“The Society music plays around and over us, but our thoughts are our own.”

“In some ways, our being Matched is the biggest strike against me. How was she supposed to love me when the Society said she should?”

“Good-bye,” I say to Grandfather, and to my father, and I hold the tube in the river and pause a moment. We hold the choices of our fathers and mothers in our hands and when we cling on or let them slip between our fingers, those choices become our own.”

“And as the Society reminds us, there's a difference between knowledge and technology. Knowledge doesn't fail us.”

“The Society wants us to be afraid of dying. But I'm not. I'm only afraid of dying wrong.”

“Maybe only parts of our stories can keep us safe. The whole can feel like too much to bear.”

“Who am I to try to change things, to get greedy and want more? If our Society changes and things are different, who am I to tell the girl who would have enjoyed the safe protected life that now she has to have choice and danger because of me?”