Orson Scott Card Quotes

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

I have only to raise a finger and the whole face of Europe is changed.

Whenever there are enclosing walls, there are abuses behind them.

If a king did not, without tiring, inflict punishment on those deserving to be punished, the stronger would roast the weaker like fish on a spit.

Would you rather lead an army of slaves?

The tyrant is always stirring up some war or another, in order that the people may require a leader.

In the past we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone. Such scenes would henceforth be avoided. Before entering the minefields, the children now wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.

This is madness with no end in sight.

The Iraqis, because they had become so tired of war, they were very peaceful and easy to work with. But the Syrian children—–the boys—–they have this idea, "We have to go back to Syria to fight": They hear this constantly from their fathers—–you're going to be a soldier and go back to Syria—–so they're little rebels, not little kids. It's all about ... how they need to go back and avenge what happened.

I had this moment in church, which I think really turned me off. I was 7 or 8 years old and I was sitting at church, and we happened to be playing with the sunlight that was coming down from the stained glass window, and the monsignor came down to the pew and grabbed us by our neck collars and said, 'I'll deal with you.'

Children aren't responsible for wars.

My manager has been my manager since I was 17, and he says that he's supposed to be smart for me when I can't do it for myself.

Sometimes, I feel like directors look at me and say, 'I want to put that boy in the jungle. I want to hurt him.'

I was born and raised in war.

I have said that gymnastics can be abusive and brutal. That was my experience. I felt trapped in a world where authority figures were dictating my future.

For some people, it is easier to command a nation, to send thousands to their deaths in unnecessary wars, to separate children from their families and inflict terrible suffering, than to process their own trauma and pain.

To be omnipotent but friendless is to reign.

I be crazy too, little buddy, but at least when I be craziest, I be floating all alone in space and the crazy, she float out of me, she soak into the walls, and she don't come out till there be battles and little boys bump into the walls and squish out de crazy.

I think there are so many children being brought up in some form of violence, be it violence of poverty or sexism or racism or homophobia or transphobia. That violence takes a life to transform or overcome. I don't think people should be spending their lives dealing with that. I think people should be thriving, playing, creating, evolving.

Who hit you?" "Why, so you can go beat him up?" "One of the fringe benefits of being my human servant is my protection." "I don't need your protection, Jean-Claude." "He hurt you." "And I shoved a gun into his groin and made him tell me everything he knew," I said.

The tyrant is a child of pride.

if you think they didn't go crazy in tiny rooms just like you're doing now without women without food without hope then you're not ready.

Believe me, It would be better if we didn't meet again. Go back to school. Go back to your life. And next time they ask you, say no. Killing is for grown-ups and you're still a child.

She was in a terrible marriage and she couldn't talk to anyone. He used to hit her, and in the beginning she told him that if it ever happened again, she would leave him. He swore that it wouldn't and she believed him. But it only got worse after that, like when his dinner was cold, or when she mentioned that she'd visited with one of the neighbors who was walking by with his dog. She just chatted with him, but that night, her husband threw her into a mirror.