"You can’t change what you don’t understand."

Orson Scott Card Literature See all quotes by Orson Scott Card →

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“We can wash people in the water all we want, but we can never wash their parents out of their hearts.”

“How is clean, painless nonexistence any worse than clean, painless death?”

“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?”

“Last night Alvin just got mad, which she said would only guarantee that he’d stay stupid.”

“Once you have the gallows, you’ll find new reasons to hang people from it.”

“It is the essence of dignity to pretend to desire what you cannot prevent.”

Resonant Thoughts

"With a few towering exceptions, most secular news outlets are simply too far away from the story to really understand what’s going on – because especially when it comes to Catholicism, it’s not just f…"

— John L. Allen Jr.

Literature1965–2026

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"My confidence in Spinoza rested on the serene effect he wrought in me, and it only increased when I found my worthy mystics were accused of Spinozism, and learned that even Leibnitz himself could not …"

— Baruch Spinoza

Philosophy1632–1677

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"I didn’t go to college, but if I did, I would’ve taken all my tests at a restaurant, 'cause the customer is always right. All right, all right. That joke’s better than you acted. Perhaps it’s not. May…"

— Mitch Hedberg

Entertainment1968–2005

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"The object of education is not merely to enable our children to gain their daily bread and to acquire pleasant means of recreation, but that they should know God and serve Him with earnestness and dev…"

— Hermann Adler

Religion1890–1967

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