hungry Ill give you my food. If you are frightened I am your friend. I love you now. And love does not end. — Orson Scott Card

I'm not a liar, sir,' she said.
'No, I'm sure you sincerely become whatever it is you're pretending to be. — Orson Scott Card

You're cultural supremacists to the core. You'll perform your Questionable Activities to help out the poor little piggies, but there isn't a chance in the world you'll notice when they have something to teach you. — Orson Scott Card

Armies have spent a lot of time and effort training their soldiers not to think of the enemy as human beings. It's so much easier to kill them if you think of them as dangerous animals. The trouble is, war isn't about killing. It's about getting the enemy to stop resisting your will. Like training a dog not to bite. Punishing him leaves you with a beaten dog. Killing him is a permanent solution, but you've got no dog. If you can understand why he's biting and remove the conditions that make him bite, sometimes that can solve the problem as well. The dog isn't dead. He isn't even your enemy. — Orson Scott Card

He splashed into the water, his whole body, not with the reverent attitude of prayer, but with a desperate thirst; he buried his head under the water and drank deep, with his cheek against the cold stone of the riverbed, the water tumbling over his back, his calves. He drank and drank, lifted his head and shoulders above the water to gasp in the evening air, and then collapsed into the water again, to drink as greedily as before.
It was a kind of prayer, though, he realized as he emerged, freezing cold as the water evaporated from his skin in the breeze of the dark morning.
I am with you, he said to the Oversoul. I'll do whatever you ask, because I long for you to accomplish your purpose here. — Orson Scott Card

Just as [he] had expected. The preacher retreated to authority as soon as he feared his ideas could not stand on their own merit. Reasonable argument was impossible when authority became the arbiter ... — Orson Scott Card

Individual human beings are all tools, that the others use to help us all survive." "That's a lie." "No. It's just a half truth. You can worry about the other half after we win this war. — Orson Scott Card

He could see Bonzo's anger growing hot. Hot anger was bad. Ender's anger was cold, and he could use it. Bonzo's was hot, and so it used him. — Orson Scott Card

This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question. — Orson Scott Card

It was even before he left Earth that he first thought of it as a planet, like any other, not particularly his own. — Orson Scott Card

We spend our lives guessing at what's going on inside everybody else, and when we happen to get lucky and guess right, we think we 'understand.' Such nonsense. Even a monkey at a computer will type a word every now and then. — Orson Scott Card

But my eagerness to sacrifice little children in order to save mankind is wearing thin. — Orson Scott Card

The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy. — Orson Scott Card

In Russia you learn patience," said Ivan. "In America you learn action. — Orson Scott Card

That's the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends. — Orson Scott Card

That's the problem with Peter," said Theresa.
"Only the one?" said Peter. — Orson Scott Card

Life is a suicide course, Miro. Check it out- basic philosophy course. You spend your life running out of fuel and when you're finally out, you croak. — Orson Scott Card

That's what Father and Mother are, thought Nafai. They stay together, not because of any gain, but because of the gift. Father doesn't stay with Mother because she is good for him, but rather because together they can do good for us, and for many others. — Orson Scott Card

Whenever the law gets its hands on you, those who use the law to their own advantage will also turn it against you. Don't put your trust in the laws of men, Alvin. They were designed by strong men to improve their power over weaker ones. — Orson Scott Card

I carry the seeds of death within me and plant them wherever I linger long enough to love. — Orson Scott Card

Do the gods of different nations talk to each other? ... Is there some annual get-together where they compare each other's worshippers? Mine will bow their faces to the floor and trace woodgrain lines for me, says one. Mine will sacrifice animals, says another. Mine will kill anyone who insults me, says a third. Here is the question I think of most often: Are there any who can honestly boast, My worshippers obey my good laws, and treat each other kindly, and live simple generous lives? — Orson Scott Card

Rumors have no value unless they are believed. — Orson Scott Card

Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe, to the core of his soul, that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves. If he does not believe that, then he will never reach the peak of his abilities. — Orson Scott Card

If you wait until you know everything, you never do anything. — Orson Scott Card

Now that she knew credit cards were valuable, Baba Yaga began to collect as many of them as she could. — Orson Scott Card

Didn't Jesus say something disparaging about casting pearls before swine? — Orson Scott Card

Better come with me before your eyes make promises your stomach can't keep. — Orson Scott Card

The conversation of the mind was truer than any language, and they knew each other better than they ever could have by use of mere sight and touch. — Orson Scott Card

You can't write a novel all at once, any more than you can swallow a whale in one gulp. You do have to break it up into smaller chunks. But those smaller chunks aren't good old familiar short stories. Novels aren't built out of short stories. They are built out of scenes. — Orson Scott Card

And you don't understand how devastating fear and rage can be, and how quickly religion and civilization and human decency are forgotten when a mob forms. — Orson Scott Card

I believe what Jesus said was, 'I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive. But of you it is required that you forgive all men. — Orson Scott Card

If it isn't a wonderful story first, who cares how "important" it is? — Orson Scott Card

He was much more useful as a name and a story than he would ever be as an inconvenient flesh-and-blood person. — Orson Scott Card

Besides," said Suriyawong. "This was not a rescue operation."
"What was it, target practice? Chinese skeet?"
"An offer of transportation to an invited guest of the Hegemon," said Suriyawong. "And the loan of a knife."
Achilles held up the bloody thing, dangling it from the point. "Yours?" he asked.
"Unless you want to clean it," said Suriyawong.
Achillese handed it to him. Suriyawong took out his cleaning kit and wiped down the blade, then began to polish it.
"You wanted me to die," said Achilles quietly.
"I expected you to solve your own problems," said Suriyawong. — Orson Scott Card

A minor request," said Mazer. "Let's not refer to it as the training cage. 'Training' sounds laborious and regimented. Soldiers groan at the word. These men joined the IF to fight, sir. Let's call it the Battle Room. — Orson Scott Card

I don't freeze up because it isn't my battle. I'm helping. I'm watching. But I'm free. Because it's Ender's game. — Orson Scott Card

You make her sound - what? - mentally deficient?" "Yes. She was incapable of holding on to malice. A serious defect. — Orson Scott Card

Most communities attempting to survive under irresistible pressure from a dominant culture develop a myth that allows them to believe they are somehow a special people. Chosen. Favored by the gods. Gypsies, Jews
plenty of historical precedents — Orson Scott Card

What could go wrong ... Doing some stupid impulsive thing that caused the death of drowthers was practically a family tradition. — Orson Scott Card

If God created our will, then he's responsible for every choice we make ... So
as I recall, the official philosophical answer is that free will doesn't exist. Only the illusion of free will, because the causes of hour behavior are so complex that we can't trace them back. If you've got one line of dominoes knocking each other down, one by one, then you can always say, look, this domino fell because that one pushed it. But when you have an infinite number of dominoes that can be traced back in an infinite number of directions, you can never find where the causal chain begins. So you think, That domino fell because it wanted to ... Even if there is no such thing as free will, we have to treat each other as if there were free will in order to live together in society. — Orson Scott Card

Your work is first, learning is first, winning is everything because without it there is nothing. — Orson Scott Card

The boy whose arm he had broken was out for vengeance. His name, Ender quickly learned, was Bernard. He spoke his own name with a French accent, since the French, with their arrogant Separatism, insisted that the teaching of Standard not begin until the age of four, when the French language patterns were already set. His accent made him exotic and interesting; his broken arm made him a martyr; his sadism made him a natural focus for all those who loved pain in others. — Orson Scott Card

Order and disorder', said the speaker, 'they each have their beauty. — Orson Scott Card

Even gentle people recognize that sometimes the decision not to kill is a decision to die. — Orson Scott Card

It seemed a part of her life, to step from the ancient to the modern, back and forth. She felt rather sorry for those who knew only one and not the other. It was better, she thought, to be able to select from the whole menu of human achievements than to be bound within one narrow range. — Orson Scott Card

All living things are manipulated as long as there is a will, it is bent and twisted constantly. Only the dead are allowed the luxury of freedom, and then only because they want nothing, and therefore can't be thwarted. — Orson Scott Card

She likes us," said Umbo. "I know, I could feel it too," said Rigg. "She's really glad to have us here. I think she loves us like her own children." "Whom she murdered and cut up into the stew." "They were delicious. — Orson Scott Card

It made him want to sing hymns he'd never even heard before — Orson Scott Card

I am a Gordian knot. Don't unravel, just slice. — Orson Scott Card

When you hear a true story, there is a part of you that responds to it regardless of art, regardless of evidence. Let it be the most obvious fabrication and you will still believe whatever truth is in it, because you can not deny truth no matter how shabbily it is dressed. — Orson Scott Card

Here are our failures, and here is our greatness; we did not mean to hurt you, and we forgive you for our death. — Orson Scott Card

It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try. — Orson Scott Card

The child is mine and Petra's. It's especially important to us because it's the first we know of that definitely does not have my condition."
"You mean it isn't ugly? — Orson Scott Card

Your dream is a good one. [ ... ] The desire that is the very root of life itself: To grow until all the space you can see is part of you, under your control. It's the desire for greatness. — Orson Scott Card

It's the most charming thing about humans. You are all so sure that the lesser animals are bleeding with envy because they didn't have the good fortune to be born Homo sapiens. — Orson Scott Card

He was getting to the point that he didn't understand why tax attorneys didn't just kill themselves. — Orson Scott Card

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

You really are playing God." "I most certainly am not playing. — Orson Scott Card

Everybody has his talent, everybody has his gift from God, and we go about sharing gifts with each other, that's the way of the world, the best way. — Orson Scott Card

But I am designed to last forever," said the expendable, "if not interfered with."
"Isn't that nice? Expendable yet eternal. You'll be able to go back and observe any part of human history that you wish. Watch the pyramids being unbuilt. See the ice ages go and come in reverse. Watch the de-extinction of the dinosaurs as a meteor leaps out of the Gulf of Mexico."
"I will have no useful task. I will not be able to help the human race in any way. My existence will have no meaning after you are dead."
"Now you know how humans feel all the time. — Orson Scott Card

A man always assumes that others are as virtuous as himself — Orson Scott Card

Could see or hear. That was what Alai had given him; a gift so sacred that even Ender could not be allowed — Orson Scott Card

Speculative fiction includes all stories that take place in a setting contrary to known reality. — Orson Scott Card

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

Computers were a kind of magery in themselves, or might as well be - to people who didn't understand them, they were every bit as inscrutable. — Orson Scott Card

Withholding a decision is a decision. — Orson Scott Card

A man who can't read only knows what other folks tell him. — Orson Scott Card

Women always said things like that, and it made him crazy. It's as if every conversation with a woman was a test, and men always failed it, because they always lacked the key to the code and so they never quite understood what the conversation was really about. If, just once, the man could understand, really comprehend the whole of the conversation, then the perfect union between male and female would be possible. But instead men and women continue to cohabit, even to love each other, without ever quite crossing over the chasm of misunderstanding between them. — Orson Scott Card

Five chickens do not make a cow. — Orson Scott Card

Why do you say that I am alone? My body is with me wherever I am, telling me endless stories of hunger and satisfaction, weariness and sleep, eating and drinking and breathing and life. With such company who could ever be alone? — Orson Scott Card

The worst thing about the fantasies of the mentally ill is that they're so damned consistent. They never let up. They never give you any rest. — Orson Scott Card

He toyed with the idea of trying to be like the other boys. But he couldn't think of any jokes, and none of theirs seemed funny. Wherever their laughter came from, Ender couldn't find such a place in himself. He was afraid, and fear made him serious. — Orson Scott Card

Americans love to pick up, move on, start over. But instead of being somebody fresh and new, they become somebody lonely and lost, or, far too often these days, they become nobody at all, a machine for satisfying hunger, without loyalty or honor or duty. — Orson Scott Card

Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey. — Orson Scott Card

But now, well, he keeps telling me that solitude is the foundation of true wisdom, that all the brilliant thoughts in this house come as the desperate cry of one human being to another, saying, Know me, live with me in the world of my mind. — Orson Scott Card

You're a monster.
Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?
No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable. — Orson Scott Card

There's greatness in him. A magnitude of spirit. — Orson Scott Card

Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be. — Orson Scott Card

There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world. — Orson Scott Card

I taught you everything you know. But I didn't teach you everything I know. — Orson Scott Card

The devil takes his victories," the man replied, "wherever men of God lose heart, and leave the field to him. — Orson Scott Card

You're a strange kind of boy," said Achilles. "I was not tested for normality before I was entrusted with this mission," said Suriyawong. "But I have no doubt that I would fail such a test. — Orson Scott Card

For children love is a feeling; for adults, it is a decision. Children wait to learn if their love is true by seeing how long it lasts; adults make their love true by never wavering from their commitment. — Orson Scott Card

His vices were the vices of his time and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu of his life. — Orson Scott Card

I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer! You didn't want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it! — Orson Scott Card

Just because you believe it doesn't make it so. — Orson Scott Card

Good-bye, Eros, and all the soldiers on it, the ones who fought for me and the other children, the ones who manipulated us and lied to us for the good of humanity, the ones who conspired to defame me and keep me from returning to Earth, all of you, good and bad, kind and selfish, good-bye to you, I am no longer one of you, neither your pawn nor your savior. — Orson Scott Card

If the followers of the Oversoul are kept blind, if they can't judge the Oversoul's purpose for themselves, then they aren't freely choosing between good and evil, or between wise and foolish, but are only choosing to subsume themselves in the purposes of the Oversoul How can the Oversoul's plans be well-served, if all its followers are the kind of weak-souled people who are willing to obey the Oversoul without understanding?
I will serve you, Oversoul, with my whole heart I'll serve you, if I understand what you're trying to do, what it means. And if your purpose is a good one ... I will not be tamed, only persuaded. I will not be coerced or led blindly or tricked or bullied
I am willing only to be convinced. If you don't trust your own basic goodness enough to tell me what you're trying to do, Oversoul, then you're confessing your own moral weakness and I'll never serve you. — Orson Scott Card

That's what Ender has to understand. There really is evil in the world, and wickedness, and every brand of stupidity. There's meanness and heartlessness and ... I don't even know which of them is me. - Hyrum Graff — Orson Scott Card

He had brought no possessions with him; he would take none away. There were none to have
everything of value was in the school computer or his own head and hands. — Orson Scott Card

It's not enough just to laugh at good fortune and say, 'Enough already.' You have to really mean it
that you have enough. And because you mean it, you take the surplus and you give it away. Similarly, when bad fortune comes, you bear it until it becomes unbearable
your family is hungry, or you can no longer function in your work. And then again you say, 'Enough already,' and you change something. You move; you change careers; you let your spouse make all the decisions. Something. You don't endure the unendurable. — Orson Scott Card

Humans are very proud of their changes, but every imagined transformation turns out to be a new set of excuses for behaving exactly as the individual has always behaved.> < — Orson Scott Card

Science fiction is not about the future. Like all other fiction, it is about the present. It simply uses different techniques to show us who we are, who we might be, and whom we ought to become. — Orson Scott Card

A lot of human behavior was really acting out our responses to dangers long past. — Orson Scott Card

Intellectual understanding does not always bring visceral belief. — Orson Scott Card

To reach out to you when I'm in need, and to try to be here for you when you need me back. And to feel such tenderness when I look at you that I want to stand between you and all the world: and yet also to lift you up and carry you above the strong currents of life; and at the same time, I would be glad to stand always like this, at a distance, watching you, the beauty of you. — Orson Scott Card

Nobodys life ever goes according to plan.
So why do we keep on planning?
Because that's how we know who we are. By what we intend to be. By what we try to become.
And fail.
I don't say 'fail'. I saw we aim and miss. But we still hit something. — Orson Scott Card

The bones are hard and by themselves seem dead and stony, but by rooting into and pulling against the skeleton, the rest of the body carries out all the motions of life. — Orson Scott Card

How short life is for fools. — Orson Scott Card

Readers tend to like a character who is at least superficially like themselves. But they quickly lose interest unless this particular character is somehow out of the ordinary. The character may wear the mask of the common man, but underneath his true face must always be the face of the hero. — Orson Scott Card