He would know what was right. Yet with his marvelous gift of knowing right from wrong, why couldn't he realize that his yearning to be something other than himself was hopelessly wrong, was wasting his life and poisoning his heart?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Knowing right from wrong doesn't prevent a person from yearning for an impossible identity, which wastes life and harms the heart.
- In plain terms
- Moral knowledge can't stop someone from chasing a hopeless self‑image that hurts them.
- What can you take from it?
- Self‑acceptance matters more than abstract moral certainty.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do we often chase impossible versions of ourselves?
- How can we align moral knowledge with authentic self‑image?
Another view
The quote assumes a single 'right' identity, ignoring cultural and personal diversity.
More from Orson Scott Card
If you don't want to control what I think, why did you raise your voice? Why did you argue with me at all?
Permalink to quote #462 Does a son betray his father? If a father commands a son to commit a crime so terrible that the son can't do it and live with himself, then is it betrayal for …
Permalink to quote #464 After discussions like this, the boys would turn around and talk about how girls weren't reasonable, they were emotional, you couldn't even have an intelligent…
Permalink to quote #461
Related quotes
It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.
Doris LessingDoris Lessing quote #1 L'homme n'est ni ange ni bete, et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l'ange fait la bete.
Blaise PascalBlaise Pascal quote #4 In thinking about the costs of this war, and thinking about renewing it, we have to reconsider what it has done to America. It has turned the U.S. military int…
Andrew SullivanAndrew Sullivan quote #5