"Asking a man if he could be trusted was like asking an unwed girl if she was a virgin. The question mattered, but the asking of it was a gross insult."

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

React to this quote

More by Orson Scott Card

“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

"At 8 o’clock, the of the hall was nearly filled with an intelligent and respectable looking audience – The exercises commenced with a patriotic song by the Hutchinsons, which was received with great a…"

— Frederick Douglass

Social Activism1818–1895

#time

"What now is the answer to the question as to the bridge between the perception of the senses and the concepts, which is now reduced to the question as to the bridge between the outer perceptions and t…"

— Wolfgang Pauli

Science1900–1958

#justice

"I leave undecided the question whether complete mutual freedom of international commerce, such as is contemplated by the theory of Free Trade, would not serve the interests of Germany. But as long as …"

— Otto von Bismarck

Politics

#freedom

"That's a great question, Brandon, and a vice-president has a really great job because not only are they there to support the president's agenda, they're there like the team member, the teammate to the…"

— Sarah Palin

Politics1964

#life