Alias Grace Quotes

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Grace: I think of all the things that have been written about me. That I am an inhuman female demon. That I am an innocent victim of a blackguard, forced against my will and in danger of my own life. That I was too ignorant to know how to act, and that to hang me would be judicial murder. That I am well and decently dressed, that I robbed a dead woman to appear so. That I am of a sullen disposition with a quarrelsome temper. That I have the appearance of a person rather above my humble station. That I am a good girl with a pliable nature and no harm is told of me. That I am cunning and devious. That I am soft in the head and little better than an idiot. And I wonder, how can I be all of these different things at once?

Grace: Murderess is a strong word to have attached to you. It has a smell to it, that word. Musky and oppressive, like dead flowers in a vase. Sometimes at night I whisper it over to myself. Murderess. Murderess. It rustles like a taffeta skirt across the floor. Murderer is merely brutal. It's like a hammer or a lump of metal. I'd rather be a murderess than a murderer, if those are the only choices.

Simon: Just because a man is known to lie, it does not always follow that he does so.

Grace: Saying what you really want brings bad luck, sir, and then the good thing will never happen. You should be careful for wanting anything at all as you may be punished for it.

Simon: You don't care about my good opinion of you, Grace?
Grace: I've already been judged, sir. Whatever you may think of me, it's all the same.
Simon: Judged rightly, Grace?
Grace: Rightly or wrongly does not matter. People want a guilty person. If there has been a crime, they want to know who did it. They don't like not knowing.

Grace: I thought it very unjust when they wrote down that both of the accused were from Ireland by their own admission. That made it sound like a crime, and I don't know that being from Ireland is a crime, although I have often seen it treated as such.

Woman on ship: [Your mother] is in heaven now with the blessed saints, even though she was a Protestant.

Mary: The difference between ignorant and stupid is that ignorant can learn.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Grace: I will try to remember [my dreams], if it will help you, sir, with the trouble you're in.
Simon: What makes you think I am in trouble, Grace?
Grace: Those who have been in trouble themselves are alert to it in others, sir.

Mrs. Alderman Parkinson: To prepare a house for guests requires extra attention. If there is dust in the corner, I expect one of you to notice it. Heads up, heads down. A spider can spin a web overnight. Notice. There's no reason for this house not to gleam. One dusts, one sweeps, then polishes. Please don't polish the dust. I can't smell the onions! If they were braised correctly, I should be able to smell them. Please don't tell me you're cutting corners!

Grace: [Mary] was a fun-loving girl, and very bold and mischievous in her speech. I put it down to her being a native-born Canadian, as she did not have very much respect for degree.

Grace: It's very sad that the rebels lost.
Mary: We didn't lose. We just haven't won yet.

Mary: I'd like to scalp Mrs. Alderman Parkinson. It wouldn't be worth the trouble though. Her hair is not her own.

Mary: You must take the peel off in one long piece, and then without looking behind you, you must throw it over your left shoulder. And it will spell out the initial of the man you will marry.
Grace: I am too young to be thinking of husbands.
Mary: You are never too young to think of a husband.

Mary: Some call this Eve's curse, but I think that is stupid because the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Grace: Once you are found with a man in your room you are the guilty one, no matter how they get in.

Man: Never look behind you. 
Grace: Why not?
Man: Because the past is the past and regret is vain.

Kinnear: you've not been in town five minutes and you have managed to attract gentleman admirers.
Grace: They are not.
Kinnear: Not gentlemen or not admirers?

Grace: Men such as yourself do not have to clean up the messes you make, but we have to clean up our own messes and yours in the bargain. In that way you are like children. You do not have to think ahead, or worry about the consequences of what you do. But it is not your fault. It is only how you were brought up.

Kinnear: The Apocrypha is a book where they put all the stories from Biblical times they decided should not go in the Bible.
Grace: Who decided? I thought the Bible was written by God. It is called the Word of God and everyone terms it so.
Kinnear: Perhaps God wrote it, but it was men who wrote it down, which is a little different.

Kinnear: Do you know the story of Susanna?
Grace: No.
Kinnear: She was a young lady who was falsely accused of sinning with a young man by a group of old men, because she refused to commit the very same sin with them. She would have been stoned to death but luckily she had a very clever lawyer, and he was able to prove that the old men were lying by inducing them to give contradictory evidence. What do you think the moral of it is?
Grace: That you should not take baths outside in the garden.
Kinnear: I think the moral is you need a clever lawyer.

Kinnear: Remain where you are. I would rather have good butter than a curtsy.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Nancy: I don't think Captain Boyd was a real captain. Some of these men took up their titles just for having got their two legs around a horse on the day of the Rebellion.

Simon: And what did you think of this sermon, Grace?
Grace: I thought to myself, if you could not get Divine Grace by praying for it, or any other way, or ever know if you had it or not, then you might as well forget about the whole matter and go about your own business. Because whether you would be damned or saved was of no concern of yours. There is no use crying over spilt milk if you don't know whether the milk is spilt or not. And if God alone knows, then God alone can tidy it up.

Grace: I thought, these are cold and proud people and not good neighbors. They are hypocrites, they think the church is a cage to keep God in, so he will stay locked up there and not go wandering about the Earth during the week poking His nose into their business and looking into the depths and doubleness of their hearts and lack of true charity. They believe they need only be bothered about Him on Sundays when they have their best clothes on and their faces straight, and their hands washed and their gloves on, and their stories all prepared. But God is everywhere, and cannot be caged in, as men can.

McDermott: I hate all Englishmen.
Grace: Mr. Kinnear is a Lowland Scot.
McDermott: It's the same thing. They are all thieves, whores, stealers of land. They grind down the poor wherever they go.

Simon: Before he was hanged, McDermott said that you were the one who put him up to it. He claimed that you intended to murder Nancy and Mr. Kinnear by putting poison in their porridge, and that he repeatedly refused to help you.
Grace: Who told you such a lie?
Simon: It's written in McDermott's confession.
Grace: Just because a thing has been written down, sir, does not mean it's God's truth.
Simon: I mean, you're quite right about that, Grace. But all the same, what do you say to it?
Grace: Well, sir, I think it's one of the silliest things I've ever heard.
Simon: Why do you say that?
Grace: If I wanted to put poison into a bowl of porridge, sir, why would I have needed any help from the likes of him? I could have done it all by myself, put some into his own porridge too, into the bargain. It won't take anymore strength than the adding of a spoonful of sugar.

Grace: The road to death is a lonely highway and longer than it appears.

Jeremiah: We could go to the United States.
Grace: What's it like there?
Jeremiah: Well, in many ways, it's the same as here. There are rogues and scoundrels everywhere. They merely use a different sort of language to excuse themselves. There they pay great lip service to democracy, just as here they rant on about the right order of society and loyalty to the Queen. And yet the poor are poor on every shore. But when you cross that border, it's like passing through air. The trees are the same on either side and we can go through those very trees tonight and not pay any customs duties.
Grace: Wouldn't we be breaking the law?
Jeremiah: Aren't laws made to be broken? These laws were not made by me or mine, they were made by the powers that be so that they could profit. We would be harming no one.

Jeremiah: Travel with me. You could be a medical clairvoyant. I could help you into trances and instruct you in what to say. I know by your very hand you have a talent for it. Yeah. You have the right look for it. And you could earn twice as much one day than you do scrubbing floors here in two months. Of course, you would need a new name, a French one, perhaps, something foreign. The people on this side of the ocean would have a very hard time believing that a girl with a simple name like Grace had mysterious powers.
Grace: Wouldn't that be a deception and a cheat?
Jeremiah: No more than at the theater. If people wish to believe a thing, if they long for it and depend on it to be true, is it cheating to help them to their own belief? Or is it not rather a charity, a human kindness?

Grace: Would we be married then?
Jeremiah: What would be the need of that? Marriage never brought anything good, as far as I see. If two are of a mind to keep together, then they will, and if not, then one will run off and that's the long and short of it.

Grace: Doctors are like crows. When you see two or three of them gathered together, you know there is a death in the offing, and they are discussing it. With the crows, they are deciding which parts to tear open and make off with, and so it is with the doctors. I do not mean you, sir, as you have no leather bag or knives.

Grace: I wished Nancy no harm, but all the same it would not be fair for her to end up a respectable married lady with a ring on her finger. It would not be right at all.
Simon: Why? Why would that not be right, Grace?
Grace: Because Mary had done the same as her, and had gone to her death. Why should one be rewarded and the other punished for the same sin?

Edited November 16, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Dorrie: I suppose they want to have their tea served to them by a celebrated murderess. You ought to have been strung up and cut into slabs by the doctors like butchers dressing a carcass. What was left of you, they'd do in a bundle, just like a suet pudding, and left to molder in a dishonored grave.
Clarrie: Dora, please don't talk to our Grace that way.
Grace: I suppose she is afraid of me. When people are afraid, they often behave with cruelty. You don't seem afraid of me, Clarrie.
Clarrie: Afraid of you? For rising up against your master? Ms. Grace, where do you think I come from?

Clarrie: She has a wild rolling to the eye and a twitchy manner. Those two things together always mean warm work behind closed doors. Dr. Jordan better watch himself, because if I ever saw a determination to get a man's trousers off him, it's there in her eyes.
Grace: That is quite coarse.
Clarrie: Well, I think it is coarse and unnatural that they take their breakfast together now.

Jeremiah: Grace, have you ever been hypnotized before?
Grace: I should certainly hope not, sir. I do not even know rightly what being hypnotized is.
Jeremiah: I can assure you, it is an entirely scientific procedure.

McDermott:We'll have breakfast before the ferry leaves. I'm starved with hunger.
Grace: It's five in the morning. They won't be awake.
McDermott: We will rouse them and we will make them cook us breakfast.
Grace: We should wait until people are about. Otherwise, we will be noticeable.
McDermott: Why must you always be arguing with me? I've got money in my pocket which is as good as the next man's. If I want a breakfast and I can pay for it, then I will have it.
Grace: It is remarkable, I have since thought, how once a man has a few coins, no matter how he came by them, he thinks right away he is entitled to them, and to whatever they can buy, and fancies himself cock of the walk.

Grace: I did not wish to contradict him, as it is dangerous to contradict mad people.

McDermott: For God's sake, shut your mouth, you slut. You stupid whore.
Grace: You should think of some new words to use because I am heartily tired of those.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Simon: What she says has the ring of truth. Her manner is sincere, yet I can't shake the suspicion that in some way I cannot put my finger on, she is lying to me. 
Lawyer: Lying? A severe term, surely. Has she been lying to you, you ask? Let me put it this way. Did Scheherazade lie? Not in her own eyes. Indeed, the stories that she told ought never to be subjected to the harsh categories of truth or falsehood.

Grace: Guilt comes to you not from the things you have done, but from the things others have done to you.

Grace: As Mary Whitney used to say, "A little white lie is a small price to pay for peace and quiet."