Talk:Ender's Game

How do the needs of society overrule the rights of the individual?

In Enders Game Ender's right for freedom and happiness were overruled by the need of society to live. Ender was forced to live under constant stress, so he could save the world. How do the needs of society overrule the rights of the individual?

helpful quotes...

"Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me - to find out what you're good for." Graff to Ender.

"Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it." - Mazer Rackham to Ender Wiggin

"Individual human beings are all tools, that the others use to help us all survive."

"Nobody controls his own life..."

Valentine said that quote near the end of the novel.

Redundancy Much?

This article is full of repeated quotes. Such as Rackham's "I am your enemy" speech. Two copies of it, one abridged, one not, are practically right next to each other. Someone needs to clean this up, but I'm far too lazy... Voidtalker 03:12, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe this quote is worthy: If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first. ~Ender

It's already there in the article. - InvisibleSun 21:56, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Oh my bad, didnt see that someone had the bit of wording before it, this version actually seemed more universal but whatever

Unsourced

NOTE: These quotes need to be sourced by chapter before being moved back to the main page.

Most Well-Known Quotes

"The enemy's gate is down."

"Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth."

"‘In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him."

Sourced

Ender’s Game

• “The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.” –Introduction
• “At last he came to a door, with these words in glowing emeralds: The End of the World. He did not hesitate. He opened the door and stepped through.” –Narrator while Ender is playing the Fantasy Game
• “It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn't hurt a bit. But since adults always said that when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.” –Ender’s thoughts
• “Somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed. Could never go into battle willing to win at all costs. If you knew, you couldn't do it. If you were the kind of person who would do it even if you knew, you could never have understood [them] well enough.” –Graff

Ender Wiggin

• “I've lived too long with pain. I won't know who I am without it.”
• “As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine what "just living" might actually be. He had never done it in his life. But he wanted to do it anyway”. –Ender Wiggin
• “I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid.” -Ender Wiggin
• “We have to go. I'm almost happy here.” -Ender Wiggin
• “It was just him and me. He fought with honor. If it weren't for his honor, he and the others would have beaten me together. They might have killed me, then. His sense of honor saved my life. I didn't fight with honor... I fought to win.” -Ender Wiggin
• “I will remember this, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it’s due, so that defeat is not a disgrace. And I hope I don't have to do it often.” -Ender Wiggin
• “No. Your face is the same. I just don't know what beautiful means anymore.” -Ender Wiggin
• “He is dead... because we have forgotten him.” –Ender Wiggin
• “I don't care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly — I'll beat you unfairly first.” -Ender Wiggin
• “Earth was the constant noise of crickets and winds and birds. And the voice of one girl, who spoke to him out of his far-off childhood. The same voice that had once protected him from terror. The same voice that he would do anything to keep alive, even return to school, even leave Earth behind again for another four or forty or four thousand years. Even if she loved Peter more.” -Ender Wiggin
• “Mazer, I don't want to keep dreaming these things. I'm afraid of sleep. I keep thinking of things that I don't want to remember. My whole life keeps playing out as if I were a recorder and someone else wanted to watch the most terrible parts of my life.” -Ender Wiggin

Valentine Wiggin

• “Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you.” -Valentine Wiggin

Mazer Rackham

• “There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong.” -Mazer Rackham
• “Since when do you have to tell the enemy when he has won?” -Mazer Rackham
• “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.” -Mazer Rackham
• “Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it.” -Mazer Rackham
• “He isn't a killer. He just wins — thoroughly.” -Mazer Rackham
• “I don't care how much you eat, Ender, self-cannibalism is not going to get you out of this school.” -Mazer Rackham

Dink Meeker

• “You've been here a year, you think these people are normal. Well, they're not. We're not... I've got a pretty good idea of what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and it doesn't matter. Children aren't in armies, they aren't commanders, it's more than anyone can take and not get crazy.” -Dink Meeker

Bean

• “Remember- the enemy’s gate is down.” -Bean
• “He was a soldier, and if anyone had asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he wouldn't have known what they meant.” –Bean

Petra Arkanian

• “You remember this little boy, they never tell you any more truth than they have to.” -Petra