Ender Quotes

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

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

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

When a brother is given the right to pass into the third life as a father, then he chooses his greatest rival or his truest friend to give him passage. You. Speaker - ever since I first learned Stark and read The Hive Queen and the Hegemon, I waited for you. I said many times to my father, Rooter, of all humans he is the one who will understand us. Then Rooter told me when your starship came, that it was you and the hive queen aboard that ship, and I knew then that you had come to give me passage, if only I did well."
"You did well, Human. ~ Orson Scott Card

Could see or hear. That was what Alai had given him; a gift so sacred that even Ender could not be allowed ~ Orson Scott Card

Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters.
Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters. ~ Orson Scott Card

The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy. ~ Orson Scott Card

He toyed with the idea of trying to be like the other boys. But he couldn't think of any jokes, and none of theirs seemed funny. Wherever their laughter came from, Ender couldn't find such a place in himself. He was afraid, and fear made him serious. ~ 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

The highest beings of all are the ones who are willing to pay any personal cost for the good of those who need them. ~ Orson Scott Card

You understand that the piggies are animals, and you no more condemn them for murdering Libo and Pipo than you condemn a cabra for shewing up capim."
That's right," said Miro.
Ender smiled. "And that's why you'll never learn anything from them. Because you think of them as animals. ~ 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

Ender had never spoken of that to anyone, not even to Mother, but had kept it as a memory of holiness, of how his mother loved him when she thought that no one, not even he, could see or hear. That was what Alai had given him: a gift so sacred that even Ender could not be allowed to understand what it meant. ~ Orson Scott Card

He saw the tears running down her cheeks, knew there was still more than a little resistance in her gait, but she'd just saved herself. And maybe, somehow, she'd saved him a little too.

~Tommy aka "Ender ~ Sydney Croft

You made them hate me." Said Ender
"So? What will you do about it? Crawl in a corner? Start kissing their little backsides so they'll love you again? There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you. I told them you were the best. Now you damn well better be." -Graff ~ 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

I'm one of those apocalyptics. From the start of my immigrant days, I've been fascinated by end-of-the-world stories, by outbreak narratives, and always wanted to set a world-ender on Hispaniola. ~ Junot Diaz

Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you. ~ Orson Scott Card

He thought of half a dozen ideas before he went to sleep. Ender would be pleased-every one of them was stupid. ~ Orson Scott Card

There are miracles even reactivity can't pull off, Ender ~ Orson Scott Card

It was highly possible that I saved that cookie from possible extinction. Ok, who was I kidding? When it came to cookie extinction, I was a world-ender. ~ Bradford Bates

What am I now, Alai?"
"Still good."
"At what?"
"At
anything. There's a million soldiers who'd follow you to the end of the universe."
"I don't want to go to the end of the universe."
"So where do you want to go? They'll follow you."
I want to go home, thought Ender, but I don't know where it is. ~ Orson Scott Card

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

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

You don't have to seduce me, you know. I"m a sure thing."

~Tommy aka "Ender ~ Sydney Croft

It's about me, or people wouldn't be so anxious to keep me from knowing about it. The absence of information is information. ~ Ender ~ Orson Scott Card

I came because I've spent my whole life in the company of the brother that I hated. Now I want a chance to know the brother that I love, before it's too late, before we're not children anymore. ~ Orson Scott Card

We don't punish the ones who fail. They just-don't go on, ~ Orson Scott Card

We've devoted our lives to learning about them!" Miro said.
Ender stopped. "Not from them. ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender didn't like fighting. He didn't like Peter's kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn't like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid. ~ 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

The snake began to unweave itself from the rug again, only this time Ender did not hesitate. He stepped on the head of the snake and crushed it under his foot. It writhed and twisted under him, and in response he twisted and ground it deeper into the stone floor. Finally it was still. Ender picked it up and shook it, until it unwove itself and the pattern in the rug was gone. Then, still dragging the snake behind him, he began to look for a way out. ~ Orson Scott Card

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

Poke gave him life. Ender gave it meaning. ~ Orson Scott Card

Call them stories. When things happen, we invent stories about them. About why they happened. That's all science is, and history - stories about why things happen or happened. They are never, never true - never complete and always at least a little bit wrong, and we know it. But they're true enough to be useful. I doubt our minds could even grasp the whole truth about anything - the nets of causality spread too wide to be held within a single mind. But the stories, the useful lies - we share those and pass them on and when we learn more we improve on them, or when we need different stories for new circumstances, we change them and pretend we always told them that way." Ender ~ Orson Scott Card

The computer is also not famous for having mercy. ~ Orson Scott Card

Be proud, Bonito, pretty boy. You can go home and tell your father, Yes, I beat up Ender Wiggin, who was barely ten years old, and I was thirteen. And I had only six of my friends to help me, and somehow we managed to defeat him, even though he was naked and wet and alone
Ender Wiggin is so dangerous and terrifying it was all we could do not to bring two hundred. ~ Orson Scott Card

I'll accept that for now because there's a limit to how deeply I want to wade into your bullshit,' said Dimak. ~ Orson Scott Card

If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God. ~ E. Stanley Jones

It's a game changer, not a game ender. ~ Joe Teti

Since when do you have to tell the enemy when he has won ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. He just wins - thoroughly. ~ Orson Scott Card

The classes were valuable, but the real education was the game. ~ Orson Scott Card

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

Ela reached out for Grego. He refused to go to her. Instead he did exactly what Ender expected, what he had prepared for. Grego turned in Ender's relaxed grip, flung his arms around the neck of the speaker for the dead, and wept bitterly, hysterically. Ender spoke gently to the others, who watched helplessly. "How could he show his grief to you, when he thought you hated him?" "We never hated Grego," said Olhado. "I should have known," said Miro. "I knew he was suffering the worst pain of any of us, but it never occurred to me . . ." "Don't blame yourself," said Ender. "It's the kind of thing that only a stranger can see." He heard Jane whispering in his ear. "You never cease to amaze me, Andrew, the way you turn people into plasma. ~ Orson Scott Card

Rest in peace, friend, ~ Ender King

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

It was the circle of perfect motion. Of the light-bringer and dark-giver, the world-starter and shadow-ender. Of initiation and completion. It was the symbol of the Cahr Awen. Cahr Awen. ~ Susan Dennard

No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins. ~ Orson Scott Card

While you're governing the colony and I'm writing political philosophy, They'll never guess that in the darkness of night we sneak into each other's room and play checkers and have pillow fights. ~ Orson Scott Card

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

Want my security system now?" Ender got up and walked away from his bed. "Ender," said Alai. Ender turned around. Alai was holding a little piece of paper. "What is it?" Alai looked up at him. "Don't you know? This was on your bed. You must have sat on it." Ender took it from him. ENDER WIGGIN ASSIGNED SALAMANDER ARMY COMMANDER BONZO MADRID EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY CODE GREEN GREEN BROWN NO POSSESSIONS TRANSFERRED "You're smart, Ender, but you don't do the ~ Orson Scott Card

We're not taking odds on it," said Ender. "Nothing that actually happens is likely until it exists, and then it's certain. You exist. ~ 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

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 bloodwater 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

There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you ~ Orson Scott Card

Everything we do means something, Ender realized. Them laughing. Me not laughing. He toyed with the idea of trying to be like the other boys. But he couldn't think of any jokes, and none of theirs seemed funny. Wherever their laughter came from, Ender couldn't find such a place in himself. ~ Orson Scott Card

I have to win this now, and for all time, or I'll fight it every day and it will get worse and worse. ~ Orson Scott Card

You need me," he said. "And I'm all yours."

~Tommy aka "Ender ~ Sydney Croft

Who else but a pacifist would attack somebody as little as Wiggin? ~ Orson Scott Card

Don't judge me until you understand me. You can't understand me if you've already judged me. ~ Orson Scott Card

Nights were so real that days began to seem dreamlike to him ~ Orson Scott Card

Why is it called Dr. Device?" "When it was developed, it was called a Molecular Detachment Device. M.D. Device." Ender still didn't understand. "M.D. The initials stand for Medical Doctor, too. M.D. Device, therefore Dr. Device. It was a joke." Ender didn't see what was funny about it. ~ Orson Scott Card

Diary of a Brave Ender Dragon The ~ Roger Rice

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

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

If the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you. ~ Orson Scott Card

Remember, the enemy's gate is down. ~ Orson Scott Card

I'm not one to despise other people for their sins. I haven't found one yet, that I didn't say to myself, I've done worse than this. ~ Orson Scott Card

Time to repay old humiliations, is that it, Bean? 'Of course,' Ender said contemptuously. 'I'm not as close to the floor as you are. ~ Orson Scott Card

Compassion is what you're good at. I'm better at complex searches through organized data structures. ~ Orson Scott Card

I am a disbeliever in the unbelievable. ~ Orson Scott Card

You want to beat Peter?" she asked "No," he answered "Beat the buggers. Then come home and see who notices Peter Wiggen anymore. Look him in the eye when all the world loves and reveres you. That'll be defeat in his eyes, Ender, thats how you win" "You don't understand" he said "Yes i do" "No you don't. I don't want to beat Peter" "Then what do you want?" "I want him to love me ~ Orson Scott Card

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

I hope you had fun, I hope you had a nice, nice time being happy, Ender. It might be the last time in your life. ~ Orson Scott Card

Maezr smiled. A hundred years ago, Ender, we found out some things. That when a commander's life is in danger he becomes afraid, and fear slows down his thinking. When a commander knows that he's killing people, he becomes cautious or insane, and neither of those help him do well. And when he's mature, when he has responsibilities and an understanding of the world, he becomes cautious and sluggish and can't do his job. So we trained children, who didn't know anything but the game, and never knew when it would become real. That was the theory, and you proved that the theory worked. ~ Orson Scott Card

Alai suddenly kissed Ender on the cheek and whispered in his ear, "Salaam." Then, red-faced, he turned away and walked to his own bed at the back of the barracks. Ender guessed that the kiss and the word were somehow forbidden. A suppressed religion, perhaps. Or maybe the word had some private and powerful meaning for Alai alone. ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender grinned back. "Teacher," he said. "Do you have a name?" "Mazer Rackham," said the old man. ~ Orson Scott Card

It's the teachers, they're the enemy. They get us to fight each other, to hate each other. ~ Orson Scott Card

Graff had deliberately set him up to be separate from the other boys, made it impossible for him to be close to them. And he began now to suspect the reasons behind it. It wasn't to unify the rest of the group - in fact, it was divisive. Graff had isolated Ender to make him struggle. To make him prove, not that he was competent, but that he was far better than everyone else. ~ Orson Scott Card

Cover your butt. Bernard is watching. ~ 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

Graff had isolated Ender to make him struggle. To make him prove, not that he was competent, but that he was far better than everyone else. That was the only way he could win respect and friendship. It made him a better soldier then he would ever have been otherwise. It also made him lonely, afraid, angry, untrusting. And maybe those traits, too, made him a better soldier. ~ Orson Scott Card

Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels. I'm sorry, I'm your brother. I love you. ~ 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

Loneliness is at the heart of Ender's Game, and the reason it works so well is because it carries with it the firm assurance that even though Ender never feels himself to belong,the reader knows he does belong, that he is the ultimate insider even though he stands outside. ~ Orson Scott Card

One minute Ender is the beginning and end of the world, the best chance for a great man that I'll ever have a chance to find. The next minute, he's a gay little boy who shamed me. You judge hi according to whether or not he's useful to you. ~ Orson Scott Card

I speak to everyone in the language they understand," said Ender. "That isn't being slick. It's being clear ~ Orson Scott Card

The enemy's gate is down. ~ Orson Scott Card

For the first time in his life, a teacher was pointing out things that Ender had not already seen for himself. For the first time, Ender had found a living mind he could admire. ~ Orson Scott Card

I will remember this, thought Ender, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it's due, so that defeat is not disgrace. And I hope I don't have to do it often. ~ 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

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

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

Remy & Ender- Unleashing the Storm ~ Sydney Croft

An enemy, Ender Wiggin," whispered the old man. "I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher. ~ Orson Scott Card

I'll become exactly the tool you want me to be, said Ender silently, but at least I wont be fooled into it. I'll do it because I choose to, not because you tricked me, you sly bastard. ~ 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

No army had ever fragmented itself like that before, but
ender was not planning to do anything that had been done before, either. ~ Orson Scott Card

[That wall] might be breached sometime in the future, but for now the only real conversation between them was the roots that had already grown low and deep, under the wall, where they could not be broken.
The most terrible thing, though, was the fear that the wall could never be breached, that in his heart Alai was glad of the separation, and was ready to be Ender's enemy. For now that they could not be together, they must be infinitely apart, and what had been sure and unshakable was now fragile and insubstantial; from the moment we are not together, Alai is a stranger, for he has a life now that will be no part of mine, and that means that when I see him we will not know each other. ~ Orson Scott Card

I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid. ~ Orson Scott Card