Hyrum Graff

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Persuade him that he wants to come with us more than he wants to stay with her."

"How will you do that?"

"I'll lie to him."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then I'll tell the truth. We're allowed to do that in emergencies. We can't plan for everything, you know."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 12 (Easton Press, 1993)

"Tell me why you kept on kicking him. You had already won."

"Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they'd leave me alone."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 14 (Easton Press, 1993)

"The final step in your testing was to see what would happen when the monitor came off. We don't always do it that way, but in your case—"

"And he passed?" Mother was incredulous. "Putting the Stilson boy in the hospital? What would you have done if Andrew killed him, given him a medal?"

"It isn't what he did, Mrs. Wiggin. It's why."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 14 (Easton Press, 1993)

Conscripts make good cannon fodder, but for officers we need volunteers.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 15 (Easton Press, 1993)

people do strange things for religion

• Ender's Game
  • p. 16 (Easton Press, 1993)

Your brother hates you because you are living proof that he wasn't good enough.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 17 (Easton Press, 1993)

"Peter isn't all bad, you know. He was the best we'd seen in a long time. We asked your parents to choose a daughter next—they would have anyway—hoping that Valentine would be Peter, but milder. She was too mild. And so we requisitioned you."

"To be half Peter and half Valentine."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 18 (Easton Press, 1993)

[The buggers] damn near wiped us out last time. They had us cold, outnumbered and outweaponed. The only thing that saved us was that we had the most brilliant military commander we ever found. Call it fate, call it God, call it damnfool luck, we had Mazer Rackham.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 18 (Easton Press, 1993)

There's only one boy on this launch with any brains at all, and that's Ender Wiggin. Take a good look at him, little boys. He's going to be a commander when you're still in diapers up there. Because he knows how to think in null gravity, and you just want to throw up.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 23 (Easton Press, 1993)

"I thought you were my friend." Despite himself, Ender's voice trembled.

Graff looked puzzled. "Whatever gave you that idea, Ender?"

"Because you—" Because you spoke nicely to me, and honestly. "You didn't lie."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 25 (Easton Press, 1993)

My job is to produce the best soldiers in the world. In the whole history of the world. We need a Napoleon. An Alexander. Except that Napoleon lost in the end, and Alexander flamed out and died young. We need a Julius Caesar, except that he made himself dictator, and died for it. My job is to produce such a creature, and all the men and women he'll need to help him.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 25 (Easton Press, 1993)

"You made them hate me."

"So? What will you do about it? Crawl into a corner? Start kissing their little backsides so they'll love you again? There's only one thing that can make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you. I told them you were the best. Now you damn well better be."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 25 (Easton Press, 1993)

It isn't the world at stake. Just us. Just humankind. As far as the rest of the biosphere is concerned, we could be wiped out and it would adjust, it would get on with the next step in evolution. But humanity doesn't want to die. As a species, we have evolved to survive. And the way we do it is by straining and straining and, every few generations, giving birth to genius. The one who invents the wheel. And light. And flight. The one who builds a city, a nation, an empire.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 26 (Easton Press, 1993)

Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 26 (Easton Press, 1993)

"We might do despicable things, but if humanity survives, then we were good tools."

"Is that all? Just tools?"

"Individual human beings are all tools, that the others use to help us all survive."

• Ender's Game
  • p. 26 (Easton Press, 1993)

Commanders have just as much authority as you let them have. The more you obey them, the more power they have over you.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 73 (Easton Press, 1993)

Isolation is—the optimum environment for creativity.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 106 (Easton Press, 1993)

He noticed how Graff and the other officers were watching them. Analyzing. Everything we do means something, Ender realized. Them laughing. Me not laughing.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 21 (Easton Press, 1993)

Another blow. Harder. It really hurt. Where was Graff?

Then it became clear. Graff had deliberately caused it. It was worse than the abuse in the shows. When the sergeant picked on you, the others liked you better. But when the officer prefers you, the others hate you...

If Graff was setting him up, there'd be no help unless he helped himself.

• Ender's Game
  • p. 24 (Easton Press, 1993)