And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.
A duel is just two murders who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the concept of dueling by highlighting its inherent violence and agreement between parties to harm each other.
Orson Scott Card's quote reflects on the absurdity and brutality of dueling, emphasizing that it is not a noble act of honor, but rather a premeditated agreement to engage in violence that results in murder. The statement challenges romantic notions of dueling as a gentlemanly conflict, revealing the darker truth that both participants in such a confrontation are willingly choosing to commit acts of violence against one another.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on the ethics of conflict resolution, this quote serves to illustrate the destructive nature of violence.
More from Orson Scott Card
All quotes →The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win.
Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.
The lives of all people flow through time, and, regardless of how brutal one moment may be, how filled with grief or pain or fear, time flows through all lives equally.
You take a step, then another. That's the journey. But to take a step with your eyes open is not a journey at all, it's a remaking of your own mind.
I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate even than a kiss.
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Minds that are ill at ease are agitated by both hope and fear.
The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, and anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its true place. When true silence falls we are left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
The question of the next generation will not be one of how to liberate the masses, but rather, how to make them love their servitude.
We who defend Christianity find ourselves constantly opposed not by the irreligion of our headers but by their real religion.
There are, and always have been, destructive pseudo-scientific notions linked to race and religion; these are the most widespread and damaging. Hopefully, educated people can succeed in shedding light into these areas of prejudice and ignorance, for as Voltaire once said: "Men will commit atrocities as long as they believe absurdities."
If truth is not undergirded by love, it makes the possessor of that truth obnoxious and the truth repulsive.