“You had to endure something yourself before it touched you.”

“What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery- beware enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would think you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. ”

“Sometimes you had to be who you were and endure what happened to you, and to you alone, before you could understand the first thing about it.”

“...sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself...”

“I haven't been with a man before.""I know it." Adelia's smile was soft, almost wistful. "Do you think I wouldn't know if that had changed for you? You think too much of yourself to give what you are to something unless it matters.No one's mattered before.”

“It doesn't matter what you do...so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.”