“There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.”

Source: Ender's Game

Source: The Way of Kings

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1959).
Context: What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed. You may ask what good it does us. Let's put it this way — human beings possess the weapon of knowledge in order to make life bearable. For animals such things aren't necessary. Animals don't need knowledge or anything of the sort to make life bearable. But human beings do need something, and with knowledge they can make the very intolerableness of life a weapon, though at the same time that intolerableness is not reduced in the slightest. That's all there is to it.

1990s, Ed Gordon interview (1994)

Source: Birds Without Wings

Source: The Bane Chronicles

Zachman (1994) cited in: Ronald G. Ross (2003) Principles of the Business Rule Approach. p. 35

Variant: We stopped laughing, I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: "Do you like me?
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close