REBECCA NURSE
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
REBECCA NURSE
If so he is, then 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.
REBECCA NURSE
No, you cannot break charity with your minister. You are another kind, John. Clasp his hand, make your peace.
REBECCA NURSE
Why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot
REBECCA NURSE
I think she'll wake in time. Pray calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief
REBECCA NURSE
Goody Ann! You sent a child to conjure up the dead?
REBECCA NURSE
Let you fear nothing! Another judgement waits us all!
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder yo
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin' out! I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil's people
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it's God's work I do .
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
The wings! Her wings are spreading! Mary, please, don't, don't�!
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
I never sold myself! I'm a good girl! I'm a proper girl! She made me do it! She made Betty do it!
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to toy in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
Let you beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it!
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it--and I'll be whipped if I must be. But they're speakin' of witchcraft. Betty's not witched.
MR. PUTNAM
I never heard you worried so on this society, Mr. Proctor. I do not think I saw you at Sabbath meeting since snow flew
MR. PUTNAM
Why, we are surely gone wild this year. What anarchy is this? That tract is in my bounds, it's in my bounds, Mr. Proctor
MR. PUTNAM
She cannot bear to hear the Lord's name, Mr. Hale; that's a sure sign of witchcraft afloat
MR. PUTNAM
You are not undone! Let you take hold here. Wait for no one to charge you--declare it yourself. You have discovered witchcraft--
MR. PUTNAM
How may we blame ourselves? I am one of nine sons; the Putnam seed have peopled this province. And yet I have but one child left of eight--and now she shrivels!
MR. PUTNAM
Now look you, sir. Let you strike out against the Devil, and the village will bless you for it! Come down, speak to them-pray with them. They're thirsting for your word Mister! Surely you'll pray with them.
MR. PUTNAM
Don't you understand it, sir? There is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark. Let your enemies make of it what they will, you cannot blink it more
MR. HALE
No, no. Now let me instruct you. We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone, and I must tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bru
MR. HALE
What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the best the Devil wants. And who is better than the minister?
MR. HALE
Aye. But the Devil is a wily one, you cannot deny it. However, she is far from accused, and I know she will not be. I thought, sir, to put some questions as to the Christian character of this house, if you'll permit me
MR. HALE
Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small
MR. HALE
Man, remember, until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.
MR. HALE
Excellency, I have signed 72 death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it.
MR. HALE
Woman, plead with him! Woman! It is pride, it is vanity. Be his helper!-What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!
MR. HALE
Excellency, there are orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere, and no man knows when the harlots' cry will end his life-and you wonder yet if rebellion's spoke? Better y
JUDGE DANFORTH
I judge nothing. I tell you straight, Mister-- I have seen marvels in this court. 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 tha
JUDGE DANFORTH
Come now. You say your only purpose is to save your wife. Good, then, she is saved at least this year, and a year is long. What say you, sir? It is done now. Will you drop this charge?
JUDGE DANFORTH
Let me continue. I understand well, a husband's tenderness may drive him to extravagance in defense of a wife. Are you certain in your conscience, Mister, that your evidence is the truth?
JUDGE DANFORTH
The pure in heart need no lawyers. Proceed as you will.
JUDGE DANFORTH
No, old man, you have not hurt these people if they are of good conscience. But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp line, now, a precise time-we liv
JUDGE DANFORTH
Let me continue. I understand well, a husband's tenderness may drive him to extravagance in defense of a wife. Are you certain in your conscience, Mister, that your evidence is the truth?
GILES COREY
It suggests to the mind what the trouble be among us all these years. Think on it. Wherefore is everybody suing everybody else? Think on it now, it's a deep thing, and dark as a pit. I have been six time in court this year
GILES COREY
It discomfits me! 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!
GILES COREY
This is a hearing; you cannot clap me for contempt of a hearing
GILES COREY
It's a pity, Ezekiel, that an honesty tailor might have gone to Heaven must burn in Hell. You'll burn for this, do you know it?
GILES COREY
I will not give you no name. I mentioned my wife's name once and I'll burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute.
REVEREND PARRIS
Abigail, I have fought here 3 long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and
now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my
very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put clothes upon your back
REVEREND PARRIS
There is either obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning.
REVEREND PARRIS
Now Mr. Hale's returned, there is hope, I think- for if he bring even one of these to God, that confession surely damns the others in the public eye, and none may doubt more that they are all linked to Hell. This way, unconfessed and claiming innocence,
REVEREND PARRIS
Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know that you-- you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.
REVEREND PARRIS
He's come to overthrow this court, Your Honor!
JOHN PROCTOR
You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it. Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore... I have not moved from there to there without
JOHN PROCTOR
I say-I say- God is dead!
JOHN PROCTOR
I will curse her hotter than the oldest cinder in hell. But pray, begrudge me not my anger!
JOHN PROCTOR
God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a w****'s vengeance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands. I know you must see it now.
JOHN PROCTOR
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!
JOHN PROCTOR
It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves
JOHN PROCTOR
I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart.
JOHN PROCTOR
Can you speak one minute without we land in Hell again? I am sick of Hell....I may speak my heart, I think
TITUBA
He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean man and no gently man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and cut your throat!... And then he come one stormy night to me, and he say, 'Look! I have white people belong to me.' And I
TITUBA
My Betty be hearty soon?... My Betty not goin' die...
TITUBA
I don't know, sir, but the Devil got him numerous witches
TITUBA
Oh, it be no Hell in Barbados. Devil, him be pleasure man in Barbados, him be singin' and dancin' in Barbados. It's you folks- you riles him up 'round here it be too cold 'round here for that old boy. He freeze his soul in Massachusetts, but in Barbados
MARY WARREN
Abby, we've got to tell. Witchery's a hangin' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth , Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things!
MARY WARREN
What'll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the whole country's talkin' witchcraft! They'll be callin' us witches, Abby!
MARY WARREN
I must tell you sir, I will be gone everyday now. I am amazed you do not see what weighty work we do
MARY WARREN
I-I cannot tell how, but I did. I-I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I- It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I-I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I o
MARY WARREN
She sometimes made a compact with Lucifer, an wrote her name in his black book---with her blood---and bound herself to torment Christians till God's throw down---and we all must worship Hell forevermore
MARY WARREN
He wake me every night, his eyes were like coals and his fingers claw my neck, and I sing, I sign. No, I love God; I go your way no more. I love God, I bless God. Abby, Abby, I'll never hurt you more!
MARY WARREN
The devil's loose in Salem, Mr. Proctor; we must discover where he's hiding!
ANN PUTNAM
I'd not call it sick; the Devil's touch is heavier than sick. It's death, y'know, it's death drivin' into them, forked and hoofed
ANN PUTNAM
You think it is God's work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one? There are wheels within wheels in this village and fires within fires!
ANN PUTNAM
Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin', but my heart has clamored intimations. A
ANN PUTNAM
I knew it! Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times. I begged you, Thomas, did I not? I begged him not to call Osburn because I feared her. My babies always shriveled in her hands!
ELIZABETH PROCTOR
The Deputy Governor promise hangin' if they'll not confess, John. The town's gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear her. Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part lik
ELIZABETH PROCTOR
John---I think I must go with them. Mary, there is bread enough for the morning; you will bake, in the afternoon. Help Mr. Proctor as you were his daughter---you owe me that, and much more. When the children wake, speak nothing of witchcraft---it will fr
ELIZABETH PROCTOR
Do what you will. But let none be your judge. There be no higher judge under heaven than Proctor is! Forgive me, forgive me, John---I never knew such goodness in the world!
ELIZABETH PROCTOR
He were not hanged. He would not answer aye or nay to his indictment; for if he denied the charge they'd hang him surely, and auction out his property. So he stand mute, and died Christian under the law. And so his sons will have his farm. It is the law,
BETTY PARRIS
I want my mama!
BETTY PARRIS
I'll fly to mama. Let me fly!
BETTY PARRIS
You drank blood Abby! You didn't tell him that!
BETTY PARRIS
I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil!....I saw Martha Bellows with the Devil!.....I saw Alice Barrow with the Devil!......I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil!