Speaker for the Dead

From BillionQuotes

Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead, 1986 (Ender Wiggin Saga).

Quotes

• "I think you have the heart for what you have to do… Compassionate enough…to put the hot iron into the wound when that’s the only way to heal it." - Novinha
• "He had not expected him to be so intrusive, so dangerous. Yes, he was wise, all right, he kept seeing past pretenses, kept saying or doing outrageous things that were, when you thought about, exactly right. It was as if he were so familiar with the human mind that he could see, right on your face, the desires so deep, the truths so well disguised that you didn’t even know yourself that you had them in you."
• "Human was an excellent diplomat; he told the truth and yet avoided the whole issue."
• "Sickness and healing are in every heart. Death and deliverance are in every hand." - Peter Wiggin (restated by Human)
• "The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and therefore should be treated with great caution."
• "This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question." - Andrew Wiggin
• "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."
• Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him.
• Tangents. The best parts of my intellectual life are tangential, in areas outside my expertise. I supposed because within my area of expertise the regulations they have placed upon me make it impossible to know or understand anything
• ”Do you like her?” “I think that I understood that she didn’t want to be liked. As if she were a visitor who expected to go back home any day.”
• She didn’t know [him], so she thought it was the look she had seen in so many eyes, the desire to dominate, to rule her, the desire to cut through her determination and break her independence, the desire to make her submit
• So he wasn’t like the adults who always believed lies as long as they made her seem to be the child they wanted her to be
• ”That’s me insane to the root” “Not insane. Driven by a sense of purpose that is frightening”
• So you chose not to be part of the bands of children who group together for the sole purpose of excluding others, and people look at you and say, poor girl, she’s so isolated, but you know a secret, you know who you really are. You are the one human being who is capable of understanding the alien mind, because you are the alien mind; you know what it is to be unhuman because there’s never been any human group that gave you credentials as a bona fide homo sapien
• [He] wondered if it was already too late to teach her how to be a human
• Anthropology is never an exact science; the observer never experiences the same culture as the participant. But there are natural limitations inherent to the science. It is the artificial limitations that hamper us – and, through us, you
• It frightened him to have this girl need something from him so desperately
• You silent boy, you have found such eloquence now that you can’t be a mere boy anymore
• How could he not know that children had minds of their own, and resisted taming?
• ”It was me” “You were a tool” “It was me” “We forgive you”
• ”[This] isn’t my home” [she] felt his words like an accusation: you rooted yourself here without thought of whether I could live in this soil. But it’s not my fault, she wanted to answer – you’re the one who’s leaving, not me.
• “I followed you gladly to two dozen worlds, but you wouldn’t even stay two weeks when I asked you” “Listen to yourself and then see why I have to leave now, before you tear me to pieces”
• “I wanted to hurry because I have a work to do there, and every day here is marking time, and because it hurts me every time I see you and [he] growing closer and you and me growing more distant, even though I know it’s exactly as it should be, so when I decided to go, I thought that going quickly was better, and I was right; you know I’m right. I never thought you’d hate me for it” “I don’t hate you, I love you, you’re part of myself, you’re my heart and when you go it’s my heart torn out and carried away “
• Not that they talked – [they] knew each other so well that there was often nothing to say. But without her there, [he] grew impatient with his own thoughts; they never came to a point, because there was no one to tell them to
• I only disbelieve the unbelievable
• You never cease to amaze me, the way you turn people into plasma
• Order and disorder, they each have their beauty
• His eyes were seductive with understanding
• They are too cruel a god for me to worship anymore
• I wish I had died before seeing him, he will surely undo me before he’s through
• Marriage is not a covenant between a man and a woman; even the beasts cleave together and produce their young. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman on one side and their community on the other
• He is innocent of wrong-doing, and so am I. We shall forgive each other and go on. It was a good decision, and [she] was proud of it. The trouble was, she couldn’t carry it out
• Time, time is such a fleeting, insubstantial thing. As Shakespeare said, “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me”
• [He] always seemed to take it so personally that the universe didn’t always work the way he wanted it to
• ”Don’t condescend to me mother” “But Quim, it seems so natural, considering how you always condescend to me”
• Don’t ever try to teach me about good and evil. I've been there; you’ve seen nothing but the map
• My, but I miss the days when we never talked to each other for weeks at a time
• Ignorance and deception can’t save anybody. Knowing saves them
• You don’t seem to understand that you don’t have the right to put blinders on other people’s eyes
• Don’t even admit that you doubt their religion
• It wasn’t a matter of confession, penance, and absolution, like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person. That she had made a mistake, and the mistake had changed her, now she had become someone else, someone less afraid, someone more compassionate
• I speak to everyone in the language they understand. That isn’t being slick. It’s being clear
• ”In your judgment” “I have no one else’s judgment to use”
• Miro expected him to be wise. He had not expected him to be so intrusive, so dangerous. Yes, he was wise, all right, he kept seeing past pretense, kept saying or doing outrageous things that were, when you thought about it, exactly right. It was as if he was so familiar with the human mind that he could see, right on your face, the desires so deep, the truths so well-disguised that you didn’t even know yourself that you had them in you
• There’s so much that we don’t understand. And so much more that you don’t understand. We should tell each other more
• You’re a fool. If people only react to the way that others treat them, then nobody is responsible for anything. If your sins are not your own to choose, then how can you repent?
• You’re dream is a good one. It’s the dream of every living creature. The desire that is the very root of life itself: to grow until all the space you can see is part of you, under your control. It’s the desire for greatness. There are two ways, though, to fulfill is. One way is to kill anything that is not yourself, to swallow it up or destroy it, until nothing is left to oppose you. But that way is evil. You say to all the universe, only I will be great, and to make room for me the rest of you must give up even what you already have, and become nothing
• 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
• ”When you really know somebody you can’t hate them” “Or maybe it’s just that you can’t really know them until you stop hating them” “Is that a circular paradox? Dom Cristao says that most truth can only be expressed in circular paradoxes” “I don’t think it has anything to do with truth, it’s just cause and effect. We can never sort them out. Science refuses to admit any cause except the first cause – knock down one domino, the one next to it also falls. But when it comes to human beings, the only type of cause that matters is the final cause, the purpose. What a person had in mind. Once you know what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart."
• As long as you keep getting born, it’s ok to die sometimes
• ”There are worse reasons to die, than to die because you cannot bear to kill” “What about someone who can’t kill, and can’t die, and can’t live, either?” “Don’t deceive yourself. You’ll do all three someday”
• You're afraid of the stranger, whether he's utlanning or framling. When you think of killing a man that you know of and value, then it doesn't matter what his shape is. He's varalese then, or worse - djur, the dire beast, that comes in the night with slavering jaws. If you had the only gun in your village, and the beasts that has torn apart one of your people was coming again, would you stop to ask if they also had the right to live, or would you act to save your village, the people that you knew, the people who depended on you?
• A question isn't an argument, unless you think you know my answer.
• Was it something unavoidable, when strangers met, that the meeting had to be marked with blood?
• How clever of me. I have found such a pathway into hell that I can never get back out.
• He would go to minister the girl ... For in her brilliance, her isolation, her pain, her guilt, he saw his own stolen childhood and the seeds of pain that lived with him still.
• She's your other self. Will you really leave her for us?
• In all [my] life, you are the first person [I’ve] known that wasn't [myself]. [I] never had to be understanding because [I] always understood.
• ”I never thought id lose you again” “But I knew we had lost each other on the day you first loved [him]." “Then you should have told me! I wouldn't have done it" “That's why I didn't tell you. But it isn't true ... You would have done it anyway. And I wanted you to. You've never been happier."
• For he loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow.
• ”Sitting there in paranoid fantasy” “You can’t read minds” “You always get morose and speculate about the destruction of the universe whenever you come out of starflight. It’s your peculiar manifestation of motion sickness.”
• When someone dies, a loved one, and your last contact with them was angry or spiteful, then you begin to blame yourself. If only I hadn't said this, if only I hadn't said that.
• ”That’s right. I want all the secrets opened up. I want all the files unlocked. I don’t want anything hidden” “You don’t know what you’re asking. You don’t know how much pain it will cause if all the secrets come out” “Take a look at my family. How can the truth cause anymore pain than the secrets have already caused?”
• ”Why are they so stupid? Not to know the truth when they hear it?” “This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question.”
• He wasn't telling the truth, with trumpets; he was telling the truth, the story you wouldn't think to doubt because it’s taken for granted.
• I think you can’t possibly know the truth about somebody unless you love them.
• I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her.
• Be the best at whatever you do.
• Life, so long waited for, and not until today could she be sure that she would be, not the last of her tribe, but the first.
• He is dangerous, he is beautiful, I could drown in his understanding.
• He is dangerous, the infidel, the anti-Christ, he walks brazenly into places in my heart that I had kept as holy ground, where no one else was ever permitted to stand.
• Sickness and healing are in every heart. Death and deliverance are in every hand.
• When you strike, your aim will be deadly. These people came for entertainment, but they're your targets; you will pierce them to the hearts.
• It told us that death means something completely different to them. If you really believed that someone was perfect in heart... So righteous that to live another day could only cause them to be less perfect, then wouldn't it be a good thing for them if they were killed and taken directly into heaven?
• How suddenly we find the flesh of god within us after all, when we thought we were only made of dust
• Never mind that the rules are stupid and counterproductive. I broke them.
• "Are you ready to reveal yourself to the rest of humanity?" "I’ve always been ready. The question is, are they ready to know me?"
• I carry the seeds of death with me and plant them wherever I linger long enough to love. My parents died so others could live; now I live, so others must die.

Related topics

• Orson Scott Card

For he loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow

Why are most of the quotation marks backwards?