“Even now, I could no more chart her influence than I could the gravitational powers that rule the tides. I suppose that could be said of anyone we love, that their effects on our lives run so deeply, with such grave force, we hardly know what they mean until they are gone.”

“I could not separate our fates now any more than I could sort the blood from the ash. We are tied together by our love of the same girl.”

“We could do it, you know.""What?""Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it.”

“We could do it, you know," Gale says quietly."What?" I ask."Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it," says Gale.I don't know how to respond. This idea is so preposterous.”

“I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate--that we could mold our lives into any form we pleased... I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he threw himself valiantly into life's struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about... I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone.”

“We are preoccupied with time. If we could learn to love space as deeply as we are now obsessed with time, we might discover a new meaning in the phrase 'to live like men.”