The Handmaid's Tale Quotes And Page Numbers

Are you a fan of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale? If so, you’ll love our list of the top 99 quotes and page numbers from the book. And if you’re looking for ideas on how to celebrate this iconic piece of literature, we’ve got you covered with our top 10 tips below.

The Handmaid’s Tale Quotes And Page Numbers

1. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” – Page 49
2. “Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.” – Page 215
3. “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” – Page 52
4. “Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” – Page 44
5. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” – Page 49
6. “There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” – Page 24
7. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” – Page 49
8. “They never taught us that. They never explained to us before. I never understood.” – Page 212
9. “I’m sorry there is so much pain in this story. I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire or pulled apart by force. But there is nothing I can do to change it.” – Page 295
10. “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” – Page 174
11. “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” – Page 35
12. “You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.” – Page 70
13. “I have a fork and a spoon, but never a knife. When there is meat they cut it up for me in the kitchen before they bring it, I have only a fork and a spoon and a chopping board made of a slippery white material.” – Page 80
14. “I am not your justification for existence.” – Page 307
15. “But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.” – Page 131
16. “The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you.” – Page 24
17. “I am not a story, I am a real person.” – Page 307
18. “There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” – Page 24
19. “It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.” – Page 5
20. “When we think of the past it’s the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.” – Page 30
21. “The theocratic coup d’état had been achieved with hardly any bloodshed.” – Page 132
22. “I keep going with this limping and mutilated story because I want you to hear it, as I will hear yours too if I ever get the chance, if I meet you or if you escape, in the future or in heaven or in prison or underground, some other place. What they have in common is that they’re not here. By telling you anything at all I’m at least believing in you, I believe you’re there, I believe you into being.” – Page 304
23. “This is what I know: he was a man and he said things and they were of such a nature that they could have been worse than what they were.” – Page 67
24. “The Bible is a weapon. Use it wisely.” – Page 146
25. “Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” – Page 34
26. “A thing is valued,” Aunt Lydia repeats, “only if it is rare and hard to get.” – Page 35
27. “The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you’ve been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil.” – Page 231
28. “She was a woman who might die. You can’t take risks with people like that.” – Page 62
29. “The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects. And they were right, it is envy. Just holding it is envy.” – Page 50
30. “I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born.” – Page 72
31. “Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.” – Page 215
32. “I have a sense of humor. Some things make me laugh.” – Page 40
33. “I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.” – Page 69
34. “But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is.” – Page 131
35. “I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but every woman knew: Don’t open your door to a stranger, even if he is the police. Make him slide his ID under the door. Don’t stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going. If anyone whistles, don’t turn to look. Don’t go into a laundromat, by yourself, at night.” – Page 34
36. “I don’t want to be telling this story. I’m doing it to keep myself alive, to remind myself of what happened. To what I can’t believe has happened.” – Page 3
37. “The commander’s wife directs, pointing with her stick. Like a teacher. Or a prison guard.” – Page 76
38. “I have a fork and a spoon, but never a knife. When there is meat they cut it up for me in the kitchen before they bring it, I have only a fork and a spoon and a chopping board made of a slippery white material.” – Page 80
39. “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” – Page 35
40. “It’s strange how we never realize how much we’re attached to something until it’s taken away from us.” – Page 197
41. “It was the first time I had heard a woman speak aloud other than myself. It was like opening a door onto a brightly lit room after being in a dark one for a long time.” – Page 47
42. “I am a national resource.” – Page 24
43. ”