“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”

“What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship.”

“But there were certain moments in life that forever defined one as a person - in one's own estimation, anyway. And one's own self esteem, when all was said and done, was of far more importance than the fickle esteem of one's peers.”

“...it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.”

“One of the most important lessons she'd recently learned was that looking strong and confident was sometimes all the people required of you.”

“That is the challenge Companion. To take what has happened to you and learn from it. Nothing is quite so destructive as pity, especially self-pity. No event in life is so terrible that one cannot rise above it.”