Apparently the Dutch now prided themselves on being better at queues than the English, which was absurd, because standing cheerfully in line was the English national sport.

The difference between science fiction and fantasy … is simply this: science fiction has rivets and fantasy has trees.

Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender.

A broken clock is right two times a day.

Isn't it possible, he wondered, for one person to love another without trying to own each other? Or is that buried so deep in our genes that we can never get it out? Territoriality. My wife. My friend. My lover. My outrageous and annoying computer personality who's about to be shut off at the behest of a half-crazy girl with OCD on a planet that I never heard of and how will I live without [her] when she's gone?

That's the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends.

I'm never impossible. The most I ever allow myself is to be somewhat unlikely.