Arthur Miller

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!

They don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England.

Nothing's Planted, I don't have a thing in the ground.

There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!

Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!

Hale: Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises. Here are all your familiar spirits — your incubi and succubi; your witches that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and of the day. Have no fear now — we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!

Rebecca: Will it hurt the child, sir?

Hale: I cannot tell. If she is truly in the Devil's grip we may have to rip and tear to get her free.

I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I'll not conceal it.

I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.

After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.

I'm very well liked in Hartford. You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me.

I'll plead no more! I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!

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 any more. I have forgot Abigail, and —

Elizabeth: And I.

Proctor: Spare me! You forget nothin' and forgive nothin.' Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven months since she is gone. I have not moved from there to here without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!

Elizabeth: I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John — only somewhat bewildered.

Proctor: Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer!