The Crucible

Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.

Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!

I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.

Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.

You are pulling down heaven and raising up a whore

It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves

A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.

We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!

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. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! - Abigail

Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now.

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

Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. "More weight," he says. And died.

Sex, sin, and the Devil were early linked.

it's the proper morning to fly into Hell.

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

I may think of you softly from time to time. But I’ll cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.

PROCTOR, his mind wild, breathless: I say--I say--God is dead!

A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud – God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!

What work you do! It's strange work for a Christian girl to hang old women!

There is prodigious fear in seeking loose spirits

we are only what we always were

Proctor: I am only wondering how I may prove what she told me, Elizabeth. If the girl's a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she's fraud, and the town gone so silly. She told it to me in a room alone- I have no proof for it. Elizabeth: You were alone with her? Proctor: (stubbornly) For a moment alone, aye. Elizabeth: Why, then, it is not as you told me. Proctor: (his anger rising) For a moment, I say. The others come in soon after. Elizabeth: (as if she has lost all faith in him) Do as you wish then. (she turns) Proctor: Woman. (she turns to him) I'll not have your suspicion any more. Elizabeth: (a little loftily) I have no- Proctor: I'll not have it! Elizabeth: Then let you not earn it. Proctor: Now look you- Elizabeth: I see what I see, John.

Pontius Pilate! God will not let you clean your hands of this!

HALE, with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit