It’s strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.
My mother told me once that we can’t survive alone, but even if we could, we wouldn’t want to. Without a faction we have no purpose and no reason to live.
It reminds me that no embrace will ever feel the same again, because no one will ever be like her again, because she’s gone. She’s gone, and crying feels so useless, so stupid, but it’s all I can do.
I’ll say it one last time: Be brave.
Human reason can excuse any evil.
I wonder if fears ever really go away, or if they just lose their power over us.
Pride is what killed Al, and it is the flaw in every Dauntless heart. It is in mine.
I think you’re still the only person sharp enough to sharpen someone like me.
No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens.
I slowly realized that perfectionism just not that important. What’s more important is to try to love the people around you. Whatever that means at a particular time is the best you can do.
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.
I am collecting the lessons each faction has to teach me, and storing them in my mind like a guidebook for moving through the world. There is always somthing to learn, always somthing that is important to understand.
Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.
Reading is such a huge part of my life.
We are not people who touch each other carelessly; every point of contact between us feels important, a rush of energy and relief.
We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.
I don’t really control the story. I just let it go where it wants to go. I have no idea what’s going to happen in the end or who’s going to live, so it’s kind of like me saying, “I don’t know, guys! Just wait.” That’s what I’m doing!
A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.
I want people to come away from my book with questions. Questions about virtue and goodness. Not answers.
I think they’re going to force us to eat lots of cake and then take an unreasonably long nap.