Orson Scott Card Quotes on Emotion

41 quotes

  1. At first he thought he felt bad because he was afraid of leading an army, but it wasn't true. He knew he'd make a good commander. He felt himself wanting to cry. He hadn't cried since the first few days of homesickness after he got here. He tried to put a name on the feeling that put a lump in his throat and made him sob silently, however much he tried to hold it down. He bit down on his hand to stop the feeling, to replace it with pain. It didn't help.

  2. His eyes were seductive with understanding

  3. She probably knew this, intellectually. But like all other human beings, she did not always act accordingly to her understanding. She had lost too many of the people that she loved; when she felt one more of them slipping away, her response was emotional, not intellectual. [he] had come into her life as a healer, a protector. It was his job to keep her from being afraid, and now she was afraid, and she was angry at him for having failed her.

  4. He had no shred of fear or hatred in him.

  5. Do I think you actually care? It's a good thing I have no soul. That's the only thing that stops you from devouring it If I ever had your soul in my mouth I would spit it out.

  6. 'This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?' 'I don't know. Is it a longing? Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with me?' 'Yes,' she said. 'That's influenza,' said Miro. 'Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours.'

  7. Religion is tied to the deepest feelings people have. The love that arises from that stewing pot is the sweetest and strongest, but the hate is the hottest, and the anger is the most violent.

  8. But he did love her, with all his heart he loved her. All his heart? All of it he knew about.

  9. I didn't know Christians got so angry

  10. Now I have second-guess all my future decisions wondering how much my choices are influenced by the fact that this kid really pisses me off

  11. Don't lie to me! Don't seem so normal when I know you have cut yourself off from me in your heart! If you can put on our affectionate closeness like a mask, then I'll never be able to take joy in it again.

  12. [They] aren't humans When it comes to hate and rage and envy, yes they are And love and generosity, too. And trust and wisdom and dignity and - Yes, they're humans in all those ways

  13. You smile. Why, because you succeeded in provoking me?

  14. [He] always wondered at that smile even as it triumphed over his own anger or envy. Where could such a power over others come from?

  15. I think that many things can come into someone's mind out of hysteria

  16. Hatred and anger aren't rational

  17. Who is she? Who? The one you love till it takes your breath away just remembering

  18. He would have had a bad five minutes there, but by now it would be over. He wouldn't have this dull ache in his heart, the sharp yearning in his throat, the words trying to escape

  19. His eyes cannot be closed except by his own weeping and his own trust

  20. Do you begrudge her this: that once in her life she had a man who loved her with his whole heart, if only for that moment?

  21. Embarrassing as it had been to break down like that in front of [her], he knew that it had been a good thing. A wall inside himself had been broken

  22. They were good eyes. Kind eyes. Weary, but well-meaning.

  23. You may think you ashamed, but you not. Deep down in your heart. You know you done it all You don't know what I feel

  24. [He] made a little whimpering noise that meant everything she wanted it to mean.

  25. He shuddered at his own fragility. He had thought he was a stronger man than that

  26. Love is random; fear is inevitable.

  27. Damn this girl for her silence, for her seeing eyes

  28. I was prepared for him to have human failings, but I did not know he would own me with his eyes as if he had a right

  29. Afraid because his eyes still looked at her and said, mine, and because somewhere in her was something that answered, impossibly, yours

  30. Ansset could clearly hear the fear singing through the back of his brave words. Well, why not? Death was certain now, and Ansset knew of no one, except perhaps an old man like Mikal, who could look at death, especially death that also meant failure, without some fear

  31. That when Bant left it was the end of the world for Josif, because when he attached to somebody he didn't know how to let go

  32. Kyaren, I don't want to leave you Then don't It's because I love you that I want to leave If you love me, you'll stay' he had known it, from the moment she appeared in the door. He couldn't leave her. When the change came, it would come, and then it would be irreversible, and then he would leave because he loved someone else and there was something in him that made it impossible for him to love 2 people at once. But not the one person was Kyaren, and he could not leave her because she wanted him to stay. 'Ill hurt you You could not hurt me worse than leaving me now, for no reason

  33. Why are you at war with yourself? I want things that I do not want to want. Please leave me But why shouldn't you have what you want?

  34. Contempt is so easy

  35. We feel pain; what we don't feel is fear. Or rather, we've learned to separate pain and fear

  36. There's a sort of rage a man feels when he's been deceived where he most trusted. It compares to no other anger

  37. He felt something touch him, warm and deep, like a candle burst inside his heart. Like a soft breath of joy that swept through him, and he looked up to ask her what it was she did to him, how she could give him such a gift of life. But she was gone.

  38. I once thought you were the only island of sanity in a screwed-up world. You had no connections except your parents. You didn't get emotionally involved... No waste. No lies. No illusions. Then you fall in love with a woman and she leaves you and you come to me with this story and I swear... I've lost all faith in the human race

  39. I wasn't crazy to love her was I? ...we're all crazy to love anybody. But it drives us even crazier if we don't

  40. This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?

  41. Religion is tied to the deepest feelings people have. The love that arises from that stewing pot is the sweetest and strongest, but the hate is the hottest, and the anger is the most violent. -Children of the Mind

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