Quotes from Insurgent

Veronica Roth ·  525 pages

Rating: (1M votes)


“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



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About the author

Veronica Roth
Born place: in The United States
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Popular quotes

“But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it.

This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.”
― David Foster Wallace, quote from This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life


“Is this your car?” I raised an eyebrow at him.
“No. I thought I’d steal one and drive it into town. Think
anyone will notice?” Graham reached across to unlock the passenger’s-
side door, then pushed it open. “You wouldn’t know
how to hotwire by any chance?”
― Anastasia Hopcus, quote from Shadow Hills


“We could show them the most exquisite Ming vase, or a carved ivory screen from Persia, and they’d turn their backs and go straight for the human remains.”
― Tess Gerritsen, quote from The Keepsake


“I object!

What?

Bugger, was that acting?

Is not courtroom, Katya.

Shut up! I'm not good at having two conversations at once. And I hate Scott's plan!

You mean you "object" to it.”
― Joss Whedon, quote from Astonishing X-Men, Volume 4: Unstoppable


“فجأه ما عاد يرى نفسه, أي أنه ماعاد يرى نفسه كجزء من العالم الذي يحيط يه. لقد تملكه شعور ليضع ثوان كما لو أنه بعيد جداً في الخارج, كما لو أنه يتأمل العالم بمنظار مقلوب”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from The Pigeon


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