Veronica Roth

I like to hurt people too. I can make the cruelest choice. The difference is, sometimes I don't, and you always do, and that makes you evil.

I also remember that my father was one of the people who voted to get the Dauntless out of the factionless sector of the city. He said the poor didn__ need policing; they needed help, and we could give it to them. But I would rather not mention that now, or here. It__ one of the many things Erudite gives as evidence of Abnegation__ incompetence.

No,I just thought I'd shoot bullets out of my nose

Maybe there is some Abnegation in everyone. Well in everyone but Peter."-Tris Prior

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 might be in love with you." He smiles a little. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though.

I used to think that when people fell in love, they just landed where they landed, and they had no choice in the matter afterward. And maybe that__ true of beginnings, but it__ not true of this, now.I fell in love with him. But I don__ just stay with him by default as if there__ no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.

I shower in the dark, barely able to tell soap from conditioner, and tell myself that I will emerge new and strong, that the water will heal me.

He must have stood there for a long time, making a list of all the terrible things he had done__lmost killinng me was one of those thingss__nd another list of all the good, heroic, brave things he had not done, and then decided that he was tired. Tired, not just of living, but of existing. Tired of being Al.

I am selfish. I am brave.

Mockery is childish. It does not become you.

It's strange to see people you don't know well in the morning, with sleepy eyes and pillow creases in their cheeks

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.

I fell in love with him. But I don't just stay with him by default as if there's no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.

Or maybe we'll make a home somewhere inside ourselves, to carry with us wherever we go- which is the way I carry my mother now.

The tunnel is lit at long intervals, so in the dark space between each dim lamp, I fear that I am lost until a shoulder bumps mine. In the circles of light I am safe again.

Eric called Al's suicide brave, and he was wrong. My mother's death was brave. I remember how calm she was, how determined. It isn't just brave that she died for me; it is brave that she did it without announcing it, without hesitation, and without appearing to consider another option.

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