The Crucible Quotes

John Proctor

"It's winter in here yet."

Mrs. Putnam

"You think it God's work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one?"

John Proctor

"O Francis, I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me! A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that."

Abigail Williams

"Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you."

Hale

"The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone."

John Proctor

"I see no light of God in that man."

Mary Warren

"I made a gift for you today...I had to sit long hours in a chair, and passed the time with sewing."

John Proctor

"She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave!"

Hale

"I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse, Your Honor. I'll not conceal it; my hand shakes yet as with a wound!"

Mrs. Putnam

"I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies?"

Parris

"There is danger for me. I dare not step outside at night!"

John Proctor

"In her life sir, she have never lied...my wife cannot tell a lie."

Giles Corey

"I am thirty-three times in court in my life. And always plaintiff, too."

Abigail Williams

"I cannot sleep for dreamin'; I cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I'd find you comin' through some door."

Parris

"There is either obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning."

Danforth

"Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now."

Giles Corey

"Last night—mark this—I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly—mark this—I could pray again!"

Elizabeth Proctor

"...if you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it."

Rebecca Nurse

"...let us go to God for the cause of it. There is prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves."

Abigail Williams

"I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil's people—and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a—"

Hale

"I come to do the Devil's work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves."

Tituba

"Oh, it be no Hell in Barbados. Devil, him be pleasureman in Barbados, him be singin' and dancin' in Barbados."

Danforth

"I have seen people choked before my eyes by spirits; I have seen them stuck by pins and slashed by daggers. I have until this moment not the slightest reason to suspect that the children may be deceiving me."

Mary Warren

"I'll not hang with you! I love God, I love God!"

Giles Corey

"This is a hearing; you cannot clap me for contempt of a hearing."