Chosen Ones Quotes

“And maybe that was the entire problem with them—he didn't see her; he saw who she could be with a few adjustments, and all she wanted was to stay busted and be left alone.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's worth doing.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Nature is bloody, and as a whole, it favors strength over compassion.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Either way, we'll carry it. We always do.
...
I'm sorry. I couldn't carry it anymore.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“What, then, is a desire? We may begin by stating what it is not. A desire is not a whim. It is not an idle wish concocted on a sunny afternoon. A desire is a profundity of want, a deep and abiding craving that cannot be denied.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“But dealing with situations like these, Sloane knew, was just a matter of knowing the right procedures. She had learned how to disappear after Cameron died and her mother burrowed into bed and never came out again. You dealt with it the same way you dealt with the cold when you didn't have the right jacket: you let the chill pass through you, digging deep into your bones, until you no longer feel it.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“In other words, magic is a mirror. It reflects us back to ourselves, and we may not always like what we see.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“I just had a panic attack because of a pair of boots, so I don’t think I’ll be winning any mental-health achievement awards anytime soon.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Matt and Sloane had been living in a moment of held breath. The exhale had always been coming.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“...no longer needs us."...
"I'll always need you," Mox said fiercely....
"You'll miss us," Ziva said. "Want us. But that's something else entirely.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“She would be very little to him now. An old friend, an ex-girlfriend. She would fade into his memory. That was how it always was - she faded away for people once she had served her purpose.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“She had lived half her life wanting only one thing - to save the world - and the other half wanting to be left alone, which was almost the same thing as wanting nothing at all. She didn't know what it was like to desire something between those two extremes. She wasn't sure she was even capable of it.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“And she would tarnish too. Always famous but always fading, the way old movie stars were, carrying ghosts of their younger selves in their faces.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“He wears masks on top of masks, that man.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Magic was not a weapon or even an amoral source of energy—it was an infection. Wherever it was, people died, places turned rotten, and the order of things was disrupted, sometimes irreparably.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Sloanie Sloanie Macaroni”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“There’s a thought experiment—moral philosophy—called the trolley problem, have you heard of it?” She shook her head no. “Basically it says there’s a trolley on a track, and if it goes one way, it will kill five people, but if you flip the switch, it will only kill one. And you’re supposed to say whether you would flip the switch, whether you could bear to be directly responsible for a death even if you’re sparing lives.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Sloane felt the same wrongness she felt around the Needle, like all her innards were in the wrong places, like the world had turned into a nightmare and she didn't remember falling asleep.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“And you're having trouble believing they would lie to us? Why--because they said please and thank you?"

"Always with the drama." Esther rolled her eyes. "All I'm doing is trying not to freak out; I'm not campaigning for them to get the Nobel Prize.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“We're supposed to be a team, Sloane."
"You don't want a team," Sloane said. "You want obedience.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“I am empty, and more than that, a black hole, so absolutely composed of nothingness that I attract all somethingness to me.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“He was a kind man, but his disapproval was paternalistic, at best, and, at worst, oppressive.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“...regardless of what power humankind has access to, I suppose I never see it as having a good outcome. We are animals, after all. And don't let you housecat fool you into thinking that animals are nothing more than fuzzy, whiskered creatures who wish us no ill. Nature is bloody, and as a whole, it favors strength over compassion.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Officer K:... a stray dog - if you try to grab it, it might bite you. But if you are careful, you might be able to persuade it to come to you.
Officer S: If you know what it eats.
Officer K: Correct. And I think in this case, respect was the right bait, so to speak... Citing repercussions rather than restrictions - a choice without an acceptable outcome.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“It felt like the burn and tingle of magic but without the destruction, just the warmth and the intent.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“It was dark, and Esther had noted that at least half of the streetlights they passed were the old gas-burning kind. It seemed to Sloane that with the spread of magic had come a deep affinity for the past, but she wasn’t sure what one had to do with the other.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Sometimes,” she said, taking her time, “when I’m upset about something, all you want to do is tell me why I shouldn’t be.” “And that’s bad?” “It makes me feel crazy! Like I can’t trust my own reactions to things.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“And maybe that was the entire problem with them—he didn’t see her; he saw who she could be with a few adjustments, and all she wanted was to stay busted and be left alone.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Sloane Andrews is that wholesome, clean brand of gorgeous that makes you want to get it dirty.”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones

“Sometimes," she said, taking her time. "when I'm upset about something, all you want to do is tell me why I shouldn't be. "
"And that's bad?"
"It makes me feel crazy! Like I can't trust my own reactions to things. "
"We all need people to help us see things from different perspectives. "
She rolled her eyes. "You think I don't make myself consider things from other angles?" She had spent a lifetime reacting and then questioning the reactions-- a lifetime of second guessing, self interrogation, badgering her brain into thinking about things the right way.
"You think I can't?" Her volume was rising. "Did you ever consider that when I'm upset about something, it might be because it's worth getting upset about?”
― Veronica Roth, Chosen Ones