“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Quotes from book
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian state resembling a theonomy that overthrows the United States government. The novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid Offred. Her name derives from the possessive form "of Fred"; handmaids are forbidden to use their birth names and must use names derivative of those of the male, or master, whom they serve.
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 268)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“I am alive, I live, I breathe, I put my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight.”
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 30 (pp. 192-193)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Context: I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before. You do that first, in your head, and then you make it real.
“A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.”
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“Do not let the bastards grind you down.”
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
Variant: Do not let the bastards grind you down.
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 9 (p. 52)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“How were we to know we were happy?”
Variant: We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.”
Variant: Better never means better for everyone.
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 32 (p. 211)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Context: You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, is what he says. We thought we could do better.
Better? I say, in a small voice. How can he think this is better?
Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some.
“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”
Variant: We lived, as usual by ignoring. Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 10 (p. 56)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this wanting.”
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 19 (p. 109)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
