We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear.

I am afraid of her, afraid of what she says-and thrilled by it too, because it means I don't have to accept that I am smaller than I once believed.

I have your back. I didn't mean only when it's easy. All the time.

It happened. It was awful. You aren't perfect. That's all there is. Don't confuse your grief with guilt.

I settle into their pace. The uniform pounding of feet in my ears and the homogeneity of the people around me makes me believe that I could choose this. I could be subsumed into Abnegation’s hive mind, projecting always outward.

I am no longer Tris, the selfless, or Tris, the brave. I suppose that now, I must become more than either.

He gives me a conflicted look and touches his lips to my forehead, right between my eyebrows. I close my eyes. I don't understand this, whatever it is. But I don't want to ruin it, so I say nothing. He doesn't move; he just stays there with his mouth pressed to my skin, and I stay there with my hands on his waist, for a long time.