Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)

by Orson Scott Card

There’s only one thing that will make them

stop hating you. And that’s being so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you.

He is dead, she thought bitterly, because we have forgotten him.

Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.

it occurred to him that although he had never sought power, he had always had it. But he decided that it was a power born of excellence, not manipulation.

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.