Orson Scott Card Quotes

609 Sourced Quotes

Deep inside himself, in a place he didn't often go, where he kept the things he didn't like to think about but dared not forget, he knew that [she] was still alive somewhere, and somehow she was watching what he did, or at least looking in on him from time to time.

Orson Scott Card
If a father commands a son to commit a crime so terrible that the son can't do it and live with himself, then is it betrayal for the son to disobey his father?

Orson Scott Card
Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.

Orson Scott Card
Last night Alvin just got mad, which she said would only guarantee that he'd stay stupid.

Orson Scott Card
Come into our home, daughters of Earth; dwell in our tunnels, harvest our fields; what we cannot do, you are now our hands to do for us. Blossom, trees; ripen, fields; be warm for them, suns; be fertile for them, planets: they are our adopted daughters, and they have come home.

Orson Scott Card
Was his very boyishness the reason he was chosen? In that case, was it not a virtue to be admired, and not a failing to be despised?

Orson Scott Card
This man, though, was of that rare type that knew what he wanted but didn't want anything badly enough to demand it or beg for it or hurt anyone else in the process of getting it.

Orson Scott Card
Law can change how people behave when others are watching — that's all.

Orson Scott Card
It was not love at all, really, but rather a yearning for the honor and respect of the other men that held them. Pride, then... Indeed, all their connection with each other at this moment was tied up with the respect they felt they were earning by their actions.

Orson Scott Card
The man who has an intelligent child is doomed to spend his life justifying every decision he makes.

Orson Scott Card
A character is what he does, yes - but even more, a character is what he means to do.

Orson Scott Card
Why give you answers you won't believe?
Well, answers I don't believe would be a step forward.

Orson Scott Card
Everyone dies. Everyone leaves. What matters is the things you build together before they go. What matters is the part of them that continues in you when they're gone.

Orson Scott Card
Maybe she just wanted to be the one to decide when things happened between them. Then again, what women didn't want to decide that?

Orson Scott Card
Even the devil gives some justice to his victims, when they're beyond all help.

Orson Scott Card
I will never hurt you. I will always help you. If you are hungry Ill give you my food. If you are frightened I am your friend. I love you now. And love does not end.

Orson Scott Card
What's so wrong with feeling sorry for myself? Better that than trying to get other people to feel sorry for me.

Orson Scott Card
Order and disorder', said the speaker, 'they each have their beauty.

Orson Scott Card
I don't know you, ma'am, and apparently I'm expected to die for you.

Orson Scott Card
There's always hope... even when there isn't faith. And sometimes, without hope or faith, there must be charity.

Orson Scott Card
Today, I saw a spark of decency. Let's blow on that spark and give it fuel.

Orson Scott Card
We were all victims of an oppressive system, but that mattered far less to us than our deep bonding with our owners.

Orson Scott Card
I think you don't grow up until you stop worrying about other people's purposes or lack of them and find the purposes you believe in for yourself.

Orson Scott Card
It's plain that if I married you for brains I was plumb cheated.

Orson Scott Card
The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.

Orson Scott Card
Everybody thinks they want to see the truth, said Tenkswa-Tawa. That's one of the lies we tell ourselves.

Orson Scott Card
Don't lie to me! Don't seem so normal when I know you have cut yourself off from me in your heart! If you can put on our affectionate closeness like a mask, then I'll never be able to take joy in it again.

Orson Scott Card
I don't know a soul who doesn't maintain two separate lists of doctrines — the ones that they believe that they believe; and the ones that they actually try to live by.

Orson Scott Card
He'd undone all he could. You can be sorry, and you can be forgiven, but you can't call back the futures that your bad decisions lost. He didn't need no philosopher to tell him that.

Orson Scott Card
Please open your mind to the possibility that I might be an honest man who was himself deceived.

Orson Scott Card