My looks by then had in any case declined to the point were only women would go to bed with me.

“A computer chattered to itself in alarm as it noticed an airlock open and close itself for no apparent reason. This was because reason was in fact out to lunch.”

The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist.' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.' 'But says Man, 'the Bable fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and therefore by your own arguments, you don't. QED' 'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. 'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and get himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

"Dude, you're such a geek. And that's coming from an overweight Star Trek fan who scored a 5 on the AP Calculus test. So you know your condition is grave"

"You can love someone so much," he thought. "But you can never love people as much as you can miss them."

"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?"

"Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back."

"Hold on." He grabbed a pencil and scrawled excitedly at the paper as if he'd just made a mathematical breakthrough and then looked back up at me. "I just did some calculations, and I've been able to determine that you're full of shit."

"It had been all right as long as they could laugh at me and appear clever at my expense, but now they were feeling inferior to the moron. I began to see that by my astonishing growth I had made them shrink and emphasized their inadequacies.

"Nothing in our minds is ever really gone. The operation had covered him over with a veneer of education and culture, but emotionally he was there--watching and waiting."

"Knowledge is dangerous and men lie and the world changes, whether I want it to or not."

"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything. "Need a poo, Todd." "Shutup, Manchee." "Poo. Poo, Todd." "I said shut it."

"We are the choices we make."

"Hey," says Hayden, "I'm Switzerland: neutral as can be, and also good with chocolate."

But this isn't how it feels to be a bugger, thought Ender. They don't wear this face like a mask, it is their face. On their home worlds, do the buggers put on human masks, and play?

"I can't do a weekly column," Valentine said. "I don't even have a monthly period yet."

Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.

"I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves."

"Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth."

"We have to go. I'm almost happy here."