Orson Scott Card Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. America's intellectual community has never been very bright. Or honest. They're all sheep, following whatever the intellectual fashion of the decade happens to be. Demanding that everyone follow their dicta in lockstep. Everyone has to be open-minded and tolerant of the things they believe, but God forbid they should ever concede, even for a moment, that someone who disagrees with them might have some fingerhold of truth. Shadow of the Hegemon

2. But in the military you don't get trusted positions just because of your ability. You also have to attract the notice of superior officers. You have to be liked. You have to fit in with the system. You have to look like what the officers above you think that officers should look like. You have to think in ways that they are comfortable with.The result was that you ended up with a command structure that was top-heavy with guys who looked good in uniform and talked right and did well enough not to embarrass themselves, while the really good ones quietly did all the serious work and bailed out their superiors and got blamed for errors they had advised against until they eventually got out.That was the military. Ender's Shadow

3. But it was not the boyish grin she had known when he bounded along the low-gravity inner corridors of Battle School. This smile had weariness in it, and old fears long mastered but still present. It was the smile of wisdom. Shadow Puppets

4. Fatherhood to us was an act of passion, soon forgot; but not to Orem ap Avonap. Never guessing that the blond and happy farmer was no blood of his, Orem had taken a part of that simple man into himself and saved it for this time. At any time in the Palace he might run by, Youth on this shoulders or, as time went by, toddling along behind. Hart's Hope

5. Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

6. Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Ender's Game

7. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. Ender's Game

8. I think 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. Xenocide

9. 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. Ender's Game

10. 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. Ender's Game

11. It will hurt." said Petra. "But let's make the most of what we have, and not let future pain ruin present happiness. Shadow Puppets

12. Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. Alvin Journeyman

13. No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. 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. Speaker for the Dead

14. Perhaps a physicist would know at once why this whole idea was absurd. But then, perhaps a physicist would be so locked into the consensus of his scientific community that it would be harder for him to accept an idea that transformed the meaning of everything he knew. Even if it were true.

15. 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. Ender's Game

16. Sometimes happiness consists of finding the right balance of misery. Sarah

17. The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them. Xenocide

18. This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?""I don't know. Is it a longing? Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with me?""Yes," she said."That's influenza," said Miro. "Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours. Children of the Mind

19. We have to go. I'm almost happy here. Ender's Game

20. What a laugh, though. To think that one human being could ever really know another. You could get used to each other, get so habituated that you could speak their words right along with them, but you never know why other people said what they said or did what they did, because they never even know themselves. Nobody understands anybody. Shadow of the Hegemon

21. 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. Xenocide

22. You're a monster.Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable. Ender's Game

23. ...you seemed to be listening to me, not to find out useful information, but to try to catch me in a logical fallacy. This tells us all that you are used to being smarter than your teachers, and that you listen to them in order to catch them making mistakes and prove how smart you are to the other students. This is such a pointless, stupid way of listening to teachers that it is clear you are going to waste months of our time before you finally catch on that the only transaction that matters is a transfer of useful information from adults who possess it to children who do not, and that catching mistakes is a criminal misuse of time. Ender's Shadow

24. I have hope for you, if only because you're the only one left to hope for. Ender's Game

25. I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her. I didn't want to fight her anymore. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home. So I blew up her planet. Speaker for the Dead

26. I see Ender in you looking out at me. You see Ender in me looking out at you. And yet not one of us is truly him; we are each our own self, all of us strangers on our own road. Children of the Mind

27. In philosophy class I think we finally decided that 'good' is an infinitely recursive term - it can't be defined except in terms of itself. Good is good because it's better than bad, though why it's better to be good than bad depends on how you define good, and on and on. Ender in Exile

28. 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. Enchantment

29. Miro, I'm so sorry. I always felt such pity for you humans because you could only think of one thing at a time and your memories were so imperfect and . . . now I realize that just getting through the day without killing somebody can be an achievement."It gets to be a habit. Most of us manage to keep our body count quite low. It's the neighborly way to live. Children of the Mind

30. Perhaps a physicist would know at once why this whole idea was absurd. But then, perhaps a physicist would be so locked into the consensus of his scientific community that it would be harder for him to accept an idea that transformed the meaning of everything he knew. Even if it were true.