Ender's Game

Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.

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.

If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.

I don't care if I pass your test, I don't care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first. - Ender

I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. --From the Introduction

Remember, the enemy's gate is down.

I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.

Because never in my entire childhood did I feel like a child. I felt like a person all along―the same person that I am today.

Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.

Early to bed and early to rise," Mazer intoned, "makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.

There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.

I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it.

Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. He just wins—thoroughly.

I also remembered that you were beautiful." "Memory does play tricks on us." "No. Your face is the same, but I don't remember what beautiful means anymore.

You're a monster. Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise? No, just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustable.

Peter, you're twelve years old. I'm ten. They have a word for people our age. They call us children and they treat us like mice.

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.

So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.

Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me—to find out what you're good for. We might both do despicable things, Ender, but if humankind survives, then we were good tools.

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.

Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself.

He could see Bonzo's anger growing hot. Hot anger was bad. Ender's anger was cold, and he could use it. Bonzo's was hot, and so it used him.

Human beings may be miserable specimens, in the main, but we can learn, and, through learning, become decent people.

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.

We have to go. I'm almost happy here.

The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.

I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.

The story is one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together.

We're all trying to decide whether your scores up there are a miracle or a mistake." "A habit.