Veronica Roth - Divergent (2011)

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It will be difficult to break the habits of thinking Abnegation instilled in me, like tugging a single thread from a complex work of embroidery. But I will find new habits, new thoughts, new rules. I will become something else.

Veronica Roth
It must be because you're so approachable", I say flatly. "You know, like a bed of nails." He stares at me, and I don't look away. He isn't a dog but the same rules apply. Looking away is submissive. Looking him in the eye is a challenge. It's my choice. Heat rushes into my cheeks. What will happen when this tension breaks? But he just says, "Careful, Tris.

Veronica Roth
What?" I ask. "I'm developing a theory." "And it is?" She picks up her hamburger, grins, and says, "That you have a death wish.

Veronica Roth
Al walks in, and I don't even have to ask him to help me, he just walks over and strips bedding with me. i will have to scrub the frame later. Al carries the stack of sheets to the trash and together we walk toward the training room. "Ignore him," Al says. "He's an idiot, and if you don't get angry, he'll stop eventually.

Veronica Roth
Your daughter is doing well here. I've been overseeing her training." Since when does "overseeing" include throwing knives at me and scolding me at every opportunity?

Veronica Roth
Today you will choose your factions. Until this point you have followed your parents' paths, your parents' rules. Today you will find your own path, make your own rules.

Veronica Roth
When i get home, I sit on the front step and take deep breaths of the cool spring air for a few minutes. My mother was the one who taught me to steal moments like those, moments of freedom, though she didn't now it. I watched her... But I learned something else from watching her too, which is that the free moments always have to end.

Veronica Roth
Drink this," she says. "What is it?" my throat feels swollen. I swallow hard. "What's going to happen?" "Can't tell you that. Just trust me." I press air from my lungs and tip the contents of the vial into my mouth. My eyes close.

Veronica Roth
Sleep, he says. I'll fight the bad dreams off if they come to get you. With what? My bare hands, obviously.

Veronica Roth
Sorry, am I being rude?" she asks. "I'm used to saying whatever is on my mind. Mom used to say that politeness is deception in pretty packaging

Veronica Roth
I feel the monster of grief again, writhing in the empty space where my heart and stomach used to be. I gasp, pressing both palms to my chest. Now the monstrous thing has its claws around my throat, squeezing my airway. I twist and put my head between my knees, breathing until the strangled feeling leaves me.

Veronica Roth
A sob racks my body again, and he wraps his arms around me so tightly I find it difficult to breathe, but it doesn't matter. My dignified weeping gives way to full-on ugliness, my mouth open and my face contorted and sounds like a dying animal coming from my throat. If this continues I will break apart, and maybe that would be better, maybe it would be better to shatter and bear nothing.

Veronica Roth
I know that I am birdlike, made narrow and small as if for taking flight, built straight-waisted and fragile. But when he touches me like he can't bear to take his hand away, I don't wish I was any different.

Veronica Roth
There is power in controlling something that can do so much damage - in controlling something, period.

Veronica Roth
Those who blamed aggression formed Amity.'… 'Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite.'… 'Those who blamed duplicity created Candor.'… 'Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation.'… 'And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless.

Veronica Roth
Or you can stay frigid," says WIll, his green eyes glinting with mischief. "You know. If you want." Christina throws a roll at him. He catches it and bites it. "Don't be mean to her," she says. "Frigidity is in her nature. Sort of like being a know-it-all is in yours." "I am not frigid!" I exclaim. "Don't worry about it," says Will. It's endearing. Look you're all red.

Veronica Roth
Four sits down on the edge of the carousel, leaning against a plastic horse's foot. His eyes lift to the sky, where there are no stars, only a round moon peking through a thin layer of clouds. The muscles in his arms are relaxed; his hand rests on the back of his neck. He looks almost comfortable, holding that gun to his shoulder. I close my eyes briefly. Why does he distract me so easily? I need to focus.

Veronica Roth
You're not a coward just because you don't want to hurt people.

Veronica Roth
For God's sake, Stiff," he says. "You don't have to follow me," I say staring at the maze of bars above me. I shove my foot onto the place where two bars cross and push myself up, grabbing another bar in the process. I sway for a second, my heart beating so hard I can't feel anything else. Every thought I have condenses into that heartbeat, moving at the same rhythm. "Yes, I do," he says.

Veronica Roth
What irritates me most about him is his natural goodness, his inborn selflessness.

Veronica Roth
Grabbing hold of facts in the midst of shock is very Erudite of him.

Veronica Roth
Few people who are born into Abnegation choose to leave it. When they do, we remember.

Veronica Roth
Because there might come a day when there is no flashlight, there is no gun, there is no guiding hand. And I want to be ready for it.

Veronica Roth
I smirk as Peter misses again. I can't help myself. "Hey, Peter," I say, " Remember what a target is?

Veronica Roth
We are not people who touch each other carelessly; every point of contact between us feels important, a rush of energy and relief.

Veronica Roth
I'd rather eat out of a can than be strangled by a faction.

Veronica Roth
It doesn't prove anything except that you're bullying us. Which, as I recall, is a sign of cowardice.

Veronica Roth
If you are really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward.

Veronica Roth
Those who seek peace above all else, they say, will always deceive to keep the water calm.

Veronica Roth
Human reason can excuse any evil; that is why it's so important that we don't rely on it.

Veronica Roth