Is it some law of human nature that you inevitably become whatever your first commander was?

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.

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.

Academic failure contributes to poverty and poor health and undermines workforce productivity in ways that harm the entire society.

It isn't drugs addicts have to give up. It's misery.

The perishableness of life...imparts value, dignity, interest to life.

I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures.

Dealing with depression effectively is a mark not of weakness, but of strength.

The foundation of beauty is the body.

the people are the biggest horror show on earth, have been for centuries.

We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could.

Jesus didn't die for us so we could pretend to be something we're not.

I like it when somebody tells me a story, and I actually really feel that that's becoming like a lost art in American cinema.