Orson Scott Card

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

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.”

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

“The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending—the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the meaningless ending.”

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

“Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people, by people who love you.”

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

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

“If you try and fail, then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we fail, then it's all your fault.”

“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.”

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

“Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to.”

“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.”

“Fiction is the lie that tells the truth.”

“I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet.”

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.”

“The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.”