The Handmaid's Tale

Book · 5 characters · 513 quotes · 1985

Quotes from The Handmaid's Tale

J
"I wouldn't mind, even if he came right now."
Janine
T
"The period of greatest danger has passed."
The Commander Power
O
"I am not just an incubator."
Offred Freedom
O
"We lived, as usual, by ignoring."
Offred
O
"Nothing changes instantaneously."
Offred Change
O
"Ignorance is bliss, they say, and that's what they count on."
Offred Knowledge
S
"Better never means better for everyone."
Serena Joy Justice
O
"I want to be valued, in the end."
Offred
O
"We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the gaps between the stories."
Offred
M
"They thrive on our degradation"
Moira
O
"My name was Rosa, but I could never be called that by anyone else"
Offred
O
"I can't answer that question to myself"
Offred Knowledge
O
"We lived, as usual, by ignoring"
Offred Truth
O
"I sit in the bitter air like a stone"
Offred Solitude
O
"The trouble with the past is that it keeps intruding"
Offred Time
S
"You can't put a quart into a pint pot"
Serena Joy Wisdom
O
"Longing is a kind of torture"
Offred Hope
T
"The pen is envy"
The Commander Power
O
"I dream of rain"
Offred Nature
T
"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you wife and handmaid"
The Commander Justice
J
"We are two-legged wombs, that's all"
Janine Power
O
"The Republic of Gilead, I said to myself"
Offred Politics
O
"Nothing changes instantly"
Offred Change
T
"Humanity is a comment"
The Commander Philosophy
O
"I want to be valued, in the way that a sandwich gives me with my name on it"
Offred Relationships
O
"Fear tastes like metal"
Offred Fear
O
"The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I like, as long as I am quiet"
Offred Freedom
O
"We were the people who were not in the papers"
Offred History
S
"Modesty is invisibility"
Serena Joy Power
O
"Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it"
Offred Truth