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Famous Orson Scott Card Quotes

“In a way, being a Mormon prepares you to deal with science fiction, because we live simultaneously in two very different cultures. The result is that we all know what it's like to be strangers in a strange land. It's not just a coincidence that there are so many effective Mormon science fiction writers. We don't regard being an alien as an alien experience. But it also means that we're not surprised when people don't understand what we're saying or what we think.”

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Author:Orson Scott Card
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“I know, you've been here a year, you think these people are normal. Well, they're not. WE'RE not. I look in the library, I call up books on my desk. Old ones, because they won't let us have anything new, but I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. Children aren't in armies, they aren't COMMANDERS, they don't rule over forty other kids, it's more than anybody can take and not get crazy.”

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Book:Ender's Game Boxed Set: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow
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“That night Demosthenes published a scathing denunciation of the population limitation laws. People should be allowed to have as many children as they like, and the surplus population should be sent to other worlds, to spread mankind so far across the galaxy that no disaster, no invasion could ever threaten the human race with annihilation. "The most noble title any child can have," Demosthenes wrote, "is Third.”

PeopleWorldShouldHumansChildrenLawNightRaceMankindThirdsPopulationSpreadNobleDisasterLimitationTitlesHuman RaceGalaxyInvasionOther WorldsAnnihilationSurplus
Book:Ender's Game Boxed Set: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow
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“For it is in the millions of small melodies that the truth of history is always found, for history only matters because of the effects we see or imagine in the lives of the ordinary people who are caught up in, or give shape to, the great events.”

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Book:Ender's Game Boxed Set I: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon
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“Oh, Val," said Father. "All you have to do is live your life, and everyone around you will be happier." "No greatness, then." "Val," said Mother, "goodness trumps greatness any day." "Not in the history books," said Valentine. "Then the wrong people are writing history, aren't they?" said Father.”

PeopleWritingSaidBookMotherFatherGreatnessTrumpGoodnessLive Your LifeThey SaidValentineHistory BooksWriting History
Book:Ender's Game Boxed Set II: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speak for the Dead
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“As history shows us, when colonization is voluntary, people will self-select better than any testing system. It’s like those foolish attempts to control immigration to American based on the traits that were deemed desirable, when in fact the only trait that defines Americans historically is “descended from somebody willing to give up everything to live there.” Willingness is the single most important test.”

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Author:Orson Scott Card
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“Do you know why Satan is so angry all the time? Because whenever he works a particularly clever bit of mischief God uses it to serve his own Rigteous purposes." "So God uses wicked people as his tools?" "God gives us the freedom to to do great evil, if we choose, then He uses his own freedom to create goodness out of that evil, for that is what He chooses." "So, in the long run, God always wins?" "Yes, in the short run though it can be uncomfortable.”

PeopleIfsKnowsGivingLongUseRunningPurposeEvilWinningBitsGoodnessToolsAngryCleverUncomfortableSatanWickedDo You KnowLong RunsMischief
Book:Ender's Game Boxed Set I: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon
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“What a laugh, though. To think that one human being could ever really know another. You could get used to each other, get so habituated that you could speak their words right along with them, but you never know why other people said what they said or did what they did, because they never even know themselves. Nobody understands anybody.”

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Book:The Shadow Saga Omnibus
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“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.”

PeopleWritingIdeasStoriesPastWalksFiveWrittenThousandSixGood WritingGood WritersFiction WritingWriters And WritingFiction WritersNovel WritingWriting FictionWriting By WritersGreat WritingStory WritingWriting StoriesCreativity And WritingInspiration To WriteFamous WritersStory WritersWriting Every DayWriting Scripts
Author:Orson Scott Card
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“Legalizing gay marriage is not about making it possible for gay people to become couples. It's about giving the Left the power to force anti-religious values on our children. Once they legalize gay marriage, it will be the bludgeon they use to make sure that it becomes illegal to teach traditional values in the schools.”

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Author:Orson Scott Card
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“So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep other people down…A real god doesn’t care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them.”

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Book:Xenocide: Volume Three of the Ender Quintet
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“How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.”

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Author:Orson Scott Card
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“[It] was written and sold. I knew it was a strong story because I cared about it and believed in it. I had no idea that it would have the effect it had on the audience. While most people ignored it, of course, and continue to live full and happy lives without reading it or anything else by me, there was still a surprisingly large group who responded to the story with some fervency.”

PeopleStillsIdeasStoriesCoursesReadingBeliefStrongAudienceWrittenGroupsEffectsNo IdeaHappy LifeIgnoredLarge Groups
Book:Ender's Game: Ender Series
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“I have too many secrets. For all these years I've been a speaker for the dead, uncovering secrets and helping people to live in the light of truth. Now I no longer tell anyone half of what I know, because if I told the whole truth there would be fear, hatred, brutality, murder, war.”

PeopleIfsKnowsYearsWarWholeHelpingLightWould BeFearSecretHalfHatredMurderSpeakersHelping PeopleBrutalityWhole TruthUncovering
Book:Xenocide: Volume Three of the Ender Quintet
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