1. “I wish the awkwardness between us doesn’t last long. I want my friend back.”
2. “It isn’t just brave that she died for me; it is brave that she did it without announcing it, without hesitation, and without appearing to consider another option.”
3. “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.”
4. “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.”
5. “Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.”
6. “We believe in bravery. We believe in taking action. We believe in freedom from fear and in acquiring the skills to force the bad out of our world so that the good can prosper and thrive. If you also believe in those things, we welcome you.”
7. “Part of me wonders if this is a suicide mission disguised as a game.”
8. “Then I realize what it is. It’s him. Something about him makes me feel like I am about to fall. Or turn to liquid. Or burst into flames.”
9. “It must require bravery to be honest all the time.”
10. “Any idiot can stand in front of a target. It doesn’t prove anything except that you’re bullying him. Which, as I recall, is a sign of cowardice.”
11. “Looks like someone had a mood swing.” She rolls her eyes. “Like you don’t want to
know what his fears are. He acts so tough that he’s probably afraid of marshmallows
and really bright sunrises or something.”
12. “Our eyes meet. I hear a train horn, so faint it could be wind whistling through an alleyway. But I know it when I hear it. It sounds like the Dauntless, calling me to to them.”
13. “I want to cry because something terrible happened, and I saw it, and I could not see a way to mend it.”
14. “Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.”
15. “A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.”
16. “…there is power in self-sacrifice.”
17. “You’re not a coward just because you don’t want to hurt people.”
18. “It must require bravery to be honest all the time. I wouldn’t know.”
19. “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.”
20. “I am fed up. I am fed up with tears and weakness.”
21. “Cowardice is how you decide to be in real life”
22. “Yes, well, that has nothing to do with the box.”
23. “I get up, because I’m supposed to, but if it were up to me, I’d stay in my seat for the rest of time.”
24. “Sometimes, the best way to help someone is just to be near them.”
25. “I close my eyes. I don’t expect Four to reassure me, and he makes no effort to, but I feel better standing here than I did out there among the people who are my friends, my faction.”
26. “And I’m the kind of person who does not let inconsequential things like boys and near death experiences stop her.”
27. “There’s a difference between not being afraid and acting in spite of fear.”
28. “Sometimes I just… want to see it again. Want to see you awake.”
29. “Maybe there’s more we all could have done, but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time.”
30. “It was him or me. I chose me. But I feel dead too.”
31. “Since he saved me from the attack, I have associated his smell with safety, so as long as I focus on it, I feel safe now.”
32. “So now we all know,” says Four, quietly, “that you are afraid of a short, skinny girl from Abnegation.” His mouth curls into a smile.”
33. “Moths,” repeats Will. “You’re afraid of moths?”
“Not just a cloud of moths,” she says, “like…a swarm of them. Everywhere. All those wings and legs and…” She shudders and shakes her head.
“Terrifying,” Will says with mock seriousness. “That’s my girl. Tough as cotton balls.”
“Oh, Shut up.”
34. “He told me once to be brave, and though I have stood still while knives spun toward my face and jumped off a roof, I never thought I would need bravery in the small moments of my life. I do.”
35. “He gives me a conflicted look and touches his lips to my forehead, right between my eyebrows. I close my eyes. I don’t understand this, whatever it is. But I don’t want to ruin it, so I say nothing. He doesn’t move; he just stays there with his mouth pressed to my skin, and I stay there with my hands on his waist, for a long time.”
36. “Beatrice. We should think of our family. But. But we must also think of ourselves.”
37. “Four flips the gun in this hand, presses the barrel to Peter’s forehead, and clicks a bullet into place. Peter freezes with his lips parted, the yawn dead in his mouth. “Wake. Up,” Four snaps. “You are holding a loaded gun, you idiot. Act like it.”
38. “I might be in love with you.” He smiles a little. “I’m waiting until I’m sure to tell you, though.”
39. “We could visit him,” suggests Will. “But what would we say? ‘I didn’t know you that well, but I’m sorry you got stabbed in the eye’?.”
40. “I have your back. I didn’t mean only when it’s easy. All the time.”
41. “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.”
42. “Tell him I didn’t want to leave him”
43. “You know I’m getting a little tired of waiting for you to catch on.”
44. “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.”
45. “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.”
46. “Your daughter is doing well here. I’ve been overseeing her training.”
47. “Half of bravery is perspective.”
48. “Yes,” says Will, looking puzzled. “Didn’t you?”
49. “I am divergent and i can’t be controlled”
50. “I am not going to sleep with you in a hallucination. Okay?.”
51. “Do the elevators work?” I ask Uriah, as quietly as I can. “Sure they do.” says Zeke, rolling his eyes, “You think I’m stupid enough not to come here early and turn on the emergency generator?”
“Yeah,” says Uriah. “I kinda do.”
52. “We’ve all started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don’t want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.” He clears his throat. “I continually struggle with kindness.”
53. “It isn’t right to wish pain on other people just because they hurt me first.”
54. “Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up. I’ve seen it. It’s fascinating.” He releases me but doesn’t pull away, his hand grazing my jaw, my neck. “Sometimes I just…want to see it again. Want to see you awake.”
55. “If Eric thinks I did something right, I must have done it wrong.”
56. “You’re my daughter. I don’t care about the factions.” She shakes her head. “Look where they got us. Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again.”
57. “Politeness is deception in pretty packaging.”
58. “Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up”
59. “No, I was wrong; I didn’t jump off the roof because I wanted to be like the Dauntless. I jumped off because I already was like them, and I wanted to show myself to them. I wanted to acknowledge a part of myself that Abnegation demanded that I hide.”
60. “it’s not about being fearless, it’s about acting in spite of fear”
61. “We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”
62. “I feel like someone breathed new air into my lungs. I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent.”
63. “Just do what you’re supposed to.”
64. “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.”
65. “I never thought I would need bravery in the small moments of my life. I do.”
66. “Human reason can excuse any evil; that is why it’s so important that we don’t rely on it.”
67. “Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality—of humankind’s inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world’s disarray.”
68. “Tori was the only one in the tattoo place, so I felt safe getting the symbol of Abnegation—a pair of hands, palms up as if to help someone stand, bounded by a circle—on my right shoulder. I know it was a risk, especially after all that’s happened. But that symbol is a part of my identity, and it felt important to me that I wear it on my skin.”
69. “For a few minutes we kiss, deep in the chasm, with the roar of water all around us. And we rise, hand in hand, I realize that if we had both chosen differently, we might have ended up doing the same thing, in a safer place, in gray clothes instead of black ones.”
70. “Learning how to think in the midst of fear is a lesson that everyone needs to learn.”
71. “Because you’re from Abnegation,” he says, “and it’s when you’re acting selflessly that you are at your bravest.”
72. “You think giving you a hug would give away too much?” he says.
“You know,” I say. “I really don’t care.”
I stand on my tiptoes and press my lips to his.
It is the best moment of my life.”
73. “My father says—used to say—that there is power in self-sacrifice.”
74. “I wander around the room, looking at the artwork on the walls. These days, the only artists are in Amity. Abnegation sees art as impractical, and its appreciation as time that could be spent serving others, so though I have seen works of art in textbooks, I have never been in a decorated room before. It makes the air feel close and warm, and I could get lost here for hours without noticing.”
75. “Two things you should know about me; The first is that I am deeply suspicious of people in general. It is my nature to expect the worst of them. And the second is that I am unexpectedly good with computers.”
76. “My mother’s death was brave. I remember how calm she was, how determined. It isn’t just brave that she died for me; it is brave that she did it without announcing it, without hesitation, and without appearing to consider another option.”
77. “Every tattoo I got with them is a mark of their friendship, and almost every time I have laughed in this dark place was because of them. I don’t want to lose them. But I feel like I have already.”
78. “Why do people want to pretend that death is sleep? It isn’t. It isn’t.”
79. “Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it’s not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way. But our minds move in a dozen different directions. We can’t be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies our leaders. It means we can’t be controlled. And it means that no matter what they do, we will always cause trouble for them.”
80. “Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again.”
81. “I need the protection of seeming weak.”
82. “We kiss again and this time, it feels familiar. I know exactly how we fit together, his arm around my waist, my hands on his chest, the pressure of his lips on mine. We have each other memorized.”
83. “Maybe I was afraid to trust him with something so personal as my devotion.”
84. “But maybe what I saw as fearless was actually fear under control.”
85. “I step to the side so I stand in front of the mirror. I see muscles that I couldn’t see before in my arms, legs, and stomach. I pinch my side, where a layer of fat used to hint at curves to come. Nothing. Dauntless initiation has stolen whatever softness my body had. Is that good, or bad?”
86. “Humans can’t tolerate emptiness for long.”
87. “Who cares about pretty? I’m going for noticeable.”
88. “Well, I already know what happened to my face”, I say. “I was there. Sort of”
89. “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.”
90. “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.”
91. “What irritates me most about him is his natural goodness, his inborn selflessness.”
92. “My natural tendency toward sarcasm is still not appreciated.”
93. “Sarcasm is always at someone’s expense.”
94. “I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.”
95. “I don’t want to be just one thing. I want to be brave and selfless and intelligent and honest and kind.”
96. “Lies require commitment.”
97. “You’re afraid of heights,” I say. “How do you survive in the Dauntless compound?” “I ignore my fear,” he says. “When I make decisions, I pretend it doesn’t exist.” I stare at him for a second. I can’t help it. To me there’s a difference between not being afraid and acting in spite of fear, as he does.”
98. “Any idiot can stand in front of a target,” I say. “It doesn’t prove anything except that you’re bullying us. Which, as I recall is a sign of cowardice” “Then it should be easy for you,” Eric sys. “If you’re willing ot take his place.”
99. “She has been to the compound before. She remembered this hallway. She knows about the initiation process.
My mother was Dauntless.”
100. “And is it selfish of me to crave victory, or is it brave?.”
101. “A chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy.”
102. “Looking away is submissive. Looking [..] in the eye is a challenge.”
103. “What did you do, memorize a map of the city for fun?” says Christina.
104. “I am selfish. I am brave.”
105. “My father used to say that sometimes, the best way to help someone is just to be near them. I feel good when I do something I know he would be proud of, like it makes up for all the things I’ve done that he wouldn’t be proud of.”
106. “Beatrice,” he says, looking sternly into my eyes. “We should think of our family.” There is an edge to his voice. “But. But we must also think of ourselves.”
107. “Sometimes I see him as just another person, and sometimes I feel the sight of him in my gut, like a deep ache.”
108. “I like to think I’m helping them by hating them. I’m reminding them that they aren’t God’s gift to humankind.”
109. “Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing.’
‘Well,’ he says, ‘I would only go if there was cake.”
110. ″‘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.‘”
111. “I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren’t all that different.”
112. “I’m surprised you know that,” I say quietly, ” since you left halfway through my one and only fight.” “It wasn’t something I wanted to watch.” he says. What’s that supposed to mean?”
113. “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.”
114. “I’m Divergent. And I can’t be controlled.”
115. “It’s easy to be brave when they’re not my fears.”
116. “But I will find new habits, new thoughts, new rules. I will become something else.”
117. “He pus his lips next to my ear and says, “You look good, Tris.”
118. “We are not the same. But we are, somehow, one.”
119. “I am proud. It will get me into trouble someday, but today it makes me brave”
120. “What do I believe? I do not know; I do not know; I do not know.”
