“We have loyalty, fidelity, honor--All three are overrated. The only chance you have to demonstrate any of them is to deny yourself something or someone you desire.”

“Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.”

“If you expect the worse, you're only denying someone a chance to be better”

“To gain your heart's desire you have to lose some part of your old life, your old self. To do that you have to have courage; without it, you can't make the leap. And if you don't make the leap you have only three choices: You can hate yourself for not taking the chance, you can hate the person from whom you've sacrificed your happiness, or you can hate the one who offered you happiness, and blame them for your lack of courage, convince yourself it wasn't real.”

“Your best chance to make it through is to have reliable people on either side of you. And that means you have to be reliable yourself. for loyalty is fundamentally reciprocal, and reliability is all about delivering on your part of the bargain when it matters.”

“You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.”