Orson Scott Card citations

Page 3

“Lanik :
- Je suis en train de perdre Saranna.
L'Homee-qui-sais-tout :
- C'est très bien. Peresonne ne doit posséder quelqu'un d'autre.”

“En terme de reproduction, un mâle fait de son mieux s'il voyage et copule au maximum.”

“Même si le libre arbitre n'existe pas, nous devons nous comporter les uns envers les autres comme si le libre arbitre existait afin de pouvoir vivre en société.”

“Les sages ne sont pas sages parce qu'ils ne commettent jamais d'erreurs. Ils sont sages parce qu'ils corrigent leurs erreurs dès qu'ils les reconnaissent.”

“C'est la vie. Ça fait mal, c'est sale, mais c'est tellement bon.”

“La vie et encore assez douce pour nous… même si nous savons que cela ne tardera pas. Et cela aussi sera un bien. Même la mort sera un bien, je pense, non parce qu’elle mettra fin aux anciennes amertumes, mais parce qu’à mon avis elle sera la dernière des aigres saveurs qui m’ont signalé que j’étais en vie.
Par-dessous toutes choses je continue d’entendre le cri de la terre, mais il n’affecte plus ce que je vois et ce que je fais. Au contraire, il rehausse mes plaisirs, car le lever du soleil est plus éclatant à couse des sombres gouffres au fond de moi, et la sourire de Saranna est plus chaleureux à cause de la cruauté que j’ai connue, et les soins que je prodigue aux gens et aux animaux ont plus de valeur à cause des tueries que j’ai commises.”

“Il eut un surprenant sourire, puis il me prit dans ses bras et me dit : « Je ne pensais que tu m’avais trahi la dernière fois que tu as parti. Je ne comprenais pas, Lanik. Je pensais que si je te faisais confiance, cela signifie que tu agirais toujours comme je le voulais…”

“Mais peu importe qu’il y ait ou non des grands desseins extérieurs à moi. Mon seul espoir a été ceci : discerner ce qui pouvait être accompli, croire que c’était possible, et ensuite mettre tout en œuvre pour exécuter, à n’importe quel prix. Et quand une vie s’achève comme la mienne s’achèvera, nul ne peut me persuader que le prix ne valait pas d’être payé en échange de ce que j’ai reçu”

“I will never hurt you.
I will always help you.
If you are hungry
Ill give you my food.
If you are frightened
I am your friend.
I love you now.
And love does not end.”

“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.”

“Soldiers can sometimes make decisions that are smarter than the orders they've been given.”

“We thought we were the only thinking beings in the universe, until we met you, but never did we dream that thought could arise from the lonely animals who cannot dream each other's dreams.”

“At last he came to a door, with these words in glowing emeralds:

THE END OF THE WORLD

He did not hesitate. He opened the door and stepped through.”

“You’re not a human being until you value something more than the life of your body. And the greater the thing you live and die for the greater you are.”

“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 looks good to a hungry man.”

“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.”

“And then he thought: Is this how idiots rationalize their stupidity to themselves?”

“And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.”

“One mind can think only of its own questions; it rarely surprises itself.”

“I taught you everything you know. But I didn't teach you everything I know.”

“Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to.”

“Parents always make their worst mistakes with their oldest children. That's when parents know the least and care the most, so they're more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they're right.”

“Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon.”

“You killed more people than anybody in history."

"Be the best at whatever you do, that's what my mother always told me.”

“Being young is an 18 year prison sentence for a crime your parents committed. But you do get time off for good behavior.”

“the seed of doubt was there, and it stayed, and every now and then sent out a little root. It changed everything, to have that seed growing. It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise.”

“The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven.”

“We're like the wicked witch. We promise gingerbread, then eat the little brats alive.”

“He loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow.”

“The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending--the sad endingsometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually theending.”

“I didn't want to see you."
"They told me."
"I was afraid that I'd still love you."
"I hoped that you would.”

“It's as if every conversation with a woman was a test, and men always failed it, because they always lacked the key to the code and so they never quite understood what the conversation was really about.”

“If you listen very carefully, you can hear the good fairy come in the night and leave our assignment for tomorrow.”

“The enemy gate is down.”

“Everybody dies. What matters is what you do between now and when it happens to you.”

“What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.”

“None of us could be happy for long, doing nothing.”