Mark my words, when a government pretends that it is the highest judge of its own actions, the result is not freedom as Jefferson says, but chaos and oppression. When he shuts religion out of government, when men of faith are not listened to, then all that remains is venality, posturing, and ambition.
We’d be at peace with every people on earth, if they’d let us. As long as we don’t come to love war, or to use it in order to rule over others, then we are still a peaceful people.
These children had never looked death in the face and then chosen to live anyway.
They aren’t having a mental conversation between people with different thought processes. All their thoughts are present, together, at once.
No one likes to find out that the story he always believed about his own identity is false.
Besides,” said Rigg-the-killer, “I don’t want to leave the future of the human race on both planets in the tiny little hands of the sentient mice of Odinfold.
The bigger a man is, the more people he serves,” said the Prophet. “A small man serves himself. Bigger is to serve your family. Bigger is to serve your tribe. Then your people. Biggest of all, to serve all men, and all lands.
Never take another human being to the third life, because we don’t know how to go.
This would not have a happy ending. So Ender decided that he’d rather not be the unhappiest at the end.
We may be young, but we’re not powerless. We play by their rules long enough, and it becomes our game.
Better to have the trust of the people than their respect. With trust, their respect could be earned later; without it, respect could never be deserved, and so to have it would be like poison.
I want to go home, thought Ender, but I don’t know where it is.
That’s how they think of me, too. Teacher. Legendary soldier. Not one of them. Not someone that you embrace and whisper Salaam in his ear. That only lasted while Ender still seemed a victim. Still seemed vulnerable. Now he was the master soldier, and he was completely, utterly alone.
That’s what Ender has to understand. There really is evil in the world, and wickedness, and every brand of stupidity. There’s meanness and heartlessness and... I don’t even know which of them is me.” – Hyrum Graff.
But always a giant, long before his body showed it.
All education is self-education,” said Noxon. “And all self-education builds on the foundation provided by your teachers.
Two faces of the same coin. And I am the metal in between.
As for me,” said Alvin, “I’m neutral on lying, seeing as how there’s times when the truth just hurts people.” “I’m none too fanatic about telling the truth, myself,” said the woman. “For instance, I believe every girl ought to grow up in the firm belief that she’s clever and pretty, and every boy that he’s strong and good-hearted. In my experience, what starts out as a fib turns into a hope and if you keep it up long enough, it starts to be mostly true.
Lack of truthfulness doesn’t weaken a story if you can get enough people to believe the lie.
I miss you,” he said. “Get over it,” she said.