Orson Scott Card citations

Page 7

“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”

“He is dangerous, he is beautiful, I could drown in his understanding.”

“I am a creature of chemicals.”

“Love is random; fear is inevitable.”

“The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy.”

“There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you.”

“You underestimate yourself.”

“You're not crazy. You're not evil. But you can't stop.”

“The doctrine he was going to be teaching, starting tonight, was not the sort of ideology that would stir souls; no one would die for this religion. It would only attracts converts by promising a return to old tradition and by seeming to be the religion of the future.”

“Your father cares as little as we do. It's just that he tends to despair, while we are full of hope.”

“Before the story he refused to even think about it; after the story, it became conceivable to him, and, once he could conceive of it, it soon became inevitable.”

“It has been my experience that the better a man you are, the more folks there are who resent you for it, and find occasion to get angry at you no matter how kindly meant your deeds may be.”

““I knew God had heard my prayer when I learned that it was you and no other who drew this case.”
“One judge is coughing his life out into bloody handkerchiefs and the other is burying his wife, and you think this is how God answers your prayers?””

“It just gripes me hollow, the way God always sneaks in to take the credit.”

“He deserved to die except that nothing deserves death.”

“Only boys were so foolish that they actually believed their arguments were their reasons.”

“When we intended to enjoy being cruel, we must transform our victim into either a beast or a god.”

““You're such a liar.”
“But I’m a beautiful liar, don’t you think?” She flashed her best smile at her friend.
“I don’t understand what men see in women anyway,” her friend answered. “Hexes or no hexes, as long as a woman has her clothes on a man can’t see what he’s interested in anyhow.””

“I've known too many men who never quite felt married no matter how many wives they'd been through. Their own and otherwise.”

“It is the downfall of evil, that it never sees far enough ahead.”

“You take responsibility for us all. Without ever waiting to be told.
So do all good people. That's what it means to be a good person.”

“You spend your whole life grieving for those who haven’t died yet.”

“Which is the greater wrong? To hurt the unforgiving one, or hurt the one who has forgiven all?”

“His vices were the vices of his time and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu of his life.”

“We all choose our own teachers, don't we? I wonder if our choice of teacher shows anything about what our lives will be.”

“How could you tell, when utter honesty and cynical manipulation would each account completely for the things she said and did?”

““Am I hired?”
“There is no legal way you can get me out of paying that much of my taxes.”
“On the contrary, Mr. Wiggin. The tax laws are designed to trick people into paying more than they have to. That way the rich who are in the know get to take advantage of drastic tax breaks, while those who don’t have such good connections and haven’t yet found an accountant who does are tricked into paying ludicrously higher amounts.””

“Even the most "Rational" people — the ones who claimed not to have a religion — were just as chauvinistic about their irreligion, sneering at and ostracizing the believers just the way the believers treated nonmembers of their own groups. It's a human universal.”

“Why won't anyone ever answer my questions?"
"Because you never stop asking them and especially because you keep asking them even when it's clear that nobody knows the answers."
"Well, how do I know that they don't know the answer unless I ask?”

“What's so wrong with feeling sorry for myself? Better that than trying to get other people to feel sorry for me.”