I just wanted to thank you' he says, his voice low.' A group of scientists told you that my genes were damaged, that there was something wrong with me - they showed you the test results that proved it. And even I started to believe it.' He touches my face, his thumb skimming my cheekbone, and his eyes are on mine, intense and insistent.' You never believed it,' he says 'Not for a second. You always insisted I was... I don't know, whole.

— Veronica Roth

I laugh, and it’s laughter, not light, that casts out the darkness building within me, that reminds me I am still alive, even in this strange place where everything I’ve ever known is coming apart. I know some things—I know that I’m not alone, that I have friends, that I’m in love. Furthermore, I know where I came from. Furthermore, I know that I don’t want to die, and for me, that’s something—more than I could have said a few weeks ago.

— Veronica Roth

I like to hurt people too. I can make the cruelest choice. The difference is, sometimes I don't, and you always do, and that makes you evil.

— Veronica Roth

It happened. It was awful. You aren't perfect. That's all there is. Don't confuse your grief with guilt." We stay in the silence and the loneliness of the otherwise empty dormitory for a few more minutes, and I try to let her words work themselves into me.

— Veronica Roth

It’s getting more difficult to be wise,” he says, laughing into my ear. I smile at him. “I think that’s how it’supposed to be.

— Veronica Roth

It's strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.

— Veronica Roth

My mother wasn't a fool," I say. "She just understood something you didn't. That it's not sacrifice if it's someone else's life you're giving away, it's just evil." I back up another step and say, "She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love, not misplaced disgust for another person's genetics. That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own. ...

— Veronica Roth

She is a woman of muscle twisted around bone.

— Veronica Roth

She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love... That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own.

— 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