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I'm Hungry
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Best things in life aren't things.
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He who laughs last thinks slowest.
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Judge not lest ye be judged yourself.
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I'm on a see-food diet; I see food, I eat it.
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Arrogance and ignorance go hand-in-hand.
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If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
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Your kid may be an honor student, but you're still an idiot.
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War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
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Even when all the experts agree, they may well be mistaken.
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Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
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Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
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Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM?
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If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.
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You don't have to swim faster than the shark, just faster than the guy next to you.
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Courage isn't the absence of fear; it is the presence of fear, but with the will to go on.
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"I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants."
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We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.
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You know what they say: you've got questions, that's understandable.- Tammy & Tombo
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If a scientist were to cut his ear off, no one would take it as a sign of a heightened sensibility.
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When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.
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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
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Englishmen will never be slaves, they are free to do whatever the government and public opinion allows them to do.
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They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
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Lazlo's Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how great your triumph or how tragic you defeats, approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.
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Coaching is the process of getting people to do something they don't want to do in order to achieve something they want to achieve.- Fr. Sinnerud
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We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it- and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
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Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe

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    "There are worse reasons to die," Ender answered, "than to die because you cannot bear to kill."-Speaker For the Dead 378

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     "I have lied to you and everybody else," Mother said. "But you do have to believe me anyway. When I tell you that I love you." -Speaker for the Dead 288

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    "Twisted and perverse are the ways of the human mind," Jane intoned. "Pinocchio was such a dolt to try to become a real boy. He was much better off with a wooden head. -Speaker for the Dead 141

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     "Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear" -Children of the Mind 354

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    "When you have wisdom that another person knows that he or she needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom, you keep it to yourself. Food only looks good to a hungry man. -Xenocide 396

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    "No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins. -Speaker for the Dead 131

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    "My greatest teacher once told me," said Yasujiro, "that a man who has risked his life knows that careers are worthless, and a man who will not risk his career has a worthless life." "You have always been useless. But that doesn't mean that you aren't necessary." - Children of the Mind248

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    "Why are they so stupid?" asked Human. "Not to know the truth when they hear it?"
    "They aren't stupid," said the Speaker."This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe and those we never think to question." -Speaker for the Dead 236

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    "Money and talent aren't the same thing."
    "That's because you can inherit money that was earned by your ancestors. And everybody recognizes the value of money, only select groups recognize the value of talent. -Shadow of the Hegemon 000

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(in the middle of a totally serious, in-depth discussion)

    "You are inferior." said Jane.
    "I'm hungry," said Ender. "And thirsty."
    "Lunch," said Miro. -Xenocide 393

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    " When you really know somebody, you can’t hate them."
    "Or maybe because it's just that you don’t really know them until you stop hating them."
    "Is that a circular paradox? Dom Cristao says that most truth can only be expressed in circular paradoxes." -Speaker for the Dead 370

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   "I'm as sure," said Ender, "as I am of anything."
    "Not absolutely sure," said Olhado.
    "Sure enough to bring her back to life," said Ender. "And that's as sure as we ever are of anything. We believe it enough to act as though it's true. When we're that sure, we call it knowledge. Facts. We bet our lives on it" -Speaker for the Dead 371

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    "Oh, of course," said Mu-pao. "You have always been useless. But that doesn't mean that you aren't necessary."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Happiness can depend as easily on useless things as on useful ones."
    "Is that a saying of an old master?"
    "It's a saying of an old fat woman on a donkey," said Mu-pao. "And don't you forget it." -Xenocide363

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    "Let me tell you about gods," said Wiggin. "No matter how smart or strong you are, there's always somebody smarter or stronger, and when you run into somebody who's stronger and smarter than anybody, you think, This is a god. This is perfection. But I can promise you that there's somebody else somewhere else who'll make your god look like a maggot by comparison. And somebody smarter or stronger or better in some way. So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep the other people down. For Congress to genetically alter people to make them smarter and more creative, that could have been a godlike, generous gift. But they were scared, so they hobbles the people of Path. They wanted to stay in control. A real god doesn't care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them." -Xenocide 412

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    "Love? That's what it all comes down to?"
    "No, not just love. I'm talking about the cycle of life. I'm talking about finding some alien creature and deciding to marry her and stay with her forever, no matter whether you even like each other or not a few years down the road. And why will you do this? So you can make babies together, and try to keep them alive and teach then what they need to know so that someday they'll have babies, and keep the whole thing going. And you'll never draw a secure breath until you have grandchildren, a double handful of then, because then you know that your line won't die out, your influence will continue. Selfish, isn't it? Only it's not selfish, it's what life is for. It's the only thing that brings happiness, ever, to anyone. All the other things- victories, achievements, honors, causes- they bring only momentary flashes of pleasure. But binding yourself to another person and to the children you make together, that's life. And you can't do it if your life is centered on your ambitions. You'll never be happy. It will never be enough, even if you rule the world. But if you're a tenth as smart as you think you are, you'll get that for yourself. Or you'll never have real joy in this life."
    "But as far as I can tell, marrying and having children has brought you nothing but grief. Where's the joy?"
    "The grief is the joy. I have someone to grieve for. Whom do you have?" -Shadow of the Hegemon 000

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    "So-- as I recall, the official philosophical answer is that free will doesn't exist. Only the illusion of free will, because the causes of our behavior are so complex that we can't trace them back. If you've got one line of dominoes knocking each other down only one by one, then you can always say, Look this domino fell because that one pushed it. But when you have an infinite number of dominoes that can be traced back in an infinite number of directions, you can never find where the casual chain begins. So you think, That domino fell because it wanted to."
    "Bobagem," said Miro.
    "Well I'll admit that it's a philosophy with no practical value," said Ender. "Valentine once explained it to me this way. Even if there is no such thing as free will, we have to treat each other as if there were free will in order to live together in society. Because otherwise, every time somebody does something terrible, you can't punish him, because he can't help it, because his genes or his environment or God made him do it, and every  time somebody does something good, you can't honor him, because he was a puppet, too. If you think that everybody around you is a puppet, why bother talking to them at all? Why even try to plan anything or create anything, since everything you plan or create or desire or dream of is just acting out the script your puppeteer built into you."
    "Despair," said Miro.
    "So we conceive of ourselves and everyone around us as volitional beings. We treat everyone as if they did things with a purpose in mind, instead of because they're being pushed from behind. We punish criminals. We reward altruists. We plan things and build things together. We make promises and expect each other to keep them. It's all a made-up story, but when everybody believes that everybody's actions are the result of free choice, and takes and gives responsibility accordingly, the result is civilization."
    "Just a story."
    "That's how Valentine explained it. That is, if there's no free will. I'm not sure that she actually believes herself. My guess is that she'd say that she is civilized, and therefore she must believe the story herself, in which case she absolutely believes in free will and thinks this whole idea of a made-up story is nonsense- but that's what she'd believe even if it were true, and so who can be sure of anything."
    "Either we're free or we're not," said Miro. "Either the story's true or it isn't."
    "The point is that we have to believe that it's true in order to live as civilized human beings," said Ender.
    "No, that's not the point at all," said Miro. "Because if it's a lie, why should we bother to live as civilized human beings?"
    "Because the species has a better chance to survive if we do," said Ender. "Because our genes require us to believe the story in order to enhance our ability to pass those genes on for many generations in the future. Because anybody who doesn't believe the story begins to act in unproductive, uncooperative ways, and eventually all the community, the herd, will reject him and his opportunities for reproduction will be diminished- for instance, he'll be put in jail- and the genes leading to his unbelieving behavior will eventually be extinguished."
    "So the puppeteer requires that we believe that we're not puppets. We're forced to believe in free will." -Xenocide383

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