Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game Quotes

I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I taught you everything you know. But I didn't teach you everything I know.

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

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

So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.

The essence of training is to allow error without consequence.

Soldiers can sometimes make decisions that are smarter than the orders they've been given.

I will remember this, thought Ender, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it's due, so that defeat is not disgrace. And I hope I don't have to do it often.

We have to go. I'm almost happy here.

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.

That's the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends.

Let's fly away and live forever

No book, however good, can survive a hostile reading.

I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares.

I have hope for you, if only because you're the only one left to hope for.

In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people because of this. He always acted out of intelligent self-interest.

We need you to help us figure out how you can help us.

The classes were valuable, but the real education was the game.

It was the waiting and watching that cost the most. For during that time he had to endure.

Remember, I'm the only person her who's paid to be nice to you. But not too nice. Give me any lip and I'll break your face. OK?

But my eagerness to sacrifice little children in order to save mankind is wearing thin.

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

If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first.

For the first time in his life, a teacher was pointing out things that Ender had not already seen for himself. For the first time, Ender had found a living mind he could admire.

Just because they didn't know they were killing human beings doesn't mean they weren't killing human beings.

All dreams. If there was love or pity for him, it was only in his dreams.

A good commander, thought Ender, doesn't have to make stupid threats.

It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise.

Ender had come to feel a unity so strong that the word we came to his lips much more easily than I.

So I don't even get a chance to learn before I'm being judged.

Do not be disingenuous with me, Colonel Graff. Americans are quite apt at playing stupid when they choose to, but I am not to be deceived.

So the whole war is beause we can't talk to each other.

Nights were so real that days began to seem dreamlike to him

There are miracles even reactivity can't pull off, Ender

As the doctor treated the wound, Mazer said, " I don't care how much you eat, Ender, self-cannibalism won't get you out of this school.

Don't make fun of me!" Ender said. "I'm afraid I'm going crazy.

It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it.

You don't know what would have happened if I hadn't pushed. Nobody knows. I did it the way I did it, and it worked. Above all, it worked.

Ender began to eat, slowly and carefully, pretending not to notice he was the center of attention.

In my dreams, " said Ender, "I'm never sure whether I'm really me.

The have influence, but no power.""In my experience, influence is power.

In my experience, influence is power.

We don't punish the ones who fail. They just-don't go on,

There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you.

I would follow such beauty, said something inside Ender. I would see as those eyes see.