“Where ideas are real and reality is shadow.”
“What am I now, Alai?""Still good.""At what?""At--anything. There's a million soldiers who'd follow you to the end of the universe.""I don't want to go to the end of the universe.""So where do you want to go? They'll follow you."I want to go home, thought Ender, but I don't know where it is.”
“You have to think ahead, the next move, the next move, the next move, to see where it's all going to lead.”
“An enemy, Ender Wiggin," whispered the old man. "I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher.”
“I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the only rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher. I will devise the strategy of your army, and you will learn to be quick and discover what tricks the enemy has for you. Remember, boy. From now on the enemy is more clever than you. From now on the enemy is stronger than you. From now on you are always about to lose.”
“What could go wrong... Doing some stupid impulsive thing that caused the death of drowthers was practically a family tradition.”