Orson Scott Card Quotes

Going to war was the only unselfish thing I have ever done for humanity.

Those prepared to die for the truth, as a rule make many others die with them, often before them, and at times instead of them.

I jumped on the grenade that was thrown at myself and my friend. I don't recommend it.

Young people are so brave when they go to fight.

The terrorists gave up their lives to kill people. Americans gave up their lives to save people.

I am certainly not a martyr kind of a person. I love my life. But if one has to, then there is nothing more nobler a cause that I can think of.

Heroes exterminate each other for the benefit of people who are not heroes.

Heroism--that is the disposition of a man who aspires to a goal compared to which he himself is wholly insignificant. Heroism is the good will to self-destruction.

Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely.

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.

War is an arena for the display of courage and virtue. Or war is politics by other means. War is a quasi-mystical experience where you get in touch with the real. There are millions of narratives we impose to try to make sense of war.

In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one.

Better to have beasts that let themselves be killed than men who run away.

Men, today we die a little.

There is no glory in war, yet from the blackness of its history, there emerge vivid colours of human character and courage. Those who risked their lives to help their friends.

I like to say I'm not a hero.

We remember the heroes who ran into the burning buildings to rescue those trapped inside, and the dauntless passengers on Flight 93 who laid down their lives to save others, including almost certainly those of us in the U.S. Capitol.

For one thing, I don't think that anybody in any war thinks of themselves as a hero.

You don't send a man to his death because you want a hero.

But on the other hand, in the midst of the chaos, you find normal people. You find people who are willing to risk their lives to tell you what they saw, even though they have no dog in the fight.

Real heroes are those who face death for a principle - say, to save the lives of others - without any promise of reward.

We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly.

A short, glorious life in service of a greater good - say, the life of the Spartans at Thermopylae, or the pilots in the Battle of Britain, of whom Winston Churchill said 'Never have so many owed so much to so few,' - that is worth praising. But for glory alone? I think not.

I'd rather give my life than be afraid to give it.

People aren't universally heroic.