Orson Scott Card Quotes

Before the human race today there are only two roads: War or brotherhood.

People will help each other because there is a sense of camaraderie that springs up, which is a survival tactic. You help them because you know you might need their help later. And that is incredibly reassuring.

How do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists, then believe what they read.

Well, politics is war, and in war, truth is the first casualty.

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.

In the Mediterranean you have a choice. Either you fight or you cooperate.

If we ... ask Nature: "Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one another? We see at once that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have more chances to survive.

Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won't breed it out of us.

There are things more important than peace.

When men cease to fight — they cease to be — Men

Mankind has conceived history as a series of battles; hitherto it has considered fighting as the main thing in life.

We should keep on going along the path of globalization. Globalization is good... when trade stops, war comes.

And if we're all one, we need to stop our competition with each other. Most of the decisions we make are about survival and winning.

[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.

Talk of world peace is heard today only among the white peoples, and not among the much more numerous coloured races. This is a perilous state of affairs. When individual thinkers and idealists talk of peace, as they have done since time immemorial, the effect is negligible. But when whole peoples become pacifistic it is a symptom of senility. Strong and unspent races are not pacifistic. To adopt such a position is to abandon the future, for the pacifist ideal is a terminal condition that is contrary to the basic facts of existence. As long as man continues to evolve, there will be wars.

As human beings, we are only able to survive in dependence upon the co-operation, help and kindness of other fellow humans.

War's an auction where whoever can pay the most in damage and still be standing wins.

The appalling thing about war is that it kills all love of truth.

Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! All wars are wars among thieves who are too cowardly to fight and who therefore induce the young manhood of the whole world to do the fighting for them.

If the people really knew [the truth] the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know and can't know.

The motto of war is: "Let the strong survive; let the weak die." The motto of peace is: "Let the strong help the weak to survive."

Human beings seem unable to live without war, but they are also unable to live without love.

Man's triumph will consist in substituting the struggle for existence by a struggle for mutual service.