# The Memory Of Earth

- Author: [Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md)
- Quotes: 11
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth

## Quotes

> I was forgetting how it really was, I was remembering it through common, ordinary eyes, I was remembering it as the boy I was before, but now I remember that it wasn't me being weak or me being naked, or anything else that I should be ashamed of.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/i-was-forgetting.md)

> Nafai knew the rule: when a man acts like a child, he's boyish, and everyone's delighted; when a boy acts the same way, he's childish, and everyone tells him to be a man.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/nafai-knew-the.md)

> Wouldn't it have been better to change humanity so it no longer desired to destroy itself?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/wouldnt-it-have.md)

> "Why won't anyone ever answer my questions?"
>
> "Because you never stop asking them and especially because you keep asking them even when it's clear that nobody knows the answers."
>
> "Well, how do I know that they don't know the answer unless I ask?"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/why-wont-anyone.md)

> You think my apology means I'm weak. But it doesn't. It means I am trying to learn how to be strong.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/you-think-my-apology.md)

> I will not be tamed, only persuaded. I will not be coerced or led blindly or tricked or bullied - I am willing only to be convinced. If you don't trust your own basic goodness enough to tell me what you're trying to do... Then you're confessing your own moral weakness and I'll never serve you.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/i-will-not.md)

> "I think that I say those things that make people so angry, not because I really mean them, but because I simply thought of a clever way to say them. It's a kind of art, to think of the perfect way to say an idea, and when you think of it then you have to say it, because words don't exist until you say them."
>
> "A pretty feeble kind of art, Nyef, and I say you should give it up before it gets you killed."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/i-think-that.md)

> Permanence was always an illusion, and love was just the disguise that lovers wore to hide the death of their union from each other for a while.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/permanence-was-always.md)

> Here's my throat. I carry no weapon. You could have killed me at any time, even when I knew you were my enemy. Why did you need to deceive me into trusting you first? Were you afraid that death wouldn't bother me enough, unless I felt betrayed?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/heres-my-throat.md)

> Not that human beings need to be violent in order to be human, but if you ever lose the will to control, the will to destroy, then it must be because you choose to lose it. My role was not to force you to be gentle and kind; it was to keep you alive while you decided for yourselves what kind of people you wanted to be.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/not-that-human.md)

> How could you disguise your own thoughts so even you didn't know what you were thinking?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/how-could-you.md)