I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it.
Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game.
“Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.”
“We have to go. I'm almost happy here.”
“There was no doubt now in Ender's mind. There was no help for him. Whatever he faced, now and forever, no on ewould save him from it. Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; th...”
“The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save ...”
“You're a monster.Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable.”
“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.”
“I think Bonzo died. I dreamed about it last night. I remembered the way he looked after I jammed his face with my head. I think I must have pushed his nose back into his brain. The blood was coming...”
“If only we could have talked to you, the hive-queen said in Ender's words. But since it could not be, we ask only this: that you remember us, not as enemies, but as a tragic sisters, changed into f...”
“Home was merely a dull ache in the back of his memory. A tiredness in his eyes.”
“I am a person before I am anything else. I never say I am a writer. I never say I am an artist...I am a person who does those things.”
“The point, I decided, wasn't to have the autobiography or even the memories. The point was who I became when I wrote.”
“The willingness to reach inside every part of yourself opens the door to total understanding. You place your entire identity on the line, not just an isolated part. This may sound daunting, but act...”
“Pain is not the same as suffering. Left to itself, the body discharges pain spontaneously, letting go of it the moment that the underlying cause is healed. Suffering is pain that we hold on to. It ...”
“In pleasant peace and security How suddenly the soul in a man begins to die He shall look up above the stalled oxen Envying the cruel falcon, And dig under the straw for a stone To bruise himself on.”
“It is amazing, though, what pains your subconscious will undergo in achieve sustainable peace.”