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...

Your motivation has to be rock solid. You have to want it so bad that even th threat of death won’t take it from you.

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...

I’ve got a pretty good idea what children are, and we’re not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares.

Of course, he didn’t know anything about these Indonesians, or why they would have been there at this moment to save his life, but the fact that they had guns and weren’t firing them at...

Being here alone with nothing to do, I’ve been thinking about myself too. Trying to understang why I hate myself so badly.

She remembered the story from her childhood, about Adam and Eve in the garden, and the talking snake. Even as a little girl she had said – to the consternation of her family – What...

Aw, Poke, you poor, kind, decent, stupid girl. You saved me and I let you down.

He had so much damn respect he wanted to scream.

The only process you’ve mastered is the process of elimination, and the only reason you’ve mastered that is because you can do it in the toilet.

I’ll have that someday, thought Peter. Someone who’ll kiss me good-bye at the door. Or maybe just someone to put a blindfold over my head before they shoot me. Depending on how things turn out.

I don’t think it has anything to do with truth, Olhado. It’s just cause and effect. We never can sort them out. Science refuses to admit any cause except first cause-knock down one domino, the...

You accomplish exactly as much as the people who serve you decide you’ll accomplish, and nothing more.

You’re like, both like, Alexander the Great.’We can’t both be Alexander.’Well sometimes I think you’re two side of the same coin, and I’m the metal in between.

A person is what he says and does; that’s how you learn whether his reputation was earned or manufactured.

Every day people judge all other people. The question is whether they judge wisely.

America. The enemy. The rival. The land of jeans and rock and roll, of crime and capitalism, of poverty and oppression. Of home and freedom.

I will remember this, thought Ender, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it’s due, so that defeat is not disgrace. And I hope I don’t have to do it often.

I’ll become exactly the tool you want me to be, said Ender silently, but at least I wont be fooled into it. I’ll do it because I choose to, not because you tricked me, you...

You’re a monster.Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?No, just a medal. The budget isn’t inexhaustable.

When you have wisdom that another person knows that he 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 only...