“Damn it! Are you so stupid you don't know what I'm going to do to you?"Her eyes bore into his without flinching. "Are you so stupid you haven't figured out yet that it doesn't matter?”

“Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had? … I haven’t done so enough before—and now I'm too old; too old at any rate for what I see. … What one loses one loses; make no mistake about that. … Still, we have the illusion of freedom; therefore don't be, like me, without the memory of that illusion. I was either, at the right time, too stupid or too intelligent to have it; I don’t quite know which. Of course at present I'm a case of reaction against the mistake. … Do what you like so long as you don't make my mistake. For it was a mistake. Live!”

“If you think that you're so smart and holy, that means you haven't yet realized that a part of what we experience today...is a result of our stupidity and wickedness in the past.”

“Simmon pushed his hair out of his eyes, laughing boyishly. "You can't argue your way out of this one! She's obviously stupid for you. And you're just plain stupid, so it's a great match.”

“Why? Why don't you want to go with me?"She huffed. "It's not that I don't want to go with you, it's that I'm not going at all.""So you do want to go with me."Cinder locked her shoulders. "It doesn't matter. Because I can't.""But I need you.”

“Mallory," he said, sounding raw and staggered and touched beyond words. "God, I was so stupid. So slow. I didn't know what to do with you. I tried to keep my distance but my world doesn't work without you in it."-Ty to Mallory”