Orson Scott Card Quotes
-
Only stupid men trying to seem smart need to be with dumb women. Only weak men trying to look strong are attracted to compliant women.
-
Before the story he refused to even think about it; after the story, it became conceivable to him, and, once he could conceive of it, it soon became inevitable.
-
In a way, he lost some of himself, some of his knack, and therefore some of the choices he might have had in life. But in losing those, he gained so much more freedom, so much more power, that he was clear winner in the bargain.
-
First we try to preserve ourselves, until we see that we can't. Then we try to preserve our children, until we see we can't. Then we act to preserve our kin, and then our village or tribe, and when we see we can't preserve even them, then we act in order to preserve our memory. And if we can't do that, what is left?
-
I don't know a soul who doesn't maintain two separate lists of doctrines - the ones that they believe that they believe; and the ones that they actually try to live by.
-
I was born with more power inside myself than I ever dreamed. But along with it there came no more sense than any other idiotic kid. Somewhere along in here I need to grow up into a man I can stand to live with. A man who doesn't just survive, but deserves to.
-
I have lived in the only decades I could have lived in, and hope to live through at least a few more.
-
And he wanted a wife. He wanted to raise children. He wanted to prove that goodness wasn’t beaten into children, that fear was not the fount from which virtue flowed. He wanted to be able to gather his family in his arms and know that not one of them dreaded the sight of him, or felt the need to lie to him in order to have his love.
-
What sort of arrogance did she have, even to imagine reaching back into the past and making changes? Who am I, she thought, if I dare to answer prayers intended for the gods?
-
Sunday morning, he decided, is designed to let sinners have a sample of the first day of eternity in hell.
-
'Are you all right, sir?' asked Hezekiah.'Just fighting over old battles in my mind,' said John. 'It’s the problem with age. You have all these rusty arguments, and no quarrel to use them in. My brain is a museum, but alas, I’m the only visitor, and even I am not terribly interested in the displays.'
-
We've seen the worst that men can do, pa, and been the worst that men can be. But that don't mean that someday we won't see the best, too. And if we can never be perfect after this, well, we can still be pretty good, can't we?
-
The others are even more likely to obey their god.Which is? It dangles between their legs.
-
He exuded confidence without ever looking as is he wanted to make sure everyone else knew how confident he was.
-
He’d undone all he could. You can be sorry, and you can be forgiven, but you can’t call back the futures that your bad decisions lost. He didn’t need no philosopher to tell him that.
-
'A liar sees lies,' said Taleswapper. 'Even when they aren’t there. Just as a hypocrite sees hypocrites whenever he runs across good people. Can’t stand to think that anyone might really be what you only pretend to be.'
-
Deep inside himself, in a place he didn't often go, where he kept the things he didn't like to think about but dared not forget, he knew that she was still alive somewhere, and somehow she was watching what he did, or at least looking in on him from time to time.
-
I have no way of knowing that your story is not true - but you have no way of knowing that my story isn't true. So I will choose the one that I love. I will close the one that, if it's true, makes this reality one worth living in. I'll act as if the life I hope for is real life, and the life that disgusts me - your life, your view of life - is the lie.
-
I walked down the hill, forgot philosophy, and joined the human race again. Nobody was particularly glad to see me.
-
It has been my experience that the better a man you are, the more folks there are who resent you for it, and find occasion to get angry at you no matter how kindly meant your deeds may be.
-
'You're such a liar.''But I’m a beautiful liar, don’t you think?' She flashed her best smile at her friend.'I don’t understand what men see in women anyway,' her friend answered. 'Hexes or no hexes, as long as a woman has her clothes on a man can’t see what he’s interested in anyhow.'
-
The lies we live will always be confessed in the stories that we tell.
-
There must be a special place in hell reserved for you.I've been to hell. It's a better place than this.
-
'I want to know how many years I got.''Many,' said Ta-Kumsaw. 'Or few. All that matters is what you do with however many years you have.'