Orson Scott Card: Trending quotes (page 17)

“This man, though, was of that rare type that knew what he wanted but didn't want anything badly enough to demand it or beg for it or hurt anyone else in the process of getting it.”

Orson Scott Card book Homebody

Homebody (1998)

Hurt

“I wanted your songs.
You wanted my songs more than you wanted my happiness. So you took my happiness, and stole my songs.”

Orson Scott Card Songmaster

Songmaster (1979)

Happiness

“We're not a family. We're the opposite of a family. We're people so lonely that when we're together we make a black hole of loneliness and everything else gets sucked down into it and is never seen again.”

Orson Scott Card book Homebody

Homebody (1998)

People , Family , Loneliness

“I'm accusing you of violating the laws of nature," he said, irritated at my failure to respond.
"Nature's virtue is intact," I reassured him. "I just know some different laws.”

Orson Scott Card

Dialog between Lord Barton and Lanik Mueller, after the latter performs a series of apparent miracles
[A Planet Called Treason, 1979, 1st Dell printing, 1980, July, Dell Publishing, New York, ISBN 0-440-16897-X, p. 240 of 299]

Law , Failure , Nature

“Even in cultures where marriages are arranged by parents, you’re never actually forbidden to fall in love with your mate.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Page 100
Ender's Game series, First Meetings in the Enderverse (2003), Teacher's Pest

Love , Marriage , Parent

“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.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Spoken by Sister Carlotta.
Ender's Game series, Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)

Soul

“I'm nobody's child.
You're mine now. Not my child, but mine, to miss you when you go, to look out for you, to hope you'll be careful.”

Orson Scott Card book Homebody

Homebody (1998)

Hope

“Keep me alive. Keep me alive long enough for me to conquer the animal within myself. Long enough for me to learn to partner myself with a woman who is better and stronger than me. Long enough for me to reconcile myself with my brothers. Long enough to be as good a man as my father, and as good as my mother, too.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Call Of Earth (1992)

Learning , Animals

“Wouldn't it have been better to change humanity so it no longer desired to destroy itself?”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

Change

“Like running hurdles. Work so hard, jump over every one, fast, high enough but no higher, because you can't afford to hang in the air. And then, when the race is over, you're dripping with sweat, either they beat you or you beat them… and then a couple of guys come out and move the hurdles out of the way. Turns out they were nothing. All that work to jump over them, but now they're gone.”

Orson Scott Card Enchantment

Enchantment (1999)

Way , Guy

“You aren't the kind of guy who takes the law into his own hands. You left the law in other hands and it screwed you over pretty badly.”

Orson Scott Card book Homebody

Homebody (1998)

Law , Guy

“Home is where the people who live there need me to come home to them, and worry about me when I'm gone. There's no such place on this earth, no matter how far I drive.”

Orson Scott Card Treasure Box

Treasure Box (1996)

People , Home

“This is serious, and you gotta keep your mind open in case an idea comes along—you want there to be some room for it to fit in.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 5 “Crystal Ball” (p. 98).

Idea

“Self-knowledge can be painful, but not half so damaging as self-ignorance.”

Orson Scott Card book Stone Tables

Stone Tables (1997)

Pain , Knowledge

“Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” when the saying should have been, “Where there’s scandalous lies there’s always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 17.

Stupidity

“Sometimes those who care for the whole community must act in a way that harms the individual. For a good man it never becomes easy and he avoids it when he can; but when people need him to be harsh, he will be harsh indeed, and he won't shrink from it, he'll do it with his own hand and let it be known what he does.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, Earthfall (1995)

People , Way , Communication

“You must be a prophet right enough,” said Alvin Junior, “cause I can’t understand a thing you said.”

Orson Scott Card

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

Understanding

“A dagger has only a single point, but a traitor cuts from anywhere.”

Orson Scott Card Hart's Hope

Hart's Hope (1983)

“No man can bear to live with a woman who speaks nothing but the truth to him.”

Orson Scott Card book Stone Tables

Stone Tables (1997)

Truth

“How could you disguise your own thoughts so even you didn't know what you were thinking?”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

Thinking