Orson Scott Card
American author working in numerous genres.
The funny thing was, you see, that Mike Fink didn't think of himself as a murderer. He thought of life as a contest, and dying was what happened to those who came out second best, but it wasn't the same as murder, it was a fair fight.
Which is the greater wrong? To hurt the unforgiving one, or hurt the one who has forgiven all?
Just because the only way you can maintain control over your bodily passions is to sit straight in your chair, knees together, hands delicately arranged in our lap, fingers tightly intertwined, does not mean that I am required to do the same.
My hands are clean, but not because I wasn't prepared to bloody them.
What the White man had won with so much blood and dishonesty was not the living land of the Red man, but the corpse of that land. It was decay that the White man won. It would turn to dust in his hands, Alvin knew it.
Having never been in control of his own life, his idea of freedom was simply to break free.
I don't know you, ma'am, and apparently I'm expected to die for you.
That's what survival means, for me. I thought it was a matter of staying alive, but it isn't. Nobody lives forever anyway. It's how you're remembered. It's what your children thought of you, what they think of you after you're dead. That's survival.
Coincidence is just the word we use when we have not yet discovered the cause.
Sometimes those who care for the whole community must act in a way that harms the individual. For a good man it never becomes easy and he avoids it when he can; but when people need him to be harsh, he will be harsh indeed, and he won't shrink from it, he'll do it with his own hand and let it be known what he does.
A duel is just two murderers who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.
“You speak metaphorically, I hope,” said Peggy.
“I hope not,” said Becca. “Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.”
As he had so many times before, Taleswapper addressed a few silent words to God, which always came down to this question: Why do you put us to so much trouble, when it all comes to naught in the end?...And, as usual, God had nothing much to say to Taleswapper when his questioning was done.
We are the actors and the audience as well, all of us. And the critics. We are also the critics.
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?
She did love him, you know... It was a selfish, possessive love, but it was all she knew how to give.
“A liar sees lies,” said Taleswapper. “Even when they aren’t there. Just as a hypocrite sees hypocrites whenever he runs across good people. Can’t stand to think that anyone might really be what you only pretend to be.”
The doctrine he was going to be teaching, starting tonight, was not the sort of ideology that would stir souls; no one would die for this religion. It would only attracts converts by promising a return to old tradition and by seeming to be the religion of the future.
The Lord took twice the time making thee, Alvin Smith, cause it took that long to put the mischief in.
Evil people naturally assume that you will use that power exactly as they would use it.