# Earthborn - Author: [Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md) - Quotes: 25 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn ## Quotes > Don't you hate it when somebody knows you better than you know yourself? [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/dont-you-hate.md) > The doctrine he was going to be teaching, starting tonight, was not the sort of ideology that would stir souls; no one would die for this religion. It would only attracts converts by promising a return to old tradition and by seeming to be the religion of the future. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/the-doctrine-he-was.md) > They won't be required to sacrifice anything in order to belong to your assembly. A religion that is all sweetness, but no light; all form, but no substance; all tradition, but no precept. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/they-wont-be-required.md) > Which is the greater wrong? To hurt the unforgiving one, or hurt the one who has forgiven all? [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/which-is-the.md) > That's one of those questions, whether human beings are really capable of change, or if all seeming changes are really a matter of framing the existing character in a different moral situation. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/thats-one-of-those.md) > It occurred to me that if my friends were loathsome, perhaps I needed to learn from my enemies. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/it-occurred-to-me-that.md) > You always do that. Make all the questions harder. > > I make them truer. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/you-always-do-that.md) > Just because you know I had no other choice doesn't make the anger go away. I understand that. But you're a man now. You can put away these childish things. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/just-because-you.md) > Law can change how people behave when others are watching — that's all. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/law-can-change.md) > Wanting to is the whole lesson; all the rest is practice. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/wanting-to-is-the.md) > Out of respect for custom he treats me as if all women were equally worthless. He gives custom more respect than he gives me. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/out-of-respect.md) > He isn't insane, he's simply as trapped in his life as I am in mine. That makes us friends. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/he-isnt-insane.md) > Humans, in order to rise above the animals, had learned how to convert themselves into nothing more than organs or limbs or even disposable fingernails and hair of a larger metaphorical organism. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/humans-in-order.md) > We can wash people in the water all we want, but we can never wash their parents out of their hearts. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/we-can-wash.md) > I believe in everything that seems true to me right now. I just refuse to be surprised when some of those things I believe in now turn out to be false later. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/i-believe-in-everything.md) > Only boys were so foolish that they actually believed their arguments were their reasons. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/only-boys-were.md) > I'll be dead and you'll think about this day and wonder which of us was more the slave, you or me! [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/ill-be-dead.md) > Boys always argued as if they knew then had the forces of logic on their side, even when they were being completely irrational. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/boys-always-argued.md) > What difference does it make, whether we keep our silence because [they] force us or because we're afraid they might force us? [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/what-difference-does.md) > Most of the things people say they remember they only imagine anyways. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/most-of-the.md) > Today, I saw a spark of decency. Let's blow on that spark and give it fuel. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/today-i-saw.md) > Maybe if I could bear my life as it is for one day, for one hour, for one minute, I could forget my wish to be something else. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/maybe-if-i-could.md) > If a father commands a son to commit a crime so terrible that the son can't do it and live with himself, then is it betrayal for the son to disobey his father? [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/if-a-father.md) > I have no secret thoughts... Or rather, they're not secret because I've withheld them — if they're unknown, it's because no one asked. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/i-have-no-secret.md) > We all choose our own teachers, don't we? I wonder if our choice of teacher shows anything about what our lives will be. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/we-all-choose.md)