“Dauntless: being brave in the midst of fear.”

“I have realized that part of being Dauntless is being willing to make things more difficult for yourself in order to be self-sufficient. There's nothing especially brave about wandering dark streets with no flashlight, but we are not supposed to need help, even from light. We are supposed to be capable of anything. I like that. Because there might come a day when there is no flashlight, there is no gun, there is no guiding hand. And I want to be ready.”

“Learning how to think in the midst of fear is a lesson that everyone needs to learn.”

“It's easy to be brave when they're not my fears.”

“We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear.”

“You're afraid of heights,'I say. 'How do you survive in the Dauntless compound?''I ignore my fear,' he (Four) says. 'When I make decisions, I pretend it doesn't exist.”

“You're afraid of heights," I say. "How do you survive in the Dauntless compound?" "I ignore my fear," he says. "When I make decisions, I pretend it doesn't exist." I stare at him for a second. I can't help it. To me there's a difference between not being afraid and acting in spite of fear, as he does. I have been staring at him too long. "What?" he says quietly. "Nothing.”