Maiara

“It was a mistake to think of them. He felt a sob rise in his throat and swallowed it down; he could not see his plate.
He could not cry. There was no chance he would be treated with compassion. Dap was not Mother. Any sign of weakness would tell the Stilsons and Peters that this boy could be broken. Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles. One, two, four, ...He tried doubling again and lost it...It was gone. Start over again. All the doubling he could hold. The pain was gone. The tears were gone. He would not cry.
...
The touch of kindness in this frightening place was enough to push someone over the edge into tears.

"His isolation can't be broken. He can never believe that anyone will ever help him out, ever. If he once thinks there's an easy way out, he's wrecked."

"You're right. That would be terrible, if he believed he had a friend."

"He can have friends. It's parents he can't have.

Ender Wiggin is ten times smarter and stronger than I am. What I'm doing to him will bring out his genius. If I had to go through it myself, it would crush me.[. . . ]Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe to the core of his soul, that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves. If he does not believe that, he will never reach the peak of his abilities.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

“I’ve lived too long with pain. I won’t know who I am without it.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

“Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can’t kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

“I’ll carry you,’ said Ender, ‘I’ll go from world to world until I find a time and a place where you can come awake in safety. And I’ll tell your story to my people, so that perhaps in time they can forgive you, too. The way that you’ve forgiven me.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game