Xenocide: Volume Three of the Ender Saga (Ender Quintet Book 3)

while the future couldn’t be known, it would probably be a good deal better than their worst fears and nowhere near as good as their best hopes. Wasn’t that how the world always worked?

I said all that because these things are possible. And because they’re possible we have to think of them so they don’t surprise us later. We have to think of them so that if the worst does come, we’ll already know how to live in that universe.”

“I looked for perfection, and found something better.”

there can be no greater honor to a parent than to have a child who is greater.”

Even from their dreams, sometimes they make up out of that randomness something that illuminates everything.

“I think you don’t grow up until you stop worrying about other people’s purposes or lack of them and find the purposes you believe in for yourself.”

When you have wisdom that another person knows that he 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.

saw what Andrew did in our family. I saw that he came in and listened and watched and understood who we were, each individual one of us. He tried to discover our need and then supply it. He took responsibility for other people and it didn’t seem to matter to him how much it cost him. And in the end, while he could never make the Ribeira family norm

I choose to live in a universe that has some hope in it.