God, our genes, our environment, or some stupid programmer keying in code at an ancient terminal – there’s no way free will can ever exist if we as individuals are the result of some external cause.
Everyone dies. Everyone leaves. What matters is the things you build together before they go. What matters is the part of them that continues in you when they’re gone.
I’ve had your tears with mine, and you’ve had mine with yours. I think that’s more intimate even than a kiss.
Intellectual understanding does not always bring visceral belief.
As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine what “just living” might actually be. He had never done it in his life. But he wanted to do it anyway.
I don’t care how much you eat, Ender, self-cannibalism won’t get you out of this school.
Your ego-depletion seems problematically difficult to assuage.
He loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow.
I looked for perfection, and I found something better.
Maybe that’s all demons ever are. People like us, doing things without even knowing what we’re doing.
He’d undone all he could. You can be sorry, and you can be forgiven, but you can’t call back the futures that your bad decisions lost.
We need a Napoleon. An Alexander. Except that Napoleon lost in the end, and Alexander flamed out and died young. We need a Julius Caesar, except that he made himself a dictator, and died for it.
Ender didn’t like fighting. He didn’t like Peter’s kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn’t like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid.
Nobody ever completely means what they say. Even when they think they’re telling the truth, there’s always something hidden behind their words.
For children love is a feeling; for adults, it is a decision. Children wait to learn if their love is true by seeing how long it lasts; adults make their love true by never wavering from their commitment.
I don’t believe that there are aliens. I believe there are really different people.
Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books.
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.
The commercial work of today is the classics of tomorrow.
A broken clock is right two times a day.