# Margaret Atwood's sharpest quotes (with the book they come from)

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum", men afraid women will laugh at them and women afraid of being killed, and war as what happens when language fails: the Margaret Atwood lines quoted most, from The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye to her lectures and poems, each with its source.

- 31 votes · 14 items
- Jan 20, 2021 · millie_brighton
- https://even.best/en/l/5141/margaret-atwood-s-sharpest-quotes-with-the-book-they-come-from

## Top 14

1. **Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. (Don't let the bastards grind you down.)** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — The Handmaid's Tale (1985), ch. 9.
2. **"Why do men feel threatened by women?" … "They're afraid women will laugh at them." … "Why do women feel threatened by men?" "They're afraid of being killed."** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — "Writing the Male Character", Hagey Lecture (1982), in Second Words.
3. **War is what happens when language fails.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Robber Bride (1993), ch. 6.
4. **A man is just a woman's strategy for making other women.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Handmaid's Tale (1985), ch. 20.
5. **Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Cat's Eye (1988).
6. **Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Cat's Eye (1988).
7. **All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Blind Assassin (2000).
8. **The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Surfacing (1972).
9. **To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — "Marrying the Hangman" (1978).
10. **Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Handmaid's Tale (1985), ch. 10.
11. **I would rather dance as a ballerina, though faultily, than as a flawless clown.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Lady Oracle (1976).
12. **As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Historical Notes.
13. **I became a poet at the age of sixteen. I did not intend to do it. It was not my fault.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — "On Writing Poetry" (1995).
14. **Freedom, like everything else, is relative.** (-1 · ▲1 ▼2) — The Handmaid's Tale (1985), ch. 36.

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