Orson Scott Card: Trending quotes (page 16)

“Something had been given back to him. And because [she] had been a part of it, there was something between them now. A bond of loss, if loss could bind.”

Orson Scott Card book Homebody

Homebody (1998)

Loss , Parting

“Some men are great enough that they can love a whole woman, and not just part of her.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Prentice Alvin (1989), Chapter 10.

Love , Men , Parting

“Sometimes it felt to him as though he’s spent most of his life traveling, and never quite got to anywhere that mattered.
Then again, that might be as good a description of what life was supposed to be as anyone ever thought of. The only real destination was death, and our lives consisted of finding the most circuitous and pleasant path to get there.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 7 “Errand Boy” (p. 136).

Life , Death , Travel

“Here’s the bottom line. I promise you it’s entirely legal, and he can’t touch you for it. This is how the laws are written. They’re designed to protect the fortunes of people as rich as you, while throwing the main tax burden on people in much lower brackets.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Page 200
Ender's Game series, First Meetings in the Enderverse (2003), Investment Counselor

People , Law

“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?”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 14.

Men , Perfection

“Maybe if I could bear my life as it is for one day, for one hour, for one minute, I could forget my wish to be something else.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, Earthborn (1995)

Life , Forgetting

“Many a man isn't as good as his woman, but I never knew a husband who was better than his wife.”

Orson Scott Card book Saints

Saints (1983)

“Don’t you think it’s ironic that you have no idea what you’re supposed to do,” said Verily, “and yet so many people have gone to so much trouble to prevent you from doing it?”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 3.

People , Idea , Thinking

“Calvin, what kind of trouble are you planning to make?”
“No trouble at all,” said Calvin, annoyed. “Why do you think I want to cause trouble?”

Orson Scott Card

“Because you are awake.”
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 4.

Thinking

“When I am drunk I am at my best. It is the national knack of the French.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 6.

“God's hand is strange to us. He cares nothing for the moment, nothing for the feeble ambitions of men and women. He sees the road that flows onward forever.”

Orson Scott Card book Stone Tables

Stone Tables (1997)

Women , Men , God

“[He] looked death in the eye and did not seem disappointed.”

Orson Scott Card Songmaster

Songmaster (1979)

Death , Disappointment

“I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door,
So I turned to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore,

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 10.

Love , Flowers , Joy

“Our savior will resurrect us,” said Peggy, “but I haven’t noticed that Christians end up any less dead at the end of life than heathens.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 14.

Life , Dead

“Keep your freedom, keep your immortality, but somewhere along the line I hope you figure out what you're living forever for. What noble purpose you mean to achieve. Because you're no good to anyone here, not even yourselves.”

Orson Scott Card

Treason (1988)

Hope , Freedom

“Evil people naturally assume that you will use that power exactly as they would use it.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 3.

People , Nature , Evil

“I will not be tamed, only persuaded. I will not be coerced or led blindly or tricked or bullied - I am willing only to be convinced. If you don't trust your own basic goodness enough to tell me what you're trying to do… Then you're confessing your own moral weakness and I'll never serve you.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

“She had that irony in her eyes. Knowledge without wisdom. Power without purpose. Like me.”

Orson Scott Card Treasure Box

Treasure Box (1996)

Wisdom , Knowledge

“No, no, no, Hooch told himself silently. Getting even don’t amount to nothing in this world. Getting even only gets you behind. The best revenge is to get rich enough to make them all call you sir, that’s how you get even with these boys.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 1.

World , Boy , Revenge

“Alvin wondered if it was true—if all men had evil in their hearts, and those men as were good, maybe they were simply the ones who controlled theirselves so well they could act contrary to their heart’s desire. But if that were so, then no man was good, not one.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 11.

Men , Evil , Heart