The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2)

by Brandon Sanderson

Love must be allowed to flow both ways—if it does not, then it is not truly love, I think. It is something else. Infatuation, perhaps? In any case, there are some of us who are far too quick to make martyrs of ourselves. We stand at the side, watching, thinking that we do the right thing by inaction. We fear pain—our own or that of another.” He squeezed her shoulder. “But is that love? Is it love to assume for Elend that he has no place with you? Or is it love to let him make his own decision in the matter?” “And if I’m wrong for him?” Vin asked. “You must love him enough to trust his wishes. It isn’t love unless you learn to respect his choices—to support not only what you believe is best for him, but what he truly wants. No matter how poor you think his decisions, you must respect his desire to make them. Even if one of them includes loving you.”

“At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different,” Sazed said. “Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet upon closer examination, he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then knows that both lock and key were created for the same purpose.”