Veronica Roth

And he doesn’t like religious spaces, in general—the obsession with wrong and right, purity and pollution, modernity and eternity, it doesn’t make sense to him.

There’s always sacrifice in building something that’s never been built before, and sacrifice creates a debt, and debts create a space for magic to rush in.

You shouldn’t lose hope, Ala. Our people never do. We’re foolish that way.”

Ala sometimes wished her mother could soften things for her, just a little. But she wouldn’t—or more accurately, she couldn’t. She didn’t know how to live in a world that wasn’t straightforward.

Her quiet is like the sky reflecting on still water: it obscures the depth and the dark of what lies beneath it.

People fight for honor, for love, why not for beauty?”

People fight for honor, for love, why not for beauty?”

People fight for honor, for love, why not for beauty?”

But suffering isn’t atonement, Dymitr.”

Niko’s eyes are wide. They skip all over Dymitr’s face, and Dymitr wonders how he looks to Niko, if he’s still beautiful enough to fight for.