Orson Scott Card Quotes

born 1951 United States

Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American author working in numerous genres. He is best known for his novel Ender's Game and its many sequels.

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Also known as: Card, Orson Scott, Ender

Random Orson Scott Card quote

335 quotes

How does he do it? How does he master people without bluster or bullying? How does he make people fear him or love him, not in spite of his ruthlessness but because of it?

The Call Of Earth (1992)

Why do you bother asking, when you know the answer and you also know that you don't intend to believe it?

Homebody (1998)

You really are children. You have no idea how power works, or who has it, or what you can actually do with it.

Stone Tables (1997)

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

Treasure Box (1996)

Religion isn't always pretty. Especially viewed from the outside, by an unbeliever.

Earthfall (1995)

Living with a god is not what it's cracked up to be. They think their women should be grateful just to have them around.

Enchantment (1999)

Don't you hate it when somebody knows you better than you know yourself?

Earthborn (1995)

Was his very boyishness the reason he was chosen? In that case, was it not a virtue to be admired, and not a failing to be despised?

Enchantment (1999)

Such fools they were in Battle School, to let so few girls in. It left the boys completely helpless against a woman when they returned to Earth.

Shadow of the Giant (2005)

Asking a man if he could be trusted was like asking an unwed girl if she was a virgin. The question mattered, but the asking of it was a gross insult.

Hart's Hope (1983)

Why did people get so upset when somebody mentioned dying? Did they think that if they didn't mention it, it would skip a few people and leave them alive forever?

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.

Enchantment (1999)

“A liar sees lies,” said Taleswapper. “Even when they aren’t there. Just as a hypocrite sees hypocrites whenever he runs across good people. Can’t stand to think that anyone might really be what you only pretend to be.”

Alvin Journeyman (1995)

Whenever the law gets its hands on you, those who use the law to their own advantage will also turn it against you. Don't put your trust in the laws of men, Alvin. They were designed by strong men to improve their power over weaker ones.

Alvin Journeyman (1995)

I'll be dead and you'll think about this day and wonder which of us was more the slave, you or me!

Earthborn (1995)

He exuded confidence without ever looking as if he wanted to make sure everyone else knew how confident he was.

Lost Boys (1992)

God had answered her prayer, not with the thing she asked for, but rather the thing she wanted most in her heart.

Stone Tables (1997)

Coincidence is just the word we use when we have not yet discovered the cause.

The Call Of Earth (1992)

What difference does it make, whether we keep our silence because [they] force us or because we're afraid they might force us?

Earthborn (1995)

I don't know you, ma'am, and apparently I'm expected to die for you.

Enchantment (1999)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Orson Scott Card (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.