Ender's Shadow (Shadow, #1)

by Orson Scott Card

Intelligence and education, which all these children had, apparently didn’t make any important difference in human nature.

ingeresting and opposite of what liberals would have you believe

Just one more example of why a commander who ruled by fear and made all the decisions himself would always be beaten, sooner or later.

I will not put the dice in someone else’s hands, or pretend that I don’t have the choice I have.

We must own up to our lots. Its similar to Gandalf's and Frodo's exchange in The Fellowship of the Ring: Frodo: 'I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.' Gandalf: 'So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. I think both show that it isn't what life throws at us that matters, but how we react to it. "Lifes not fair" and all that.