Orson Scott Card: Trending quotes (page 18)

“He had left home to get away, not to go toward anything. There was no greater freedom than that.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 8.

Home , Freedom

“Marriage is about banality. Its purpose is banality, to create an environment of surpassing safety and predictability for young children to grow up in, the foundation of life, the root of inner peace.”

Orson Scott Card Enchantment

Enchantment (1999)

Life , Marriage , Children , Peace

“In the absence of understanding, that was a good a reason as any for living together and making babies and raising them up and throwing them out of the house and then going through the long slow decline together until one of them died and left the other alone again, understanding as little as ever about what their spouses really wanted, who they really were. Was that tragedy? Or was that comedy? Was there really any difference?”

Orson Scott Card Enchantment

Enchantment (1999)

Understanding , Baby , Housing

“The first of a thousand lies. Truth flowed to Micah Quill, was sucked in and disappeared, and emerged again looking ever so much like it used to, but changed subtly, at the edges, where none would notice, so that simple truth became a complicated fabric indeed, one that could wrap you up so tightly and close you off from the air until you suffocated in it.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 9.

Truth , Change

“It was always from the love of strong women that he had found whatever joy had been granted him in his life.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Love , Life , Women , Strong

“Like all children they only wanted to be known, and cared little about giving that gift to others.”

Orson Scott Card book Stone Tables

Stone Tables (1997)

Children

“To face death, that's nothing much. But to feel really stupid when you die, well, that would be insufferable.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Ships Of Earth (1994)

Death , Stupidity , Feeling

“He hated the way they thought. He hated the way they didn't think. It was hard to imagine which of them he hated more.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, Earthfall (1995)

Hate , Way , Imagination , Thinking

“There was the chance that someday he would surprise her, that she would turn to face her husband and find a stranger in his place, a stranger who didn't approve of her and didn't want her in his life anymore.”

Orson Scott Card book Lost Boys

Lost Boys (1992)

Life , Chance

“That’s the way it was then, you see. Folks noticed other people's trouble every bit as quick as if it was their own.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 3.

People , Way

“I never had you, not since you escaped from the womb.”

Orson Scott Card Enchantment

Enchantment (1999)

“But whether there's some grand design really matters little to me. My only hope was this: to see what might be, to believe that it should be, and then to do all I could to bring it to pass, whatever the cost.”

Orson Scott Card

Treason (1988)

Hope

“Taleswapper looked at Miller.
“I'm nothing,” he said.
“A Christian isn’t nothing,” said Taleswapper.
“I'm no Christian, either.”
“Ah,” said Taleswapper. “A Deist, then, like Tom Jefferson.” The children murmured at his mention of the great man’s name.
“Taleswapper, I'm a father who loves his children, a husband who loves his wife, a farmer who pays his debts, and a miller without a millstone.””

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 9.

Love , Children

“Permanence was always an illusion, and love was just the disguise that lovers wore to hide the death of their union from each other for a while.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

Love , Death , Lovers

“And I says back to him, “Calvin, sounding like an educated man don’t make you educated,” and he says back to me, “I'd rather be ignorant and sound educated than be educated and sound ignorant,” and I said, “Why?” and he says to me, “Because if you sound educated then nobody ever tests you to find out, but if you sound ignorant they never stop.””

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 1.

Education

“The desire to force others to bend or break to her will was always there, usually hidden deeply enough that she could forget she had that wish within her, but occasionally surfacing to dangle the ripe fruit of power just out of her reach. She knew, as few others did, that the power to coerce depended entirely on the fear or weakness of other human beings. It was possible to use coercion, yes, but in the end you found yourself surrounded only by the weak and fearful, with all those of courage and strength arrayed against you.”

Orson Scott Card

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

Fear , Courage , Dependency , Forgetting

““Hey, you’re getting to be almost worth how much it costs to feed you.”
“Good thing, ’cause I got no plan to eat less.””

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 3 “Fever” (p. 48).

“At night in his own bed, Alvin listened to the distant greensong, still warm and beautiful, still bright and hopeful even though the forest was getting so sparse, even though the future was so dim. Cause there’s no fear of future in the song of life, just the ever-joyful present moment. That’s all I want right now, thought Alvin. The present moment, which is good enough.”

Orson Scott Card

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 19 (closing words).

Life , Fear , Beauty , Hope

“Wasting our time? This is a waste of time, to live in peace and plenty with my wife and children? May I waste the rest of my life, then.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Ships Of Earth (1994)

Life , Children , Peace , 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.”

Orson Scott Card

Homecoming saga, The Call Of Earth (1992)

Love , Life , Lie , Hope