58 Orson Scott Card Quotes on Trust

Orson Scott Card quotes on trust

34. It was a lie of course, that it wouldn't hurt a bit. But since adults always said that when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.

37. I thought you were my friend. Whatever gave you that idea...? Because you - you didn't lie.

123. That's right. I want all the secrets opened up. I want all the files unlocked. I don't want anything hidden You don't know what you're asking. You don't know how much pain it will cause if all the secrets come out Take a look at my family. How can the truth cause anymore pain than the secrets have already caused?

125. He wasn't telling the truth, with trumpets; he was telling the truth, the story you wouldn't think to doubt because it's taken for granted.

131. He is dangerous, the infidel, the anti-Christ, he walks brazenly into places in my heart that I had kept as holy ground, where no one else was ever permitted to stand.

137. Are you ready to reveal yourself to the rest of humanity? I've always been ready. The question is, are they ready to know me?

141. Those who know each other only through symbolic representations are forced to imagine each other. And because their imagination is imperfect, they are often wrong.

145. She had passed his test. She had listened to him the way no one else did - without impatience, without finishing his sentences, without letting her gaze waver from his face. He had spoken to her, not with careful precision, but with great emotion... He could talk to this woman as naturally as he had ever talked to anyone before... Yes, she was opinionated, headstrong, bossy, and quick to reach conclusions. But she could also listen to an opposing view, change her mind when she needed to. She could listen, and so he could speak. Perhaps with her he could still be [himself].

156. Maybe they didn't have to discuss things like this. Maybe they had spent so many years together that they knew how to cooperate so smooth things for other people without even thinking about it. Like actors who have performed the same roles together so often that they can improvise without the slightest confusion.

160. No matter how well you know what a person has done and what he thought of what he was doing when he did it and what he now thinks of what he did, it is impossible to be certain of what he will do next.

163. She's too tough to die. No. She's so fragile right now that any blow might kill her. Not her body. Her - trust. Her hope. Don't give her any reason to think you're not with her, no matter what.

200. Lets say I'm a suspector. I suspect there may be someone who cares what happens to us. That's one step better than merely wishing. And one step below hoping.

207. 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.

214. I know it as much as anyone knows anything. Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon.

247. I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate than even a kiss. Maybe. But not as fun.

263. We'll consider what you've told us. We wont be foolish You've already been foolish. I have no high expectations for you now.

271. Either she was a perfect actress or she was oblivious.

275. There were times for absolute honesty between friends, but this wasn't one of them.

286. What you don't seem to understand is, sometimes you have to tell people the truth and ask them to do the thing you want, instead of trying to trick them into it.

324. Here's my throat. I carry no weapon. You could have killed me at any time, even when I knew you were my enemy. Why did you need to deceive me into trusting you first? Were you afraid that death wouldn't bother me enough, unless I felt betrayed?

357. In all his life, [he] had never spoken with such brutal frankness about his own fear; he had never felt so exposed and vulnerable in front of anyone.

369. You're so certain that you can hold people to their commitments. No ones ever made them do that before. Can you now?

402. 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.

412. You're the only one that I would be glad to be close to forever, because all your secrets are bright and good and I love you for them

475. [He] smiled at once, his most winning and charming smile, and it worked as it always worked, suggesting as it did a sort of self-effacing humility, a believable protests of innocence, and a promise of friendship - whatever good thing the other person wish to read into it

486. Which is the greater wrong? To hurt the unforgiving one, or hurt the one who has forgiven all?

503. [He] put a great deal of trust in the sort of man who spoke his mind to all men, even strangers, even enemies

512. And it came into hooch's mind that when both parties are lying and they both know the other party's lying, it comes powerfully close to being the same thing as telling the truth.

540. Was she being ironic? Vanya had never been able to guess about mother

564. If he wants you, then I don't want him. The man I loved wouldn't have gotten married without bothering to break off his previous engagement. So whatever you've got there with his arm attached to your back. It's not a man I ever knew or ever wanted. Somebody else, somebody faithless. I deserve better. So save your tears for yourself. Bitch

568. I trust you because I've come to know you, and coming to know you, I've learned to love you. I've fallen in love with your boldness, your humility, your innocence, your kindness, your willingness. I know that you will stand by me as best you can. But you don't know what my husband needs to know. You can't do what my husband needs to do. I can trust your heart, your king's heart, but your mind doesn't know what it needs to know, your hands don't have in them the skills they need to have. I had no choice but to marry you. But little by little I have come to long for you to include me within the circle of your arms, of your mind, of your pure love. To embrace me, to give me babies I was born to have, to help me raise them. And I don't care which world we raise them in, yours or mine or some other we haven't seen yet

582. I have to trust everyone and yet there's no one I can really be sure of You can be sure of me she looked at him, searching his face. I've known you so little time. The others I knew all my life. The others are my own people. You are a stranger, from a strange time and place. I know what they can do, what they will do. I have no idea of what you are or what is in your hands and heart and mind. And yet when you tell me I can be sure of you, I am sure

596. A dagger has only a single point, but a traitor cuts from anywhere

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

604. Asking a man if he could be trusted was like asking an unwed girl if she was a virgin. The question mattered, but the asking of it was a gross insult

621. He was wild the way a mistreated dog becomes wild, not because it loves freedom, but because it has lost trust

629. How could you tell, when utter honesty and cynical manipulation would each account completely for the things she said and did?

633. The kind of man that's the one kind worth loving, when I tell him that story, he'll never be able to love me

637. 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

733. Her soul belong as much to [them] as to him. By dividing her loyalties, she fragmented them; none were strong enough to sway her deepest desires. Thus he discovered what he supposed all faithful men eventually discover - that no human relationship is ever anything but tentative. There is no such thing as an unbreakable bond between people.

734. Nothing can last. Nothing is, finally, what it once seemed to be. [she] and he had the perfect marriage until there came a stress that exposed it's imperfection. Anyone who thinks he has a perfect marriage, a perfect friendship, a perfect trust of any kind, he only believes this because the stress that will break it has not yet come. He might die with the illusion of happiness, but all he has proven is that sometimes death comes before betrayal. If you live long enough, betrayal will inevitably come

741. How do you understand me so well? 'I only know what you show me and what you tell me. It's all we ever know about each other. The only thing that helps is that nobody can ever lie for long about who they really are. Not even to themselves

763. Why had he told her? Perhaps because he knew implicitly that he could trust her with his life. Or perhaps because she looked at him with such piercing intelligence that he knew that no other explanation than the truth could convince her. Even so, he had not told her half of it, for even she would have thought him mad

781. And this is not hypocrisy?:' Hypocrisy? No. The hypocrite knows what he really is, and labors to conceal it from others in order to gain from their misplaced faith in him

784. I'd be afraid to be your enemy. But I'd be even more afraid to be your friend in battle. You are sure your enemy is stupid because he doesn't do things as you would do them. It will make you careless, and your enemy will surprise you, and your friend will die

805. I hate you for knowing my heart and using it against me

832. [He] then discovered what he had not known about himself. That when he trusted, he held nothing back. That when he loved, he could not love anyone else

862. I feel like such a fool Honest people are the easiest to fool, Elisheba. I never occurred to you that they might be flattering you, because you don't lie

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

911. I thought that when I trusted you, that meant you would always act the way I wanted you to.

949. 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

965. Please open your mind to the possibility that I might be an honest man who was himself deceived

994. Have you come to take away the pain again?' The man shook his head. The hope had been brief, but the disappointment was no less deep because of that. 'If you can't do that then what good are you to us?

1014. I hate it when you say things you've been practicing up to say

1039. Many who were listening felt a vague disquiet. They had expected oration. Instead the Speaker's voice was nothing remarkable. And his words had none of the formality of religious speech. Plain, simple, almost conversational. Only a few of them noticed that its very simplicity made his voice, his speech utterly believable. He wasn't telling the Truth, with trumpets; he was telling the truth, the story that you wouldn't think to doubt because it's taken for granted.

1056. When you decide to hide something from me, will you at least tell me that aren't going to tell me?

1067. If I read it in the newspapers, it's probably wrong. If I read it in the major news magazines, it's hopelessly wrong.

1095. The great irony of war is this: While war is the ultimate expression of mistrust, it cannot be waged without absolute trust. A soldier trusts his comrades to stand beside him and his commander to lead him wisely, so that he will not be led to a meaningless death. And the commander trusts his subordinates and soldiers to act with wisdom and courage in order to compensate for his own ignorance, stupidity, incompetence, and fear, which all commanders possess in ample measure. -Empire