Ender Quintet Quotes

I thought commanders could order anything."
"They can order the moon to turn blue, too, but it doesn't happen. Listen, Ender, commanders have just as much authority as you let them have. The more you obey them, the more power they have over you. ~ Orson Scott Card

This is the Speaker for the Dead? Judging someone by appearances?"
"Maybe I've fallen in love with Grego."
"You've always been a sucker for people who pee on you. ~ Orson Scott Card

Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth. ~ Orson Scott Card

But the officer stood up and stepped across the room to Ender. He held out his hand. My name is Graff, Ender. Colonel Hyrum Graff. I'm director of primary training at Battle School in the Belt. I've come to invite you to enter the school. ~ Orson Scott Card

I didn't know how you'd get us out of that last one. But you did. You were good. ~ Orson Scott Card

I don't care how much you eat, Ender, self-cannibalism won't get you out of this school. ~ Orson Scott Card

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. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them ... I destroy them. ~ Orson Scott Card

They must talk to each other directly, Ender, mind to mind. What one thinks, another can also think; what one remembers, another can also re-member. Why would they ever develop language? Why would they ever learn to read and write? How would they know what reading and writing were if they saw them? Or signals? Or numbers? Or anything that we use to communicate? This isn't just a matter of translating from one language to another. They don't have a language at all. We used every means we could think of to communicate with them, but they don't even have the machinery to know we're signaling. And maybe they've been trying to think to us, and they can't understand why we don't respond. ~ Orson Scott Card

In sleep we all die, every one of us, every day. Why wasn't that fact noted more often? When we doze off each night there's never the slightest guarantee that we'll wake the next morning. Every little cat nap is a potential game-ender. So why fear death when we are happy and even eager to make that leap of faith each and every night of our lives? ~ Adrian Barnes

I find out what I really want by seeing what I do," said Ender. "That's what we all do, if we're honest about it. We have our feelings, we make our decisions, but in the end we look back on our lives and see how sometimes we ignored our feelings, while most of our decisions were actually rationalizations because we had already decided in our secret hearts before we ever recognized it consciously. ~ Orson Scott Card

He is dangerous, he is beautiful, I could drown in his understanding. ~ Orson Scott Card

This is so ... " I can't find the word.
"Wonderful? Amazing?" the Ender nurse offers.
"Bizarre," I say as I watch the lips of the Starter move in the mirror. ~ Lissa Price

Two classics stuck with them. Ender's Game delighted them all; here were soldiers who were just like them, except smaller. The main character was even bred to fight alien species like they were. The next day the members of the 8th greeted each other with the salutation ::Ho, Ender,:: until Brahe told them to knock it off and pay attention. ~ John Scalzi

You're an asshole."
"Everyone says that like they're surprised."

Remy & Ender- Unleashing the Storm ~ Sydney Croft

The bible of cooking. The all-time argument ender. Early in my cooking career, I wielded my Larousse like a weapon and it never let me down. ~ Anthony Bourdain

Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe, to the core of his soul, that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves. If he does not believe that, then he will never reach the peak of his abilities. ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender had come to feel a unity so strong that the word "we" came to his lips much more easily than "I ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender began to eat, slowly and carefully, pretending not to notice he was the center of attention. ~ Orson Scott Card

Then the raft rocked, and she turned to see Ender calmly crushing the life out of the wasp with one finger. "These are a nasty breed," Ender said. "They sting you without waiting to be insulted first. ~ Orson Scott Card

The dead-enders are still with us, those remnants of the defeated regimes who'll go on fighting long after their cause is lost. ~ Donald Rumsfeld

The tribe is whatever we believe it is. If we say the tribe is all the Little Ones in the forest, and all the trees, then that is what the tribe is. Even though some of the oldest trees here came from warriors of two different tribes, fallen in battle. We become one tribe because we say we're one tribe.
Ender marveled at his mind, this small raman [member of another sentient species]. How few humans were able to grasp this idea, or let it extend beyond the narrow confines of their tribe, their family, their nation. ~ Orson Scott Card

I don't freeze up because it isn't my battle. I'm helping. I'm watching. But I'm free. Because it's Ender's game. ~ Orson Scott Card

That's the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends. ~ Orson Scott Card

I never went to the priests to confess," she said, "because I knew they would despise me for my sin. Yet when you named all my sins today, I could bear it because I knew you didn't despise me. I couldn't understand why, though, till now."
"I'm not one to despise other people for their sins," said Ender. "I haven't found one yet, that I didn't say inside myself, I've done worse than this."
"All these years you've borne the burden of humanity's guilt. ~ Orson Scott Card

Diary of a Brave Ender Dragon The ~ Roger Rice

As a child of privilege, no one is your friend. They will claim to be your friends, they will laugh at your jokes and invite you to their parties, but they do not like you. They like your power, they like what you will become someday. ~ Orson Scott Card

I need to find out if I'm as good at peace as I am at war ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender understood more than she said. Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth. ~ Orson Scott Card

Ellysetta was sitting at the secretary in Rain's suite, penning a note to her parents, when Bel burst through the doors. The other members of the quintet followed so swiftly that all five warriors nearly ended up in a heap on the floor. They were breathless and flushed, perspiration trickling down the sides of their faces.
Kieran bent over, hands on his knees, and dragged air into his lungs. "Well done,brothers. We beat the smug chervil."
"You all look like you could use a drink." Cool and unwinded, Gaelen smiled at the new arrivals from the sofa near the window. "Water? Or perhaps something a little stronger to help you regain your strength? ~ C.L. Wilson

Thank God for you, Ender. Thank God. ~ Orson Scott Card

An interesting side effect of the battle was that Ender emerged at the top of the soldier efficiency list. Since he hadn't fired a shot, he had a perfect record on shooting - no misses at all. And since he had never been eliminated or disabled, his percentage there was excellent. No one else came close. It made a lot of boys laugh, and others were angry, but on the prized efficiency list, Ender was now the leader. ~ Orson Scott Card