Orson Scott Card Quotes

Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

A starving man thinks first of satisfying his hunger before anything else. He will sell his liberty and all for the sake of getting a morsel of food.

All the good of which humanity is capable is comprised in obedience.

Man and fascism cannot co-exist. If fascism conquers, man will cease to exist and there will remain only man-like creatures that have undergone an internal transformation. But if man, man who is endowed with reason and kindness, should conquer, then Fascism must perish, and those who have submitted to it will once again become people.

I believe firmly that in making ethical decisions, man has the prerogative of true freedom of choice.

Mankind deserves sacrifice - but not of mankind.

It is true that legality is not morality, and sticking to the law is necessary for good citizenship, but it is not sufficient.

Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?

Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.

If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous.

Everybody has to sell out at some point to make a living.

If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely. It is absolutely touch and go. Each one of us could make the difference.

I have no regrets. I think we did right, and we couldn't have done differently. In wartime, it was a desperate time .... When you are in a war to the death, I don't think you stand around and ask, is it right?

This country will never sacrifice humanity in order to carry out any policy.

A man's own safety is a god that sometimes makes very grim demands.

What we call “morals” is simply blind obedience to words of command.

Who wills the ends must not shrink from the means.

Moral liberty is the power of following, in all circumstances, our sense of right and wrong, or of acting in conformity to our reflecting and moral principles, without being controlled by any contrary principles.

There are things more important than peace.

Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.

… we must regard all the changes which tend toward the uplift and survival of the human race as moral.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

We respect law, when the law respects our needs. Whenever legality clashes with morality, legality should be opposed and morality should be upheld.

You shouldn't change your behavior because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing. If we sacrifice our values because we're afraid, we don't care very much about those values.