I think it's a human tendency that's been around for a while to try to be as good as possible to prove your worth.

What is wrong with you?' I shake my head. 'Pull it together.' And that's what it feels like: pulling the different parts of me up and in like a shoelace. I feel suffocated, but at least I feel strong.

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

Why would the factionless have a high Divergent population?" It sounds like she's smirking. "Obviously those who can't confine themselves to a particular way of thinking would be most likely to leave a faction or fail its initiation, right?

Pride blinds people to the truth of what they are.

I can't tell him I need him. I can't need him, period -- or really, we can't need each other, because who knows how long either of us will last in this war?

Before she got here everything had stalled inside me, and every morning I was just moving toward nighttime.