a lot of human behavior was really acting out our responses to dangers long past.

I am especially grateful, however, to have known the fifties, before we began to poison our own civilization - or at least before the effects of the poison began to be felt.

Nobody ever completely means what they say. Even when they think they're telling the truth, there's always something hidden behind their words.

Everybody dies. What matters is what you do between now and when it happens to you.

Ender's Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984... It will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.

"We've devoted our lives to learning about them!" Miro said. Ender stopped. "Not from them."

I merely observe that all living things are manipulated. As long as there is a will, it is bent and twisted constantly. Only the dead are allowed the luxury of freedom, and then only because they want nothing, and therefore can't be thwarted.