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.
Orson Scott CardRead
Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is unpredictable and influenced by various factors beyond one's control.
This quote expresses the idea that humans are part of a larger web of existence, where individual autonomy is limited by external circumstances. It suggests that while we may strive for control over our own lives, many forces—be they social, environmental, or relational—shape our experiences and actions in ways we cannot entirely dictate.
Themes
AutonomyControlLifeExistenceInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about resilience in the face of life's unpredictability.
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.
Orson Scott CardRead
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.
Orson Scott CardRead
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.
Orson Scott CardRead
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.
Orson Scott CardRead
I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate even than a kiss.
Orson Scott CardRead
Similar quotes
If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
Oscar WildeRead
Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles oh, damn their measured merriment.
Sinclair LewisRead
The story of terrorism is written by the state and it is therefore highly instructive… compared with terrorism, everything else must be acceptable, or in any case more rational and democratic.
Guy DebordRead
Tragedy, for me, is not a conflict between right and wrong, but between two different kinds of right.
Peter ShafferRead
The instability of our laws is really an immense evil. I think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that there shall always be a twelve-month between the ingross-ing a bill & passing it: that it should then be offered to its passage without changing a word: and that if circum-stances should be thought to require a speedier passage, it should take two thirds of both houses instead of a bare majority.
Thomas JeffersonRead
I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.
John KnoxRead