The criminal misuse of time was pointing out the mistakes. Catching themโnoticing themโthat was essential. If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement. The part of the man's statement that was true, however, was about the uselessness of speaking up. If I know that the teacher is wrong, and say nothing, then I remain the only one who knows, and that gives me an advantage over those who believe the teacher.
Orson Scott CardI'm not stupid!" In Bean's experience, that was a sentence never uttered except to prove its own inaccuracy.
Orson Scott CardPersonal humiliation was painful. Humiliation of one's family was much worse. Humiliation of one's social status was agony to bear. But humiliation of one's nation was the most excruciating of human miseries.
Orson Scott CardWriterโs block is my unconscious mind telling me that something Iโve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what Iโve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writerโs block is never solved by forcing oneself to โwrite through it,โ because you havenโt solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still wonโt work โ for you or for the reader.
Orson Scott Card