How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe—maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure—never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you." (7.3.177)
Welcome to Opposite World, where nothing makes sense. Seriously, trying to figure out love makes our brain hurt. Okay, so Adam didn't love Cyrus; but Cyrus loved Adam and therefore paid more attention to him, which for Adam was a negative thing. Cyrus didn't love Charles, but that meant that he could rely on him because he didn't care what he did. And finally, Charles loved Cyrus, which made him doubt himself when that love wasn't returned. Now things are starting to become clearer—namely, that love triangles are the worst.
Quote #2
"I can't understand why a girl like you—" he began, and fell right into the oldest conviction in the world—that the girl you are in love with can't possibly be anything but true and honest. (9.1.11)
This is going to be a theme in this book: men thinking that their beloved lady-friend is the purest of pure virgins, even though all signs say otherwise. Mr. Edwards is just the first in a long line—actually, that line just includes Adam and Aron. Still though, Steinbeck calls it the oldest conviction in the world for a reason—he means that people have been making this mistake for a long time, and presumably, they are going to keep on making it.
Quote #3
Perhaps Adam did not see Cathy at all, so lighted was she by his eyes. Burned in his mind was an image of beauty and tenderness, a sweet and holy girl, precious beyond thinking, clean and loving, and that image was Cathy to her husband, and nothing Cathy did or said could warp Adam's Cathy. (13.2.4)
Here is a question for the ages: If love makes you see what you want to see, then what do you fall in love with to begin with? Was it Cathy's (fake) stunning personality? Was it her looks? Was it good ole' sex? Or was Adam just happy not to be alone in Eden anymore? Remember, this story is an allegory, which means that Adam has to behave similarly to how the biblical Adam would. And it looks like, to Adam Trask, Cathy is (almost literally) the only woman for him in the world—in spite of, you know, everything about her.