Veronica Roth Quotes

How strange that something so simple could have been instrumental in my decision to ruin one of my most relationships and friendships, and damage another.
Veronica Roth
He smells safe, too, like sunlit walks in the orchard and silent breakfastsin the dining hall. And in the moments before I drift off to sleep, I almost forget about our war-torn city and all the conflict that willcome to find us soon, if we don’t find it first.
Veronica Roth
He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight for a few seconds. Hisbreaths tickle my ear, and I close my eyes, letting myself finally relax. Hesmells like wind and sweat and soap, like Tobias and like safety.
Veronica Roth
The hurts from my last day with my father are healed now, but I want to remember where they were; I want to remember what I escaped for as long as I live.
Veronica Roth
I suppose that now would be the time to ask for forgiveness for all the things I've done, but I'm sure my list would never be complete. I also don't believe that whatever comes after life depends on my correctly reciting a list of my transgressions...I don't believe that what comes after depends on anything I do at all.
Veronica Roth
I also don't believe that whatever come after life depends on my correctly reciting a list of my transgressions-that sounds too much like an Erudite afterlife to me, all accuracy and no feeling.
Veronica Roth
Can I be forgiven for all I've done to get here?I don't know. I don't know.please.-Tris, DivergentCan I be forgiven for all I've done to get here?I want to be.I can.I believe it.-Tris, Allegiant
Veronica Roth
My body rises with the water. Instead of kicking my feet to stay abreast of it, I push all the air from my lungs and sink to the bottom. The water muffles my ears. I feel its movement over my face. I think about snorting the water into my lungs so it kills me faster, but I can't bring myself to do it. I blow bubbles from my mouth. Relax. I close my eyes. My lungs burn.
Veronica Roth
I can pretend to be brave, but I'm not
Veronica Roth
Is it selfish for me to crave victory or is it brave?
Veronica Roth
We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear.
Veronica Roth
Do remember, though, that sometimes the people you oppress become mightier than you would like.
Veronica Roth
You're my daughter. I don't care about the factions.
Veronica Roth
Looking away is submissive. Looking [..] in the eye is a challenge.
Veronica Roth
That night we push our cots just a little closer together, and look into each other's eyes in the moments before we fall asleep. When he finally drifts off, our fingers are twisted together in the space between the beds.I smile a little, and let myself go.
Veronica Roth
Caleb and Tris exchange a look. The skin on his face and on her knuckles is nearly the same colour, purple-blue-green, as if drawn with ink. This is what happens when siblings collide - they injure each other in the same way.
Veronica Roth
He should be the one to die, part of me thinks.I don't want to lose him, another part argues.I don't know which part to believe.
Veronica Roth
He is stronger than anyone I know, & warmer than anyone else realizes; he is a secret that I have kept, & will keep, for the rest of my life.
Veronica Roth
Most of my life has been spent keeping information close, turning it over and over in my mind. The impulse to share anything is a new one, the impulse to hide as natural as breathing.
Veronica Roth
I don't know why, but his reaction disappoints me.
Veronica Roth
I want to break something, or hit something, but I am afraid to move, so I start crying instead.
Veronica Roth
You’re too important to just … die.” He shakes his head. He won’t even look at me—his eyes keep shifting across myface, to the wall behind me or the ceiling above me, to everything but me. I am too stunned to be angry.“I’m not important. Everyone will do just fine without me,” I say.“Who cares about everyone? What about me?
Veronica Roth
... if they are persistent enough, even tiny drops of water, over time, can change the rock forever. And it will never change back." - Zoe
Veronica Roth
How many young men fear that there is a monster inside them? People are supposed to fear others, not themselves. People are supposed to aspire to become their fathers, not shudder at the thought.
Veronica Roth
I don't understand', I say,'why they care what I think, as long as I'm acting how they want me to.''You're acting how they want you to now', he says,'but what happens when your Abnegation-wired brain tells you to do something else, something they don't want?
Veronica Roth
Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.
Veronica Roth
If someone offer you an opportunity to get closer to your enemy, you always take it.
Veronica Roth
So you’re her brother?” says Lynn. “I guess we know who got the good genes.”I laugh at the expression on Caleb’s face, his mouth drawn into a slight pucker and his eyes wide.
Veronica Roth
Tris!” Four calls out. Will and I exchange a look, half surprise and half apprehension. Four pulls away from the railing and walksup to me. Ahead of us, Al and Christina stop running, and Christina slides to the ground. I don’t blame them for staring. There are four of us, and Four is only talking to me.“You look different.” His words, normally crisp, are now sluggish.“So do you,” I say. And he does—he looks more relaxed, younger. “What are you doing?”“Flirting with death,” he replies with a laugh. “Drinking near the chasm. Probably not a good idea.”“No, it isn’t.” I’m not sure I like Four this way. There’s something unsettling about it.“Didn’t know you had a tattoo,” he says, looking at my collarbone.He sips the bottle. His breath smells thick and sharp. Like the factionless man’s breath.“Right. The crows,” he says. He glances over his shoulder at his friends, who are carrying on without him, unlike mine. He adds,“I’d ask you to hang out with us, but you’re not supposed to see me this way.”I am tempted to ask him why he wants me to hang out with him, but I suspect the answer has something to do with the bottle inhis hand.“What way?” I ask. “Drunk?”“Yeah...well, no.” His voice softens. “Real, I guess.”“I’ll pretend I didn’t.”“Nice of you.” He puts his lips next to my ear and says, “You look good, Tris.”His words surprise me, and my heart leaps. I wish it didn’t, because judging by the way his eyes slide over mine, he has no ideawhat he’s saying. I laugh. “Do me a favor and stay away from the chasm, okay?”“Of course.” He winks at me.
Veronica Roth
I don’t know how long i tis before we get cold again, and huddle under the blanket together.-It’s getting more difficult to be wise. – He says,laughing into my ear.I smile at him. – I think that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Veronica Roth
How do you stop conflict without conflict?
Veronica Roth
I am not Tobias Eaton, not anymore, never again. I am Dauntless.
Veronica Roth
All three combined is...a different kind of stupid formerly unheard of by humankind.
Veronica Roth
Oh. I just assumed... That because I am so absorbed by him everyone must be too.
Veronica Roth
At home I used to spend calm, pleasant nights with my family. My mother knit scarves for the neighborhood kids. My father helped Caleb with his homework. There was a fire in the fireplace and peace in my heart, as I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing, and everything was quiet. I have never been carried around by a large boy, or laughed until my stomach hurt at the dinner table, or listened to the clamor of a hundred people all talking at once. Peace is restrained; this is free.
Veronica Roth
Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.
Veronica Roth
The ability to think isn't exclusive to erudite
Veronica Roth
I fit my mouth to his and he tastes like water and smells like fresh air. I drag my hand from his neck to the small of his back and put it under his shirt. He kisses me harder.
Veronica Roth
If they told us what to believe, and we didn't come to it on our own, is it still true?
Veronica Roth
Sometimes, the best way to help someone is just to be near them.
Veronica Roth
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.
Veronica Roth
What did you do, memorize a map of the city for fun?” says Christina.“Yes,” says Will, looking puzzled. “Didn’t you?
Veronica Roth
Chaos and destruction do tend to take away a person's dating possibilities.
Veronica Roth
Are you asking me to undress, Tris?'A nervous laugh gurgles from my throat. 'Only ... partially
Veronica Roth
Because life is not fair, Albert. And the world is conspiring against you.
Veronica Roth
If you see someone in trouble, you should help them. Experiment or not.
Veronica Roth
I should have forgiven him.”“Maybe. Maybe there’s more we all could have done,” he says, “but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time.”I frown and pull back. That is a lesson that members of Abnegation learn – guilt as a tool, rather than a weapon against the self.
Veronica Roth
It happened. It was awful. You aren't perfect. That's all there is. Don't confuse your grief with guilt.
Veronica Roth
Maybe there's more we all could have done, but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time.
Veronica Roth
I wish I could say I felt guilty for what I did. I don't.
Veronica Roth
Doing a little at once can fix something, eventually, but i feel like when you believe something is truly a problem, you throw everything you have at it, because you just can't help yourself.
Veronica Roth
It's when you're acting selflessly that you are at you bravest
Veronica Roth
The opinions of others cannot damage you.
Veronica Roth
I'm not abnegation, I'm not dauntless, I am Divergent
Veronica Roth
This is how we came by our factions: Candor, Erudite, Amity, Abnegation and Dauntless." Max smiles. "In them we find administrators and teachers and counselors and leaders and protectors. In them we find our sense of belonging, our sense of community, our very lives.
Veronica Roth
I realize that the decision might be simple. It will require a great act of selflessness to choose Abnegation, or a great act of courage to choose Dauntless, and maybe just choosing one over the other will prove that I belong.
Veronica Roth
You're desperate, and so am I,' I said. 'Desperate people make stupid decisions all the time.'"P244
Veronica Roth
I feel something hot and violent writhing in my stomach. I want to hurt them. I stare at my eyes in the mirror. I want so, so I will.
Veronica Roth
I tell myself, as sternly as possible, that is how things work here. We do dangerous things and people die. People die, and we move on to the next dangerous thing. The sooner that lesson sinks in, the better chance I have at surviving initiation.
Veronica Roth
This body had carried me through a hard life. It looked exactly the way it was supposed to.
Veronica Roth