# Red Prophet

- Author: [Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md)
- Quotes: 22
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet

## Quotes

> No, no, no, Hooch told himself silently. Getting even don't amount to nothing in this world. Getting even only gets you behind. The best revenge is to get rich enough to make them all call you sir, that's how you get even with these boys.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/no-no-no-hooch.md)

> Very bad thing, killing little boy. But maybe Red man knows about whisky-Red, very thirsty, making crazy. Not like killing man to take his house or his woman or his land, like White man all the time.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/very-bad-thing.md)

> The funny thing was, you see, that Mike Fink didn't think of himself as a murderer. He thought of life as a contest, and dying was what happened to those who came out second best, but it wasn't the same as murder, it was a fair fight.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/the-funny-thing.md)

> She can't help her red skin, and she isn't heathen. In fact, she's a Baptist, which is almost like being Christian, only louder.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/she-cant-help.md)

> “Black with hate,” said Becca. “You are gathering your people with hate.”
>
> “Can you imagine conducting a war with love?” asked Ta-Kumsaw.
>
> “That’s a reason to refuse to make war at all,” she said gently.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/black-with-hate.md)

> “We don’t go to Fort Chicago,” said Ta-Kumsaw. “We go to the holy place.”
>
> “A church?” asked Alvin.
>
> Ta-Kumsaw laughed. “You White people, when you make a place holy you build walls so nothing of the land can get in. Your god is nothing and nowhere, so you build a church with nothing alive inside, a church that could be anywhere, it doesn’t matter—nothing and nowhere.”
>
> “Well what does make a place holy?” asked Alvin.
>
> “Because that’s where the Red man talks to the land, and the land answers.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/we-dont-go-to-fort.md)

> He didn't know if he had the right or not. Didn't know if he was taking like a Red man, just what the land offered, or stealing like a White man, murdering whatever it pleased him to kill.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/he-didnt-know.md)

> Men like Jackson were so upright and honest-seeming, but Hooch knew that there wasn't no such thing as a good man, just a man who wasn't bought yet, or wasn't in deep enough trouble, or didn't have the guts to reach out and take what he wanted. That's all that virtue ever boiled down to, so far as Hooch ever saw in his life.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/men-like-jackson.md)

> We don't admit it to ourselves, not until the very moment of death, but in that moment, we see all life before us and we understand how we chose, every day of our lives, the manner of our death.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/we-dont-admit.md)

> The White man never guessed at what the Red man saw and heard and felt. The White man brought death and emptiness to this place. The White man cut down wise old trees with much to tell; young saplings with many lifetimes of life ahead; and the White man never asked, Will you be glad to make a lodgehouse for me and my tribe? Hack and cut and chop and burn, that was the White man's way. Take from the forest, take from the land, take from the river, but put nothing back. The White man killed animals he didn't need, animals that did him no harm; yet if a bear woke hungry in the winter and took so much as a single young pig, the White man hunted him down and killed him in revenge. He never felt the balance of the land at all.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/the-white-man.md)

> When both parties are lying and they both know the other party's lying, it comes powerful close to being the same thing as telling the truth.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/when-both-parties.md)

> Wasn't that their natural right, to know the truth so as to be able to let the truth lead them to do good or evil, as they chose?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/wasnt-that-their.md)

> “I want to know how many years I got.”
>
> “Many,” said Ta-Kumsaw. “Or few. All that matters is what you do with however many years you have.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/i-want-to-know.md)

> As he had so many times before, Taleswapper addressed a few silent words to God, which always came down to this question: Why do you put us to so much trouble, when it all comes to naught in the end?...And, as usual, God had nothing much to say to Taleswapper when his questioning was done.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/as-he-had.md)

> What the White man had won with so much blood and dishonesty was not the living land of the Red man, but the corpse of that land. It was decay that the White man won. It would turn to dust in his hands, Alvin knew it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/what-the-white.md)

> Lolla-Wossiky is left like a White man then. Cut off from the land. Ground crunching underfoot. Branches snagging. Roots tripping. Animals running away.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/lolla-wossiky-is-left.md)

> We've seen the worst that men can do, pa, and been the worst that men can be. But that don't mean that someday we won't see the best, too. And if we can never be perfect after this, well, we can still be pretty good, can't we?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/weve-seen-the.md)

> Road poured out into a place of meadows and a few White man's buildings. Lots of wagons. Horses posted and tied, grazing on the meadow grass. Sounds of metal hammers ringing, chopping of axes in the wood, screech of saws going back and forth, all kinds of White-man forest-killing sounds. A White man's town.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/road-poured-out.md)

> What is the White man? What does he do?
>
> The White man is like a human being, but he crushes all other living things under his feet.
>
> Then why, O Ta-Kumsaw, when I look into your heart, why is it that you do not wish to hurt the White man, that you do not wish to kill the White man?
>
> The White man doesn't know the evil that he does. The White man doesn't feel the peace of the land, so how can he tell the little deaths he makes? I can't blame the White man. But I can't let him stay. So when I make him leave this land, I won't hate him.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/what-is-the.md)

> The fear of death in the one place was not as strong as another kind of fear, the fear of a world gone crazy, a place where anything could happen, where nothing could be trusted, where nothing was certain. A terrible place.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/the-fear-of-death.md)

> At night in his own bed, Alvin listened to the distant greensong, still warm and beautiful, still bright and hopeful even though the forest was getting so sparse, even though the future was so dim. Cause there's no fear of future in the song of life, just the ever-joyful present moment. That's all I want right now, thought Alvin. The present moment, which is good enough.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/at-night-in-his.md)

> What a silly god, he makes everybody born bad to go to burning hell. Why so mad? All his fault!

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/what-a-silly.md)