Quote #109

When you really know somebody you can't hate them Or maybe it's just that you can't really know them until you stop hating them Is that a circular paradox? Dom Cristao says that most truth can only be expressed in circular paradoxes I don't think it has anything to do with truth, it's just cause and effect. We can never sort them out. Science refuses to admit any cause except the first cause - knock down one domino, the one next to it also falls. But when it comes to human beings, the only type of cause that matters is the final cause, the purpose. What a person had in mind. Once you know what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart.

More from Orson Scott Card

  1. I'm not one to despise other people for their sins. I haven't found one yet, that I didn't say to myself, I've done worse than this
  2. As long as you keep getting born, it's ok to die sometimes
  3. Your dream is a good one. It's the dream of every living creature. The desire that is the very root of life itself: to grow until all the s…
  4. There are worse reasons to die, than to die because you cannot bear to kill What about someone who can't kill, and can't die, and can't liv…
  5. You're a fool. If people only react to the way that others treat them, then nobody is responsible for anything. If your sins are not your o…
  6. You're afraid of the stranger, whether he's utlanning or framling. When you think of killing a man that you know of and value, then it does…
  7. There's so much that we don't understand. And so much more that you don't understand. We should tell each other more
  8. A question isn't an argument, unless you think you know my answer.

All Orson Scott Card quotes