Frasi di Orson Scott Card

“Ah, Palicrovol, quando imparerai che la misericordia è buona quanto la persona a cui essa viene fatta? Hai risparmiato Asineth, che avrebbe dovuto morire; ora non risparmierai Orem Fianchi-Magri, chiamato Banningside, il cui buon cuore dovrebbe nascere centomila volte sulla terra. Sei come Asineth? Imparerai tutte le tue lezioni al contrario?”

“Il suo amore per la teatralità lo indusse quasi a rispondere con qualche eroico epigramma; ma aveva appreso fin da giovane che la teatralità non sostituiva una sicura vittoria. Perciò le morse il cuore con i denti della sua mano sinistra, per abbatterla subito con un colpo magico. Anche se avesse resistito, sarebbe stata troppo scossa per combatterlo, dopo.”

“Donnola — disse la Regina Bella — tu sai ora come sono stata servita. Dimmi… è giusta la mia vendetta?
— Ti è stato fatto un torto — disse la Principessa dei Fiori.
— È giusta la mia vendetta?
— Sei giusta a vendicarti.
— Ma la mia vendetta è giusta? — Bella sorrise, come la benedizione di un santo.
— Solo se ti vendichi di coloro che ti hanno fatto del male, e solo se la tua vendetta è uguale al torto subito.
— Suvvia, ho sentito dire che posso contare su Donnola Bocca-di-Verità per sentire il vero. Te lo chiedo per la quarta volta… sono giusta?
— No — disse la Principessa dei Fiori.
— Bene — disse Bella.”

“Allora scappò dal droghiere, stringendo in mano le sue poche monete di rame. Ma paura o non paura, voleva essere sicuro; così si fermò poco lontano, a guardare: e proprio come aveva pensato, Glasin riuscì a far stare tutta la sua mercanzia nel carretto, a parte la roba marcia. E per proteggere del cibo marcio, Orem avrebbe dovuto aspettare tutto il giorno, senza essere pagato. Non c'era onore a Inwit, neanche un briciolo, e questo lo rese più timoroso che mai della punta del pugnale che gli era stata puntata contro la pancia. Un pugnale aveva solo una punta, ma un traditore colpisce da qualsiasi parte, dicevano, e solo adesso Orem capiva quanto fosse vero”

“Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.”

“The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them.”

“So it's Mr. Wiggin and Who The Hell Are You.'

'About right,' Bean replied.”

“I love you Ender. More than ever. No matter what you decide.”

“It occurred to me that if my friends were loathsome, perhaps I needed to learn from my enemies.”

“We don't admit it to ourselves, not until the very moment of death, but in that moment, we see all life before us and we understand how we chose, every day of our lives, the manner of our death.”

“He didn’t know if he had the right or not. Didn’t know if he was taking like a Red man, just what the land offered, or stealing like a White man, murdering whatever it pleased him to kill.”

“If you could stop the suffering and dying, and didn't stop it, then you are guilty. It is your fault.
We kill no one. We do not let them kill us. We have nothing to do with them.”

“That's what survival means, for me. I thought it was a matter of staying alive, but it isn't. Nobody lives forever anyway. It's how you're remembered. It's what your children thought of you, what they think of you after you're dead. That's survival.”

“There's always hope… even when there isn't faith. And sometimes, without hope or faith, there must be charity.”

“If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.”

“Ethan Wyeth: I hope you're thirsty."
Gideon Wyeth:"Why?"
Ethan: "Cause your dumb and ugly, but I can do something about thirsty.”

“I don't care if I pass your test, I don't care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first.
- Ender”

“This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.”

“It's called civilization. Women invented it, and every time you men blow it all to bits, we just invent it again.”

“No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins.”

“I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”

“Because never in my entire childhood did I feel like a child. I felt like a person all along―the same person that I am today.”

“Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.”

“When you really know somebody you can’t hate them. Or maybe it’s just that you can’t really know them until you stop hating them.”

“Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.”

“Early to bed and early to rise," Mazer intoned, "makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.”

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

“Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. He just wins—thoroughly.”

“I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it.”

“You're a monster.
Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?
No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable.”

“I also remembered that you were beautiful."
"Memory does play tricks on us."
"No. Your face is the same, but I don't remember what beautiful means anymore.”

“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.”

“Peter, you're twelve years old. I'm ten. They have a word for people our age. They call us children and they treat us like mice.”