And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.
Orson Scott CardRead
Ender nodded. It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn’t hurt a bit. But since adults always said it when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the concept that sometimes lies can provide more comfort and predictability than the truth.
In this quote, the author suggests that the adult's reassurance that pain will not happen often turns out to be a falsehood. It highlights the irony that, in some situations, lies can offer a sense of security or predictability that the harsh truth cannot provide. The quote implies a deeper philosophical observation about the nature of truth and deception in human experiences.
Themes
TruthLiePainPredictionComfort
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the nature of honesty in relationships.
More from Orson Scott Card
All quotes →The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win.
Orson Scott CardRead
Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.
Orson Scott CardRead
The lives of all people flow through time, and, regardless of how brutal one moment may be, how filled with grief or pain or fear, time flows through all lives equally.
Orson Scott CardRead
You take a step, then another. That's the journey. But to take a step with your eyes open is not a journey at all, it's a remaking of your own mind.
Orson Scott CardRead
I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate even than a kiss.
Orson Scott CardRead
Similar quotes
Ours is not a problem of the intellect but of spiritual poverty. That is why we need a Savior.
Ravi ZachariasRead
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
John Stuart MillRead
With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed.
Simone WeilRead
Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.
Patrick HenryRead