Abnegation Quotes

• It will be difficult to break the habits of thinking Abnegation instilled in me, like tugging a single thread from a complex work of embroidery. But I will find new habits, new thoughts, new rules. I will become something else.

  Veronica Roth

  Thinking, Tugging, Embroidery

  Veronica Roth (2013). “The Divergent Series Complete Collection: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant”, p.46, Harper Collins

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• I am better off doing as abnegation taught me: turning away from myself, projecting always outward, and hoping that in whatever is next, I will be better than I am now.

  Veronica Roth

  Next, Taught, Better Off

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• When I look at the Abnegation lifestyle as an outsider, I think it’s beautiful. When I watch my family move in harmony; when we go to dinner parties and everyone cleans together afterward without having to be asked; when I see Caleb help strangers carry their groceries, I fall in love with this life all over again.

  Veronica Roth

  Beautiful, Falling In Love, Party

  Veronica Roth (2013). “The Divergent Series Complete Collection: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant”, p.18, Harper Collins

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• I will be my undoing If I become my obsession.

  Veronica Roth

  Obsession, Undoing, Ifs

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• I feel like someone breathed new air into my lungs. I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent.

  Veronica Roth

  Air, Divergent, Feels

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• Those who blamed aggression formed Amity.’… ‘Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite.’… ‘Those who blamed duplicity created Candor.’… ‘Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation.’… ‘And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless.

  Veronica Roth

  Ignorance, Duplicity, Selfishness

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• A saint addicted to excessive self-abnegation is a dangerous associate; he may infect you with poverty, and a stiffening of those joints which are needed for advancement-in a word, with more renunciation than you care for-and so you flee the contagion.

  Victor Hugo

  Self, Atheism, Advancement

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• I realize that the decision might be simple. It will require a great act of selflessness to choose Abnegation, or a great act of courage to choose Dauntless, and maybe just choosing one over the other will prove that I belong.

  Veronica Roth

  Simple, Decision, Might

  Veronica Roth (2014). “Divergent Series Ultimate Four-Book Collection: Divergent; Insurgent; Allegiant; Four”, p.26, Harper Collins

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• Suicide to them is an act of selfishness. Someone who is truly selfless does not think of himself often enough to desire death.

  Veronica Roth

  Suicide, Thinking, Desire

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• 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.

  Veronica Roth

  Believe, Feet, People

  Veronica Roth (2013). “Divergent Trilogy”, p.28, HarperCollins UK

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• No selfishness or insecurity kept him from seeing the full extent of her goodness, as it so often does with the rest of us. That kind of love may only be possible in Abnegation. I do not know.

  Veronica Roth

  Insecurity, Selfishness, Doe

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• When you care more if someone else lives than you do about yourself- is that what [love is]?

  Jodi Picoult

  First Love, Love Is, Care

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.310, Simon and Schuster

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• A French observer is surprised to hear how often an English or an American lawyer quotes the opinions of others, and how little he alludes to his own; ... This abnegation of his own opinion, and this implicit deference to the opinion of his forefathers, which are common to the English and American lawyer, this servitude of thought which he is obliged to profess, necessarily give him more timid habits and more conservative inclinations in England and America than in France.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  England And America, Law, Giving

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.235, Bantam Classics

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• Humans can't tolerate emptiness for long.

  Veronica Roth

  Long, Emptiness, Tolerate

  Veronica Roth (2014). “Divergent Collector's Edition”, p.25, Harper Collins

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• We all have to lead our own life, and we only have the one life, and the only people who can live life not according to their own desires are those who have no desires--which is the majority, actually. People can say what they like, they can speak of abnegation, sacrifice, generosity, acceptance, and resignation, but it's all false. The norm is for people to think that they desire whatever comes to them, whatever they achieve along the way or whatever is given to them--they have no preconceived desires.

  Javier Marías

  Live Life, Acceptance, Sacrifice

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• So now we all know," says Four, quietly, "that you are afraid of a short, skinny girl from Abnegation." His mouth curls into a smile.

  Veronica Roth

  Girl, Curls, Mouths

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• But I will find new habits, new thoughts, new rules. I will become something else.

  Veronica Roth

  Divergent, Habit, New Thought

  Veronica Roth (2013). “The Divergent Series Complete Collection: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant”, p.46, Harper Collins

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• Dauntless,' he says. 'I was born for Abnegation. I was planning on leaving Dauntless, and becoming factionless. But then I met her, and...I felt like maybe I could make something more of my decision.' Her. For a moment, it's like I'm looking at a different person, sitting in Tobias's skin, one whose life is not as simple as I thought. He wanted to leave Dauntless, but he stayed because of me. He never told me that.

  Veronica Roth

  Simple, Decision, Leaving

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• His absence will haunt their hallways, and he will be a space they can't fill. And then time will pass, and the hole will be gone, like when an organ is removed and the body's fluids flow into the space it leaves. Humans can't tolerate emptiness for long.

  Veronica Roth

  Space, Long, Gone

  Veronica Roth (2014). “Divergent Collector's Edition”, p.25, Harper Collins

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• I was born for Abegnation. I was planning on leaving Dauntless, and becoming factionless. But then I met 'her', and...I felt like maybe I could make something more of my decision.

  Veronica Roth

  Decision, Leaving, Becoming

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• The love of woman is a precious treasure. Tenderness has no deeper source, devotion no purer shrine, sacrifice no more saintlike abnegation.

  Germain-Francois Poullain de Saint-Foix

  Sacrifice, Treasure, Shrines

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• I will be my undoing, If I become my obsession. I will forget the ones I love, If I do not serve them. I will war with others, If I refuse to see them. Therefore, I choose to turn away From my reflection, To rely not on myself But on my brothers and sisters, To project always outward Until I disappear [And only God remains.]

  Veronica Roth

  Brother, War, Reflection

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• Pride blinds people to the truth of what they are.

  Veronica Roth

  Pride, People

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• The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom. But in the modern philosophy the case is opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Children, Philosophy, Drinking

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.119, Simon and Schuster

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• Be sure that your soul is never so intensely alive as when in the deepest abnegation it waits hushed before God .

  Alexander MacLaren

  Humility, Waiting, Soul

  Alexander MacLaren “MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture”, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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