Best Quotes

‘Divergent‘ is the first book by author Veronica Roth. It revolves around the protagonist, Beatrice ‘Tris’ Prior, a young girl who chooses to belong to a faction whose nature is opposite to what she had been raised to be. Follow her journey as she discovers herself and her place in her society as a Divergent.

Bravery

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.

Natalie Prior, Tris’ mother, had infiltrated the Abnegation headquarters to rescue her after she was taken by Jeanine Matthew’s drone army and was about to be executed. While they hid in an alley a few blocks away from Abnegation headquarters, Tris’ mother noticed that there was a team of mind-controlled Dauntless coming toward them. She told Tris where her brother and the Abnegation survivors hid themselves and told her to make a run for it. She then ran into the street and fired her gun into the air to get the attention of the Dauntless troops, who killed her with multiple gunshots.

While being treated for her wounds, Tris explains to her father how bravely and readily her mother had sacrificed her life for her safety.

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.

Tris had noticed Four’s apprehension as they climbed the Ferris Wheel ladder to get to higher ground so they could more easily spot and scout other Dauntless groups. Four’s profound reply teaches Tris the meaning of bravery even in the face of fear, which is the essence of the Dauntless faction.

Self Awareness

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.

She touches my uninjured shoulder and smiles.

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.

As Tris and her mother hid in the alleyway after her mother had rescued her from Abnegation headquarters, they talked about being Divergent. Tris had only just found out that her mother was not just a Dauntless hiding in the Abnegation faction, but she was Divergent as well. Tris’ mother had made the statement above as she explained why Divergent individuals are seen as threats by their leaders and severely persecuted.

Maybe my problem isn’t that I can’t go home. I will miss my mother and father and Caleb and evening firelight and the clack of my mother’s knitting needles, but that is not the only reason for this hollow feeling in my stomach. My problem might be that even if I did go home, I wouldn’t belong there, among people who give without thinking and care without trying.

After the new Dauntless initiates were told that they could not leave the faction and that they would be thrown out to be Factionless if they failed the tests, many of them broke down. This included a boy from the Candor faction named Al. As Tris listened to his sobs, she became disgusted at the boy who looked so strong but acted weak.

As she lay in her bed, missing her home and feeling disgusted for Al instead of feeling the need to help and comfort him, Tris realized that she was different from other people in the Abnegation faction and that she did not fit in with them anymore.

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.

Tris reminisces to herself her reasons for choosing the Dauntless faction and the motivations for her actions since she joined. She also examines the changes she has undergone, both physical and mental since she joined Dauntless. She had initially assumed that her actions were driven by a desire to emulate her new faction and live up to the ideas she had in her head about what being Dauntless meant, but in the end, she concluded that she fit right where she was among the Dauntless because she had always been one of them.

Human Nature

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.

This quote was part of Marcus’s opening address during the Choosing Ceremony where the young members of their society get to choose the factions they want to belong to. In his address, Marcus mentions the origin of the factions, their duties, and the reasons why the founders of their society chose to divide the people into factions to better organize and preserve their society.

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.

This was part of a conversation between Tris and Four after Al’s suicide. Al, who was fueled by his infatuation with Tris and his feelings of jealousy, had been part of an attack against Tris. Al had been recruited by two other members of Peter Hayes and Drew in a plot to scare Tris, but unknown to him, Peter and Drew planned to kill Tris. Once he realized their real plan, Al fought them off till Four arrived, but Tris vowed to never forgive his betrayal. After his suicide, Tris blamed herself for not forgiving him.

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.

After Tris’ aptitude test, she and her Dauntless friends head out to get tattoos, which mark them as members of Dauntless. While at the tattoo parlor, she came face to face with works of art for the first time in her life. As she admired the works of art, she reminisced on how being born in a faction that shuns all forms of art and aesthetic beauty, meant that experiences like the one she enjoyed at that moment were frowned upon.

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