“People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“We both have war inside us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Cruelty does not make a person dishonest, the same way bravery does not make a person kind.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Sleep,” he says. “I'll fight the bad dreams off if they come to get you.” “With what?” “My bare hands, obviously.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Got that gun?” Peter says to Tobias. “No,” says Tobias, “I figured I would shoot the bullets out of my nostrils, so I left it upstairs.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“It reminds me why I chose Dauntless in the first place: not because they are perfect, but because they are alive. Because they are free.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I’ll be your family now,” he says.
“I love you,” I say.
I said that once, before I went to Erudite headquarters, but he was asleep then. I don’t know why I didn’t say it when he could hear it. Maybe I was afraid to trust him with something so personal as my devotion. Or afraid that I did not know what it was to love someone. But now I think the scary thing was not saying it before it was almost too late. Not saying it before it was almost too late for me.
I am his, and he is mine, and it has been that way all along.
He stares at me. I wait with my hands clutching his arms for stability as he considers his response.
He frowns at me. “Say it again.”
“Tobias,” I say, “I love you.”
His skin is slippery with water and he smells like sweat and my shirt sticks to his arms when he slides them around me. He presses his face to my neck and kisses me right above the collarbone, kisses my cheek, kisses my lips.
“I love you, too,” he says.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I’m not important. Everyone will do just fine without me,” I say.
“Who cares about everyone? What about me?”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I am his, and he is mine, and it has been that way all along.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I pout my lower lip for a second, but then I grin as the pieces come together.
"That's why you like me!" I exclaim. "Because you're not very nice either! It makes so much more sense now.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“The truth has a way of changing people's plans.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“We're all right, you know,' he says quietly. 'You and me. Okay?' My chest aches, and I nod. 'Nothing else is all right.' His whisper tickles my cheek. 'But we are.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I read somewhere, one, that crying defies scientific explanation. Tears are only meant to lubricate the eyes. There is no real reason for tear glands to overproduce tears at the behest of emotion.
I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity. Because inside of me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom, toward Tobias, and, above all, towards life. And as hard as I try, I cannot kill it.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Insurgent, he says. Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“You die, I die too.” Tobias looks over his shoulder at me. “I asked you not to do this. You made your decision. These are the repercussions.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Sometimes,” he says, sliding his arm across my shoulders, “people just want to be happy, even if it’s not real.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I could never hurt him enough to make his betrayal stop hurting. And it hurts, in every part of my body.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“You look older.”
“Yes, well. The passage of time tends to do that to a person.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Do remember, though, that sometimes the people you oppress become mightier than you would like.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Killing you is not the worst thing they can do to you," I say. "Controlling you is.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I love Tris the Divergent, who makes decisions apart from faction loyalty, who isn’t some faction archetype. But the Tris who’s trying as hard as she can to destroy herself … I can’t love her.”
I want to scream. But not because I’m angry, because I’m afraid he’s right. My hands shake and I grab the hem of my shirt to steady them.
He touches his forehead to mine and closes his eyes. “I believe you’re still in there,” he says against my mouth. “Come back.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“And sometimes, if you want the truth, you have to demand it.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“I do know who you are. I just needed to be reminded.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“So, the thing we’re all not talking about,” he says. He gestures to me. “You almost died, a sadistic pansycake saved you, and now we’re all waging some serious war with the factionless as allies.”
“Pansycake?” says Christina.
“Dauntless slang.” Lynn smirks. “Supposed to be a huge insult, only no one uses it anymore.”
“Because it’s so offensive,” says Uriah, nodding.
“No. Because it’s so stupid no Dauntless with any sense would speak it, let alone think it. Pansycake. What are you, twelve?”
“And a half,” he says.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“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.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“Be careful, though."
"Aren't I always?"
"No, I think the word for how you usually are is 'reckless.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
“May the peace of God be with you," she says, her voice low, "even in the midst of trouble."
"Why would it?" I say softly, so no one else can hear. "After all I've done..."
"It isn't about you," she says. "It is a gift. You cannot earn it, or it ceases to be a gift.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Insurgent
Veronica Roth
Born place: in The United States
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“Intelligence requires first the gift of curiosity. Without curiosity, who would ask questions? Second, intelligence is the ability to synthesize. Facts alone signify little. Neither are they to be trusted. Intelligence is the subtle arrangement of that which might or might not be true, the intuitive selection and the weaving of such selections into a pleasing whole that makes for meaning. Third, intelligence has need of laughter. Without laughter so much that is bitter and dark is allowed into being. That which is bitter and dark may be clever, it may even be cunning, but it is never intelligent. As for wisdom, wisdom is simple. The wise are able to recognize, and to accept, that not only is one never intelligent enough, but that when all is said and done, one knows exactly nothing.”
― Ki Longfellow, quote from Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria
“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
― T.H. White, quote from The Once and Future King
“I'm starting to realize that people lack good mirrors. It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look, & so hard for us to show anyone how we feel.”
― John Green, quote from Paper Towns
“You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.”
― Jon Krakauer, quote from Into the Wild
“There may be fairies, there may be elves, but God helps those who help themselves.”
― Stephen King, quote from Misery
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