Veronica Roth Quotes - Page 4

Intentions are the only thing they care about. They try to make you think they care about what you do, but they don't. They don't want you to act a certain way, they want you to think a certain way. So you're easy to understand. So you wont pose a threat to them.
Veronica Roth
I have a scar-a faint gouge in my knee from when I fell down on the sidewalk as a child. It's always seemed stupid to me that none of the pain I've experienced has left a visible mark; sometimes, without a way to prove it to myself. I began to doubt that I had lied through it at all, with the memories becoming hazy over time. I want to have some kind of reminder that while wounds heal, they don't disappear forever- I carry them everywhere, always, and that is the way of things, the way of scars.That is what this tattoo will be, for me: a scar. And it seems fitting that it should document the worst memory of pain I have.
Veronica Roth
But I know that for every good thing that comes along, there is always a cost.
Veronica Roth
If she's in pain now she doesn't show it; she just closes her eyes and surrenders, and that is worse than her screaming for help, somehow.
Veronica Roth
You won’t shoot me.""People tend to overestimate my character," I say quietly. "They think that because I’m small, or a girl, or a Stiff, I can’t possibly be cruel. But they’re wrong.
Veronica Roth
She said that everyone has some evil inside them, and the first step to loving anyone is to recognize the same evil inside ourselves,so we're able to forgive them.
Veronica Roth
But there's so much that was a lie, it's hard to figure out what was true, what was real, what matters.
Veronica Roth
There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater.But sometimes it doesn't.Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life. That is the sort of bravery I must have now.
Veronica Roth
We don't know what's happened out there since they put us in here, or how many generations have lived and died since they did.We could be the last people left.
Veronica Roth
You know, there's a word for big, strong men who attack women, and it's coward.
Veronica Roth
She's a sailboat and I'm an anchor, pulling us both down.
Veronica Roth
But you should know that about Dauntless- girl, guy, whatever, it doesn't matter here. What matters is what you've got in your gut.
Veronica Roth
The knife will only hurt for a moment. Then your choice will be made, and it will all be over.
Veronica Roth
There is an art to Noavek bullshit," Cyra said as she muted the feed. "We're taught it from birth.
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
There is power in controlling something that can do so much damage-in controlling something, period.
Veronica Roth
I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity. Becauseinside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom, toward Tobias, and, aboveall, toward life. And as hard as I try, I cannot kill it.
Veronica Roth
Scrubbing the floor when no one else wanted to was something that my mother would have done. If I can't be with her, the least I can do is act like her sometimes.
Veronica Roth
Soft hearts make the universe worth living in.
Veronica Roth
A harsh crack followed the rumble of thunder, a lightning strike. With that, the other musicians began to play, bringing in the tinkling sounds of light rain, the deeper thrum of thicker droplets. The others played the crashing waves, the lapping of water against a nonexistent shore. All around us were the sounds of water, dripping from faucets, gushing from waterfalls.
Veronica Roth
I wish I could tell him that we’re going through the same thing. I wish I could speak to him like I want to instead of like I’m supposed to. But the idea of admitting that I need help is too much to bear, so I turn away.
Veronica Roth
Fear,” she says, “is more powerful than pain.
Veronica Roth
I don't want to die anymore. I am up to the challenge of bearing the guilt and the grief up to facing the difficulties that life has put in my path. Some days are harder than others, but I am ready to live each one of them. I can't sacrifice myself this time.
Veronica Roth
I know what it is to become something you hate, I know how it hurts. But life is full of hurt. And your capacity for baring it is much greater than you believe."pg 287
Veronica Roth
What a person did when they were in pain said a lot about them.pg 459
Veronica Roth
I may be in pain, but I am not weak.
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.
Veronica Roth
Hearing him talk about his mother, about his intact family, makes my chest hurt for a second, like someone pierced it with a needle.
Veronica Roth
I could never hurt him enough to make his betrayal stop hurting. And it hurts, in every part of my body.
Veronica Roth
It isn’t right to wish pain on other people just because they hurt me first.
Veronica Roth
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
The battle we are fighting is not against a particular group. It is against human nature - or at least what it has become.
Veronica Roth
Human reason can excuse any evil.
Veronica Roth
Instead I take the lead, Tobias silent at my side, and though he does not touch me, he steadies me.
Veronica Roth
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
You're not very nice," I say, grinning."You're one to talk.""Hey, I could be nice if I tried.""Hmm." He taps his chin. "Say something nice, then.""You're very good-looking."He smiles, his teeth a flash in this dark. "I like this 'nice' thing.
Veronica Roth
Freedom. He offered it like someone who didn't know what it meant, someone who had never had it taken away."pg 185
Veronica Roth
Now she looks pale and small, but her eyes make me think of wide- open skies that I have never actually seen, only dreamed of.
Veronica Roth
Sometimes, all it takes to save people from a terrible faith is one person willing to do something about it. Even if that "something" is a fake bathroom break.
Veronica Roth
Psyche you out?" I repeat. "I'm your FRIEND. I wouldn't do that." He doesn't say anything. I can tell he doesn't believe me-not quite.
Veronica Roth
I miss the fears of the past few weeks, rendered small by my fears now.
Veronica Roth
Yeah, well, we're all afraid." I sighed. "The angry more than most, I think.
Veronica Roth
I clench my teeth as tears come. I am fed up. I am fed up with tears and weakness. But there isn't much I can do to stop them. ~ 'Tris
Veronica Roth
I have to face the fear. I have to take control of the situation and find a way to make it less frightening.
Veronica Roth
People are supossed to aspire to become their fathers, not shudder at the thought.
Veronica Roth
Be careful, though.""Aren't I always?""No, I think the word for how you usually are is 'reckless.
Veronica Roth
Tris," he says. "What did they do to you? You're acting like a lunatic.""That's not very nice of you to say," I say. "They put me in a good mood, that's all. And now I really want to kiss you, so if you could just relax-
Veronica Roth
Be careful, though.""Aren't I always?""No, I think the word for how you usually are is 'reckless.
Veronica Roth
Tris," he says. "What did they do to you? You're acting like a lunatic.""That's not very nice of you to say," I say. "They put me in a good mood, that's all. And now I really want to kiss you, so if you could just relax-
Veronica Roth
It's strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.
Veronica Roth
...we have something they want. Valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places. We should be thankful that we know better.
Veronica Roth
It's hard to know what's right in this life,' she said. 'We do what we can, but what we really need is mercy. Do you know who taught me that?' A grin. 'You.
Veronica Roth
Valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places.
Veronica Roth
Knowledge is power. Power to do evil...or power to do good. Power itself is not evil. So knowledge itself is not evil.
Veronica Roth
I breathe in. The water will wash my wounds clean. I breathe out. My mother submerged me in water when I was a baby, to give me to God. It has been a long time since I thought about God, but I think about him now. It is only natural. I am glad, suddenly, that I shot Eric in the foot instead of the head.
Veronica Roth
Want something else more than success. Success is a lovely thing, but your desire to say something, your worth, and your identity shouldn’t rely on it, because it’s not guaranteed and it’s not permanent and it’s not sufficient. So work hard, fall in love with the writing—the characters, the story, the words, the themes—and make sure that you are who you are regardless of your life circumstances. That way, when the good things come, they don’t warp you, and when the bad things hit you, you don’t fall apart.
Veronica Roth
Il dolore aveva un suo modo di scomporre il tempo. Pensavo al minuto successivo, all'ora successiva. Non c'era abbastanza spazio nella mia mente per mettere insieme tutti quei pezzi, per trovare le parole per riassumerla nella sua interezza.Ma la parte dell'"andare avanti", per quella le parole le avevo.'Trova un modo per andare avanti' dissi. 'Non deve necessariamente essere buono, o nobile. Basta che sia un motivo.'Conoscevo il mio: c'era una fame dentro di me e c'era sempre stata. Una fame più forte del dolore, più forte dell'orrore. Continuava a mordere anche dopo che ogni altra cosa dentro di me si era arresa. E quando finalmente le diedi un nome, scoprii che era qualcosa di molto semplice: desiderio di vivere.
Veronica Roth
That is death - shifting from "is" to "was.
Veronica Roth
I keep finding myself stifled by the company of others and then crippled by loneliness when I leave them. I am terrified and I don't even know of what, because I have lost everything already.
Veronica Roth
We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.
Veronica Roth