Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1) QUOTES

1 " It’s there in your own Bible, Carlotta. Two trees—knowledge and life. You eat of the tree of knowledge, and you will surely die. You eat of the tree of life, and you remain a child in the garden forever, undying. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

2 " But in the military you don't get trusted positions just because of your ability. You also have to attract the notice of superior officers. You have to be liked. You have to fit in with the system. You have to look like what the officers above you think that officers should look like. You have to think in ways that they are comfortable with.

The result was that you ended up with a command structure that was top-heavy with guys who looked good in uniform and talked right and did well enough not to embarrass themselves, while the really good ones quietly did all the serious work and bailed out their superiors and got blamed for errors they had advised against until they eventually got out.

That was the military. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

3 " ...you seemed to be listening to me, not to find out useful information, but to try to catch me in a logical fallacy. This tells us all that you are used to being smarter than your teachers, and that you listen to them in order to catch them making mistakes and prove how smart you are to the other students. This is such a pointless, stupid way of listening to teachers that it is clear you are going to waste months of our time before you finally catch on that the only transaction that matters is a transfer of useful information from adults who possess it to children who do not, and that catching mistakes is a criminal misuse of time. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

4 " I would carry some of it if I could, Bean said silently. Like I did today, you can turn it over to me and I’ll do it, if I can. You don’t have to do this alone.

Only even as he thought this, Bean knew it wasn’t true. If it could be done, Ender was the one who would have to do it. All those months when Bean refused to see Ender, hid from him, it was because he couldn’t bear to face the fact that Ender was what Bean only wished to be — the kind of person on whom you could put all your hopes, who could carry all your fears, and he would not let you down, would not betray you.

I want to be the kind of boy you are, thought Bean. But I don’t want to go through what you’ve been through to get there. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

5 " The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life. We don’t throw our forces away because every soldier is the queen of a one-member hive. But they’ve learned this lesson just in time for it to be hopelessly wrong- for we humans do, when the cause is sufficient, spend our own lives. We throw ourselves onto the grenade to save our buddies in the foxhole. We rise out of the trenches and charge the entrenched enemy and die like maggots under a blowtorch. We strap bombs on our bodies and blow ourselves up in the midst of our enemies. We are, when the cause is sufficient, insane. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

6 " Achilles might be a good papa to the family, but he was also a killer, and he never forgives.
Poke knew that, though. Bean warned her, and she knew it, but she chose Achilles for their papa anyway. Chose him and then died for it. She was like that Jesus that Helga preached about in her kitchen while they ate. She died for her people. And Achilles, he was like God. He made people pay for their sins no matter what they did.
The important thing is, stay on the good side of God. That's what Helga teaches, isn't it? Stay right with God.
I'll stay right with Achilles. I'll honor my papa, that's for sure, so I can stay alive until I'm old enough to go out on my own. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

7 " O my son Absalom,' Bean said softly, knowing for the first time the kind of anguish that could tear such words from a man’s mouth. 'my son, my son Absalom. Would God I could die for thee, O Absalom, my son. My sons! "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

8 " Bean was tired of talking about this. She looked so happy when she talked about God, but he hadn't figured it out yet, what God even was. It was like, she wanted to give God credit for every good thing, but when it was bad, then she either didn't mention God or had some reason why it was a good thing after all. As far as bean could see, though, the dead kids would rather have been alive, just with more food. If God loved them so much and he could do whatever he wanted, then why wasn't there more food for these kids? And if God just wanted them dead, why didn't he let them die sooner or not even be born at all, so they didn't have to go to so much trouble and get all excited about trying to be alive when he was just going to take them to his heart. None of it made any sense to Bean, and the more Sister Carlotta explained it, the less he understood it. Because if there was somebody in charge, then he ought to be fair, and if he wasn't fair, then why should Sister Carlotta be so happy that he was in charge? "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

9 " In my view, suicide is not really a wish for life to end.'
What is it then?'
It is the only way a powerless person can find to make everybody else look away from his shame. The wish is not to die, but to hide. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

10 " Because human nature never changes. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

11 " I am old enough now to have all the memories of my people locked within my head. I remember things that happened long before I was born. I remember things that never happened at all. I live in memory. –Anton "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

12 " Poke had never shared out so many raisins, because she had never had so many to share. But the little kids wouldn't understand that. They'd think, Poke gave us garbage, and Achilles gave us raisins. That's because they were stupid. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

13 " The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life... But they've learned this lesson just in time for it to be hopelessly wrong—for we humans do, when the cause is sufficient, spend our own lives. We throw ourselves onto the grenade to save our buddies in the foxhole. We rise out of the trenches and charge the entrenched enemy and die like maggots under a blowtorch. We strap bombs on our bodies and blow ourselves up in the midst of our enemies. We are, when the cause is sufficient, insane. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

14 " Bean could see the hunger in their eyes. Not the regular hunger, for food, but the real hunger, the deep hunger, for family, for love, for belonging. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

15 " a lot of human behavior was really acting out our responses to dangers long past. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

16 " Because these fools always look up for power. People above you, they never want to share power with you. Why you look to them? They give you nothing. People below you, you give them hope, you give them respect, they give you power, cause they don't think they have any, so they don't mind giving it up. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

17 " These children had never looked death in the face and then chosen to live anyway. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

18 " Aw, Poke, you poor, kind, decent, stupid girl. You saved me and I let you down. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

19 " You deplore what I did, but you still want to know the results of my research. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)

20 " I want to be the kind of boy you are, thought Bean. But I don’t want to go through what you’ve been through to get there. "

― Orson Scott Card , Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)