You don’t have to eat the entire turd to know that it’s not a crab cake.

You don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t pushed. Nobody knows. I did it the way I did it, and it worked. Above all, it worked.

When you really know somebody you can’t hate them. Or maybe it’s just that you can’t really know them until you stop hating them.

It will hurt.” said Petra. “But let’s make the most of what we have, and not let future pain ruin present happiness.

That’s the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends.

What we’ve done is make the categories of science fiction and fantasy larger, freer, and more inclusive than any other genre of contemporary literature. We have room for everybody, and we are extraordinarily open to...

I once heard a tale of a man who split himself in two.The one part never changed at all; the other grew and grew.The changeless part was always true, The growing part was always new,And...

(Rigg) had often complained that all these languages were useless, and Father had only said, “A man who speaks but one language understands none.

Was that tragedy? Or was that comedy? Was there really any difference?

You honor our humble abode,’ said Bean.’I do, don’t I,’ said Peter with a smile.

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...

It had to be a trick or you couldn’t have done it.

As often I have been a science fiction writer writing science fiction for the community of science fiction readers, I am also, for good or ill, an American writing American literature to an American audience....

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.

Twisted and perverse are the ways of the human mind,” Jane intoned. “Pinocchio was such a dolt to try to become a real boy. He was much better off with a wooden head.

If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement.

Then, as Father had trained him, Rigg thought past his feelings.

So from then on, he looked at all his choices and said, What would a good person do, and then did it. But he has now learned something very important about human nature. If you...

When it comes down to it, though, the real decision is inevitable: If one of us has to be destroyed, let’s make damn sure we’re the ones alive at the end.

Scholars don’t have blood flowing in their veins,” said Hamlet. “When they’re wounded, they bleed logic, and when all of it is gone, their brains die, and they become … soldiers.

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.

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,...

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.

I’ve lived too long with pain. I won’t know who I am without it.

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...

You made them hate me.” Said Ender”So? What will you do about it? Crawl in a corner? Start kissing their little backsides so they’ll love you again? There’s only one thing that will make them...

I didn’t know how you’d get us out of that last one. But you did. You were good.

I’ll go from world to world until I find a time and place where you can come awake in safety. And I’ll tell your story to my people, so that perhaps in time the can...

But most of those to whom Ender’s Game feels most important are those who, like me, feel themselves to be perpetually outside their most beloved communities, never able to come inside and feel confident of...

Could you possibly be a little more incoherent?” asked Olivenko. “There are bits of this I’m almost understanding, and I’m sure that’s not what you have in mind.

Sometimes happiness consists of finding the right balance of misery.

The lives of all people flow through time, and, regardless of how brutal one moment may be, how filled with grief or pain or fear, time flows through all lives equally.

The truth is that good fantasies carefully limit the magic that’s possible. In fact, the magic has to be defined, at least in the author’s mind, as a whole new set of natural laws that...

Personal affection is a luxury you can have only after all your enemies are eliminated. Until then, everyone you love is a hostage, sapping your courage and corrupting your judgment.

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...

I will never hurt you.I will always help you.If you are hungryIll give you my food.If you are frightenedI am your friend.I love you now.And love does not end.

In Russia you learn patience,” said Ivan. “In America you learn action.

Let me tell you about gods,” said Wiggin. “No matter how smart or strong you are, there’s always somebody smarter or stronger, and when you run into somebody who’s stronger and smarter than anybody, you...

So the whole war is beause we can’t talk to each other.

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...

someone’s senta loving notein lines of returning geeseand as the moon fillsmy western chamberas petals danceover the flowing streamagain I think of youthe two of usliving a sadnessaparta hurt that can’t be removedyet when my...

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...

Stories are invented as you go along…

The essence of training is to allow error without consequence.

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,...

I’ve had enough adventures,” said Noxon, “to know that boredom is the closest thing to happiness. Boredom means that there’s nothing wrong. You’re not hungry, you’re not in pain. Nobody’s making any demands on you....

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...

Because here’s the thing―we don’t give a shit about fairness here. We’re soldiers. Soldiers do not give the other guy a sporting chance. Soldiers shoot in the back, lay traps and ambushes, lie to the...

You deplore what I did, but you still want to know the results of my research.

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...