Veronica Roth Quotes

When her body first hit the net, all I registered was a gray blur. I pulled her across it and her hand was small, but warm, and then she stood before me, short and thin and plain and in all ways unremarkable- except that she had jumped first. The stiff had jumped first.
Even I didn't jump first.
Her eyes were so stern, so insistent.
Beautiful.

Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up

He told me once to be brave, and though I have stood still while knives spun toward my face and jumped off a roof, I never thought I would need bravery in the small moments of my life. I do.

Can I ask why you’re throwing knives at cheese?’
‘Caleb came by to discuss something,’ Tobias says, leaning his head against the wall as he looks at me. ‘And knife-throwing just came up somehow.’
‘As it so often does,’ I say, a small smile inching across my face.

I like to think I'm helping them by hating them. I'm reminding them that they aren't God's gift to humankind.

I think it would be easier to fight in a dress,” says Marlene, tapping her chin. “It would give your legs freer movement. And who really cares if you flash people your underwear, as long as you’re kicking the crap out of them?”
Lynn goes silent, like she recognizes that as a spark of brilliance but can’t bring herself to admit it.
“What’s this about flashing underwear?” says Uriah, sidestepping a bunk. “Whatever it is, I’m in.

I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren't all that different.

Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing.'

'Well,' he says, 'I would only go if there was cake.

"Be careful, though."
"Aren't I always?"
"No, I think the word for how you usually are is 'reckless."

We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.

No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens.

Cruelty does not make a person dishonest, the same way bravery does not make a person kind.

Then I realize what it is. It's him. Something about him makes me feel like I am about to fall. Or turn to liquid. Or burst into flames.

Somewhere inside me is a merciful, forgiving person. Somewhere there is a girl who tries to understand what people are going through, who accepts that people do evil things and that desperation leads them to darker places than they ever imagined. I swear she exists, and she hurts for the repentant boy I see in front of me.

But if I saw her, I wouldn't recognize her.

I have done bad things. I can't take them back, and they are part of who I am. Most of the time, they seem like the only thing I am.