Quotes from The Memory of Earth

Orson Scott Card ·  352 pages

Rating: (14.1K votes)


“That's what Father and Mother are, thought Nafai. They stay together, not because of any gain, but because of the gift. Father doesn't stay with Mother because she is good for him, but rather because together they can do good for us, and for many others.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from The Memory of Earth


“He splashed into the water, his whole body, not with the reverent attitude of prayer, but with a desperate thirst; he buried his head under the water and drank deep, with his cheek against the cold stone of the riverbed, the water tumbling over his back, his calves. He drank and drank, lifted his head and shoulders above the water to gasp in the evening air, and then collapsed into the water again, to drink as greedily as before.

It was a kind of prayer, though, he realized as he emerged, freezing cold as the water evaporated from his skin in the breeze of the dark morning.

I am with you, he said to the Oversoul. I'll do whatever you ask, because I long for you to accomplish your purpose here.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from The Memory of Earth


“Once these two had been joined together in love, or something like love; they had made two babies, and yet, only fifteen years later, the last tie between them was broken now. All lost, all gone. Nothing lasted, nothing. Even this forty-million-year world that the Oversoul had preserved as if in ice, even it would melt before the fire. Permanence was always an illusion, and love was just the disguise that lovers wore to hide the death of their union from each other for a while.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from The Memory of Earth


“Human is human,” said Issib. “But civilized—that’s the gift of the Oversoul. Civilization without self-destruction.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from The Memory of Earth


“Elemak pulled the shower cord before he soaped. The moment the water hit him he yowled, and then did his own little splash dance, shaking his head and flipping water all over the courtyard while jabbering “ooga-booga looga-booga” just like a little kid.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from The Memory of Earth



“How do men become manly, if not by putting it on as an act until it becomes habit and then, finally, their character?”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from The Memory of Earth


About the author

Orson Scott Card
Born place: in Richland, Washington, The United States
Born date August 24, 1951
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“Kişinin kafası ve kalbi boşsa, karnı tok olmuş, neye yarar ! Bugün öğrendiklerimi hep aklımda tutacak, aldığım dersi hiç unutmayacak, halkımı bu sıkıntılardan kurtaracağım. Ne de olsa insanın kalbini yumuşatan da, içine iyilik ve cömertlik aşılayan da bilgi değil mi ?" / Çalınan Taç / The Prince and the Pauper”
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“Sinema salonlarından çıkıp gerçeğe alışabilmek için gözlerini kırpıştırdıklarını gördüm, dünyada neler olup bittiğini öğrenmek için sendeleyerek evlerine Times okumaya gidişlerini izledim. Onların gazetelerine kustum ben, edebiyatlarını okudum, örf ve adetlerine uydum, yemeklerini yedim, sanatlarına esnedim. Ama ben yoksulum, soyadımın sonu ünlü bir harfle bitiyor ve benden nefret ediyorlar, babamdan ve babamın babasından da, ellerinden gelse kanımı içerler ama yaşlanmışlar artık, güneşin altında ölüyorlar, oysa ben genç ve umut doluyum, yaşadığımız zamanı ve ülkemi seviyorum ve sana Yağlı dediğimde yüreğim değildi konuşan, eski bir yara titreşti sadece. Yaptığımdan çok utanıyorum.”
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“I shall begin a search for such a device, and if I have to go to the ends of the earth to find a trumpet for our young son, I shall find it at last and bring it home to Louis."
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