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Orson Scott Card Quotes - Page 11

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It wasn't so bad being a slave when your owner was yourself and stood up for you.

It wasn't so bad being a slave when your owner was yourself and stood up for you.

Orson Scott Card
Slave, Stood Up, Owners
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.209, Macmillan

Where do you draw the line between a humble man who knows his own weaknesses but tries to act out virtues he hasn't quite mastered yet, and a proud man who pretends to have those virtues without the slightest intention of acquiring them?

Orson Scott Card
Humble, Men, Trying
Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.13, Macmillan

When both parties are lying and they both know the other party's lying, it comes powerful close to being the same thing as telling the truth.

Orson Scott Card
Powerful, Lying, Party
Orson Scott Card (2012). “Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin maker”, p.19, Hachette UK

My hands are clean, but not because I wasn't prepared to bloody them.

Orson Scott Card
Hands, Clean, Bloody
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Shadow of the Giant”, p.13, Macmillan

You grow a whole lot more as a writer by getting old stories out of the house and letting new ones come in and live with you until they grow up and are ready to go. Don't let the old ones stay there and grow fat and cranky and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. You have dozens of generations of stories inside you, but the only way to make room for the new ones is to write the old ones and mail them off.

Orson Scott Card
Growing Up, Writing, House

How clever of me. I have found such a pathway into hell that I can never get back out.

Orson Scott Card
Clever, Pathways, Hell
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.291, Macmillan

I've learned much, Father, and this above all: that no station in life is above any other, if it's occupied by someone with a good heart.

Orson Scott Card
Father, Heart, Life Is
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Prentice Alvin: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.222, Macmillan

If only we were wiser or better people, perhaps the gods would explain to us the mad, unbearable things they do.

Orson Scott Card
Wisdom, People, Mad
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Children of the Mind”, p.174, Macmillan

There's a reason why every human society has fiction. It teaches us how to be 'good,' to behave in a way that is for the benefit of the whole community.

Orson Scott Card
Community, Fiction, Benefits

I don't know why people who got what they need to be happy don't just go ahead and be happy.

Orson Scott Card
People, Needs, Knows
Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.7, Macmillan

I think that a good person can sometimes do wrong out of ignorance or weakness or wrong thinking, but when hard times come, the goodness wins out after all. And a bad person can often seem good and trustworthy for a long time, but when hard times come, the evil in him gets revealed.

Orson Scott Card
Ignorance, Hard Times, Winning
Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.236, Macmillan

Debased men, but they all had something in common: They showed a keen regard for virtue, and tried to dress themselves in that costume. Hypocrisy, for all its bad reputation, at least showed a decent respect for goodness.

Orson Scott Card
Men, Hypocrisy, Dresses
Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.256, Macmillan

It's the middle class that feels the luxury of being able to have causes.

Orson Scott Card
Class, Luxury, Political

This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?

Orson Scott Card
Relationship, Feelings, Emotion
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.1250, Macmillan

No matter how sexually attracted a man might be toward other men, or a woman toward other women, and no matter how close the bonds of affection and friendship might be within same-sex couples, there is no act of court or Congress that can make these relationships the same as the coupling between a man and a woman.

Orson Scott Card
Sex, Couple, Men
"Lionsgate Responds to Outcry over ENDER’S GAME Author Orson Scott Card’s Anti-Gay Comments" by Dave Trumbore, collider.com. July 12, 2013.

Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.

Orson Scott Card
Book, Law, Citizens
"‘Ender’s Game’: To deflate boycott, Lionsgate shuns Orson Scott Card" by John Horn, herocomplex.latimes.com. July 12, 2013.

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.

Orson Scott Card
Fear, War, Light
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Xenocide: Volume Three of the Ender Quintet”, p.76, Macmillan

[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.

Orson Scott Card
Strong, Reading, Happy Life
Orson Scott Card (2011). “Ender's Game: Ender Series”, p.8, Hachette UK

Ender stepped under the water and rinsed himself, took the sweat of combat and let it run down the drain. All gone, except they recycled it and we'll be drinking Bonzo's blood water in the morning. All the life gone out of it, but his blood just the same, his blood and my sweat, washed down in their stupidity or cruelty or whatever it was that made them let it happen.

Orson Scott Card
Life, Running, Morning
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.139, Macmillan

Well, how do I know that they don't know the answer unless I ask?

Orson Scott Card
Answers, Wells, Knows
Orson Scott Card (2016). “The Memory of Earth and The Call of Earth”, p.91, Macmillan

Like running the hurdles. Work so hard, jump over every one, fast, high enough but no higher, because you can't afford to hang in the air. And then, when the race is over, you're dripping with sweat, either they beat you or you beat them ... and then a couple of guys come out and move the hurdles out of the way. Turns out they were nothing. All that work to jump over them, but now they're gone.

Orson Scott Card
Running, Couple, Moving

I'm right here. This is who I really am. I'm not pretending.

Orson Scott Card
Pretending
Orson Scott Card (2002). “Ender's Shadow”, p.59, Macmillan

One judge is coughing his life out into bloody handkerchiefs and the other is burying his wife, and you think this is how God answers your prayers?

Orson Scott Card
Prayer, Thinking, Wife
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.230, Macmillan

Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey.

Orson Scott Card
Successful, Secret, Honey

And if you're going to criticize me for not finishing the whole thing and tying it up in a bow for you, why, do us both a favor and write your own damn book, only have the decency to call it a romance instead of a history, because history's got no bows on it, only frayed ends of ribbons and knots that can't be untied. It ain't a pretty package, but then it's not your birthday that I know of so I'm under no obligation to give you a gift.

Orson Scott Card
Book, Writing, Giving
Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.8, Macmillan

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