All those months when bean refused to see Ender, hid from him, it was because he couldn't bear to face the fact that Ender was what bean only wished to be - the kind of person on whom you could put all your hopes, who could carry all your fears, and he would not let you down, would not betray you. I want to be the kind of boy you are, thought bean. But I don't want to go through what you've been through to get there

Ender Wiggin was not larger than life, Bean knew. He was exactly life-sized, and so his larger-than-life burden was too much for him. And yet he was bearing it…

Even if that's just bullshit, sir, it's first-rate bullshit. I'll pass it on.

Either she was a perfect actress or she was oblivious.

I go - as others already crucified have gone. And think not we are weary of crucifixion. For we must be crucified by larger and yet larger men, between greater…

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: 'In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will…