Pastwatch Quotes

“Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“She will look at you as women look at men, and she will judge you as a woman judge men...not on the strength of their arguments, and not in their cleverness or prowess in battle, but rather on the force of their character, the intensity of their passion, their strength of soul, their compassion, and...ah, this above all...their conversation.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“Love is random; fear is inevitable.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“We were all fated to die, and so it is good that at least we can be sure our deaths today might bring about a good end, might make the world a better place.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“Why should I worry about uncreating so much of human history? Why should I care that it will be worse than forgotten, that it will be unknown? Why should that seem to be a crime, when all of human history is an eyeblink compared to the billions of years the stars have shone?”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“Is the future, is the past, all that matters to you? Don't you have just a little bit of room for the present?”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“This is all so silly,' said Diko. 'Who cares about what's real and what isn't real? [...] And as for our own history, the parts that will be lost, who cares if a mathematician calls us dirty names like "unreal"? They say such slanders about the square root of minus two as well.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“Europe was already Europe.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“Only because of ignorance could he shape the world so fearlessly”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“She grinned at him. “I actually do like you, you know,” she pointed out. “I just don’t think you’ve caught the vision of what Pastwatch is all about.” “I haven’t,” said Hanahpu. “I want to change the vision.” “Good luck. If you turn out to be a genius after all, remember that I never once for a moment believed in you.” “Don’t worry,” he said, smiling. “I’ll never forget that.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“Diko had learned, as most did in Pastwatch, that for most of human history, the virtue of empathy was confined to one's kinship group or tribe.

People who were not members of the tribe were not people. Instead they were animals -- either dangerous predators, useful prey, or beasts of burden. It was only now and then that a few great prophets declared people of other tribes, even of other languages or races, to be human. Guest- and host-rights gradually evolved. Even in modern times, when such attractive notions as the fundamental equality and fraternity of humankind were preached in every corner of the world, the idea that a stranger is not a person still remained just under the surface.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

“History is a chaotic system. The details can shift endlessly, but the overall shape remains constant. Make a small change in the past, and it changes enough details in the present that we would not have come together at exactly this place and time to watch exactly this scene. And yet the great movements of history would be largely unchanged.”
― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus