Allegiant (Divergent, #3)

by Veronica Roth

We are not people who touch each other carelessly; every point of contact between us feels important, a rush of energy and relief.

“They released some kind of manifesto this morning. They call themselves the Allegiant.”

“Chaos and destruction do tend to take away a person’s dating possibilities.”

each

“I didn’t know that idiocy caused people to just start spontaneously bleeding from the nose.”

wonder if fears ever really go away, or if they just lose their power over us.

I used to think that when people fell in love, they just landed where they landed, and they had no choice in the matter afterward. And maybe that’s true of beginnings, but it’s not true of this, now. I fell in love with him. But I don’t just stay with him by default as if there’s no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.

To me, when someone wrongs you, you both share the burden of that wrongdoing—the pain of it weighs on both of you. Forgiveness, then, means choosing to bear the full weight all by yourself. Caleb’s

And I know, without being told, that’s what love does, when it’s right—it makes you more than you were, more than you thought you could be.

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.

Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.