Quotes From "Enders Game" By Orson Scott Card

1
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. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them. Orson Scott Card
You're a monster. Thanks. Does this mean I get a...
2
You're a monster. Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise? No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable. Orson Scott Card
Peter, you're twelve years old. I'm ten. They have a...
3
Peter, you're twelve years old. I'm ten. They have a word for people our age. They call us children and they treat us like mice. Orson Scott Card
I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they...
4
I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. Orson Scott Card
Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely...
5
Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Orson Scott Card
We have to go. I'm almost happy here.
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We have to go. I'm almost happy here. Orson Scott Card
I have hope for you, if only because you're the...
7
I have hope for you, if only because you're the only one left to hope for. Orson Scott Card
If you try and lose then it isn't your fault....
8
If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault. Orson Scott Card
There's only one thing that will make them stop hating...
9
There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you. Orson Scott Card
10
I know, you've been here a year, you think these people are normal. Well, they're not. WE'RE not. I look in the library, I call up books on my desk. Old ones, because they won't let us have anything new, but I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. Children aren't in armies, they aren't COMMANDERS, they don't rule over forty other kids, it's more than anybody can take and not get crazy. . Orson Scott Card
11
[That wall] might be breached sometime in the future, but for now the only real conversation between them was the roots that had already grown low and deep, under the wall, where they could not be broken. The most terrible thing, though, was the fear that the wall could never be breached, that in his heart Alai was glad of the separation, and was ready to be Ender's enemy. For now that they could not be together, they must be infinitely apart, and what had been sure and unshakable was now fragile and insubstantial; from the moment we are not together, Alai is a stranger, for he has a life now that will be no part of mine, and that means that when I see him we will not know each other. Orson Scott Card
12
The next day he passed Alai in the corridor, and they greeted each other, touched hands, talked, but they both knew that there was a wall there now. It might be breached, that wall, sometime in the future, but for now the only real conversation between them was the roots that had already grown low and deep, under the wall, where they could not be broken. Orson Scott Card
In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people...
13
In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people because of this. He always acted out of intelligent self-interest. Orson Scott Card
So the whole war is because we can't talk to...
14
So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other. Orson Scott Card
15
Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me–to find out what you're good for. We might both do despicable things, Ender, but if humankind survives, then we were good tools. Orson Scott Card
There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and...
16
There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world. Orson Scott Card
17
I would follow such beauty, said something inside Ender. I would see as those eyes see. Orson Scott Card
18
Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it. Orson Scott Card
19
I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it. Orson Scott Card
20
There was no doubt now in Ender's mind. There was no help for him. Whatever he faced, now and forever, no on ewould save him from it. 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. Orson Scott Card
21
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. Orson Scott Card
22
Panem et Circenses translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power. Orson Scott Card
23
They have influence, but no power." "In my experience, influence is power. Orson Scott Card
24
While you're governing the colony and I'm writing political philosophy, They'll never guess that in the darkness of night we sneak into each other's room and play checkers and have pillow fights. Orson Scott Card
25
Because never in my entire childhood did I feel like a child. I felt like a person all along--the same person that I am today. I never felt that I spoke childishly. I never felt that my emotions and desires were somehow less real than adult emotions and desires. And in writing _Ender's Game_, I forced the audience to experience the lives of these children from that perspective--the perspective in which their feelings and decisions are just as real and important as any adult's.. _Ender's Game_ asserts the personhood of children, and those who are used to thinking of children in another way .. are going to find _Ender's Game_ a very unpleasant place to live. . Orson Scott Card
26
You're bigger than I remember, " she said stupidly." You too, " he said. "I also remember 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. Come on. Let's go out into the lake. Orson Scott Card
27
Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you. I didn't come here because I wanted to be a colonist. 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. Orson Scott Card
28
I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. Orson Scott Card
29
But shouldn't they still act like children? They aren't normal. They act like--history. Napoleon and Wellington. Caesar and Brutus. Orson Scott Card
30
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 one will ever save you. Orson Scott Card
31
As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine what "just living" might actually be. He had never done it in his life. But he wanted to do it anyway. Orson Scott Card
32
Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, and then happiness as we can manage it.... Take what pleasure you can in the interstices of your work, but your work is first, learning first, winning is everything because without it there is nothing. Orson Scott Card
33
The essence of training is to allow error without consequence. Orson Scott Card
34
From you I can learn things that nobody knows. Orson Scott Card
35
I've learned all I'm ever going to learn from you. Orson Scott Card
36
That's the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends. Orson Scott Card
37
Everything we do means something. Orson Scott Card
38
Maybe that's who you are, what you remember. Orson Scott Card
39
Graff had isolated Ender to make him struggle. To make him prove, not that he was competent, but that he was far better than everyone else. That was the only way he could win respect and friendship. It made him a better soldier then he would ever have been otherwise. It also made him lonely, afraid, angry, untrusting. And maybe those traits, too, made him a better soldier. Orson Scott Card
40
Who would expect less?" she said. " You're a Wiggin." " Whatever that means." He said. " It means that you are going to make a difference in the world. Orson Scott Card
41
I'm hurting you to make you a better soldier in every way. To sharpen your wit. To intensify your effort. To keep you off balance, never sure what's going to happen next, so you always have to be ready for anything, ready to improvise, determined to win no matter what. I'm also making you miserable. Orson Scott Card
42
We don't punish the ones who fail. They just-don't go on, Orson Scott Card
43
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. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. Orson Scott Card
44
No book, however good, can survive a hostile reading. Orson Scott Card
45
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. Orson Scott Card
46
The kid is scary. Orson Scott Card
47
Another oral exam, huh?' Peter said.' Shut up, Peter, ' said Valentine.'You should relax and enjoy it, ' said Peter. 'It could be worse.'' I don't know how.'' It could be an anal exam. Orson Scott Card
48
Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters. Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters. Orson Scott Card
49
They must talk to each other directly, Ender, mind to mind. What one thinks, another can also think; what one remembers, another can also re-member. Why would they ever develop language? Why would they ever learn to read and write? How would they know what reading and writing were if they saw them? Or signals? Or numbers? Or anything that we use to communicate? This isn’t just a matter of translating from one language to another. They don’t have a language at all. We used every means we could think of to communicate with them, but they don’t even have the machinery to know we’re signaling. And maybe they’ve been trying to think to us, and they can’t understand why we don’t respond. Orson Scott Card
50
Alai saw the tears but had the grace not to say so. "They're fartheads, Ender, they won't even let you take anything you own." Ender grinned and didn't cry after all. "Think I should strip and go naked?" Alai laughed, too. On impulse Ender hugged him, tight, almost as if he were Valentine. He even thought of Valentine then and wanted to go home. "I don't want to go, " he said. Alai hugged him back. "I understand them, Ender. You are the best of us. Maybe they in a hurry to teach you everything."" They don't want to teach me everything, " Ender said. "I wanted to learn what it was like to have a friend." Alai nodded soberly. "Always my friend, always the best of my friends, " he said. Then he grinned. "Go slice up the buggers."" Yeah, " Ender smiled back. Alai suddenly kissed Ender on the cheek and whispered in his ear, "Salaam. Orson Scott Card