He's not a killer. He just wins... Thoroughly

The line contrasts intent with outcome: someone may not see himself as a “killer,” yet his way of pursuing victory leaves no room for the opponent to recover. “He just wins… thoroughly” implies a strategic, decisive mindset—winning not by cruelty for its own sake, but by ending conflict so completely that it cannot restart. In Card’s fiction, this idea often attaches to gifted tacticians whose empathy or reluctance coexists with an ability to deliver final, overwhelming force. The quote therefore probes the moral ambiguity of competence: a person can be personally averse to violence while still being responsible for irreversible destruction through the logic of winning.