I started writing because I decided I was too old to play pretend in the backyard. Then I found that I could create those imaginary worlds on the page.

The battle we are fighting is not against a particular group. It is against human nature - or at least what it has become.

What makes you different, makes you dangerous.

I suppose that now would be the time to ask for forgiveness for all the things I've done, but I'm sure my list would never be complete. I also don't believe that whatever comes after life depends on my correctly reciting a list of my transgressions...I don't believe that what comes after depends on anything I do at all.

It's not cruelty, maybe, but a desire to understand that motivates them.

Abnegation produces deeply serious people. People who automatically see things like need,” he says. “I’ve noticed that when people switch to Dauntless, it creates some of the same types. Erudite who switch to Dauntless tend to turn cruel and brutal. Candor who switch to Dauntless tend to become boisterous, fight-picking adrenaline junkies. And Abnegation who switch to Dauntless become . . . I don’t know, soldiers, I guess. Revolutionaries.

Dauntless: being brave in the midst of fear.