"Since we are not yet fully comfortable with the idea that people from the next village are as human as ourselves, it is presumptuous in the extreme to suppose we could ever look at sociable, tool-making creatures who are from other evolutionary paths and see not beasts, but brothers, not rivals, but fellow pilgrims journeying to the shrine of intelligence...The difference... is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging."
— Orson Scott Card (Speaker for the Dead)

"there were crimes and quarrels, alongside kindness and cooperation; there were people who loved each other and people who did not; it was a human world."
— Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game)

"There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. no one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. and the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher. "
— Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game)

"Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be."
— Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game)

"Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear."
— Orson Scott Card (Children of the Mind)

"Humans 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 (Ender's Game)

"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 (Ender's Game)

"Early to bed and early to rise," Mazer intoned, "makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes."
— Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game)

"I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. "
— Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game)

Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins.
-Orson Scott Card, Speaker For The Dead [1986]

"Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf."
-Orson Scott Card, "Ender's Game"

If the purpose of life was just to continue into the future, then none of it would have meaning, because it would be all anticipation and preparation. There is also fruition, happiness of past & present. pg.289

Children of the Mind

Nobody's Rational. We all act because we're sure of what we want, and we believe that the actions we perform will get us what we want, but we never know anything for sure, and so all our rationales are invented to justify what we were going to do anyway before we thought of any reasons. pg.113

Children of the Mind

History has no laws and all patterns that we find in there are useful illusions. pg.89

Children of the Mind

Oh shut up!... Not you. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea. pg.60-61

Children of the Mind

You don't grow up until you stop worrying about other people's purposes or lack of them and find the purposes you believe in for yourself. pg.413

Xenocide

When you have wisdom that another person knows that she needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom, you keep it to yourself. Food looks good to a hungry man. pg.396

Xenocide

Happiness can depend as easily on useless things as on useful ones. pg.363

Xenocide

In a society that expected chastity and fidelity... The adolescents who controlled and channelled their youthful passions were the ones who grew up to be both strong and civilized. Adolescents who were either too weak to control themeselves or too contemptuous of society's norms to try, usually end up being either sheep or wolves. Either mindless members of the herd or predators who took what they could and gave nothing. (being neither one of the two makes sheperds). pg.353-354

Xenocide

People may not accurately perceive which events are miracles and which are not. There are no doubt many miracles claimed which were not miracles at all. There are also probably many miracles that no one recognized when they occured. pg.200

Xenocide

Healthy arguement forces us to weigh every aspect of research. pg.125

Xenocide

The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy. pg.124

Xenocide

Although some actions of The Congress (Government) might not seem good does not mean that they were not good. pg.91

Xenocide

You must carefully understand all consequences of an idea before you believe in it. pg.87

Xenocide

Understanding before believing

You must carefully understand all consequences of an idea before you believe in it. pg.87

Xenocide

All worst things are possible and because they are possible we have to think of them so they won't surprise us later and know how to live in that universe. pg.36

Xenocide

A new soul must expose himself to new things everyday. pg.84

Xenocide

Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.
Orson Scott Card

"Religion is tied to the deepest feelings people have. The love that arises from that stewing pot is the sweetest and strongest, but the hate is the hottest, and the anger is the most violent."

Children of the Mind

"Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon."

Children of the Mind