The Crucible (1996)

Daniel Day-Lewis: John Proctor

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Quotes 

• 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 you have hanged! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!

• John Proctor : Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.

• John Proctor : Go to bed, Mary.

  Mary Warren : I'll not be ordered to bed anymore, Mr. Proctor. I am 18 now and a woman... however single.

  John Proctor : If you wish to sit up, then sit up.

  Mary Warren : I wish to go to bed.

  John Proctor : Good night, then.

  Mary Warren : Good night.

• Abigail : Listen to me, John. I have money. We could see tomorrow on the ocean. The jailer will let you go. Let me call him. I must board ship, John. Will you not speak?

  John Proctor : It's not on a ship we'll meet again, Abigail, but in Hell.

• John Proctor : You bring down heaven and raise up a whore!

• John Proctor : I say- I say- God is dead!

• John Proctor : Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again. We never touched.

  Abigail Williams : Ay, but we did.

• John Proctor : She is a whore!

  Judge Danforth : This will not pass. Can you prove this?

  John Proctor : I have known her sir! I have known her.

  Judge Danforth : In what time? What place?

  John Proctor : In the proper place where my beasts are bedded.

• Judge Danforth : To your knowledge, has John Proctor committed the crime of lechery? Answer my question! Is your husband an adulterer?

  Elizabeth : No sir.

  Judge Danforth : Remove her, Marshal.

  John Proctor : Elizabeth, I have confessed it!

  Elizabeth : Oh, God!

• John Proctor : Show honor now, show them a stony heart and sink them with it!

• John Proctor : Whore! How do you call heaven?

• Rev. John Hale : Do you know your commandments, Mr. Proctor?

  John Proctor : Aye.

  Rev. John Hale : Would you recite them please?

  John Proctor : The commandments?

  Rev. John Hale : Aye.

  John Proctor : Thou shalt not kill.

  Rev. John Hale : Aye.

  John Proctor : Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors goods, nor covet thy neighbors wives, thou shalt have no other Gods before me, thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain, thou shalt keep holy the sabbath day, thou shalt honor thy mother and father, thou shalt not bare to false witness... thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wives.

  Rev. John Hale : You said that one twice, Sir.

  John Proctor : Aye.

  Elizabeth : Adultry, John.

  John Proctor : Aye. You see, Sir, between the two of us, we do know them all.

• John Proctor : These are heavy books.

  Rev. John Hale : Well, they should be. They're weighted with authority.

• John Proctor : Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretenses ripped away. God's icy wind will blow.

• John Proctor : We will not meet again, Abigail, in this World or the next.

• John Proctor : Sir, I am no lawyer.

  Judge Danforth : The pure in heart need no lawyers, Mr. Proctor.

• John Proctor : Why did you not call for a meeting before you decided to look for devils?

  Reverend Parris : Man cannot pick his teeth without some sort of meeting in this society. I'm sick of meetings.

  John Proctor : Society will not be a bag to swing around your head, Mr. Putnam.

• Abigail : I know how you sweated like a stallion whenever I'd come near you. I saw your face when she put me out. You loved me then, and you do now.

  John Proctor : Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time - but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again. We never touched.

  Abigail : Aye, but we did.

• John Proctor : God never spoke in my ear. I can't think of anyone else He done the favor.

• Abigail : Oh, John. Give me a soft word.

  John Proctor : No, Abby. That's done with.

  Abigail : I am waitin' for you every night.

  John Proctor : You cannot. I never gave you hope to wait for me.

  Abigail : I have something better than hope, I think.

• John Proctor : I'm thinking if the crop comes good, I'll buy Joseph Ward's heifer. How would that please you?

• John Proctor : You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I forgot Abigail.

  Elizabeth : And I.

  John Proctor : Spare me. You forget nothing and forgive nothing. In the seven months since she has gone, I have not moved from there to there without, I think, to please you - but an everlasting funeral still marches around your heart.

• John Proctor : I'll thrash the devil out of you!

• John Proctor : Your Honor, what man will cast away his good name?

• John Proctor : Mary, tell the Governor how she led you to dance in the woods.

  Reverend Parris : This man is blackening my name since I came to Salem!

  Judge Danforth : What is this dancing?

  John Proctor : Mr. Parris discovered them himself in the dead of night and they have danced there naked.

  Judge Danforth : Naked?

  Rev. John Hale : When I first arrived from Beverly, Mr. Parris told me that.

  Reverend Parris : I did not say they were naked!

  Judge Danforth : But she have danced?

  Reverend Parris : Aye.

• John Proctor : My wife, my dear, good wife, saw her for what she is and put her out on the high road. And being what she is - a lump of vanity - she thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave, and well she might. God help me! I lusted! For this is a whore's vengeance now.

• Abigail : I suffer now. It's the truth, John, look! The bite your wife gave me is not yet healed.

  John Proctor : My wife?

  Abigail : Saturday she come into my bed in the middle of the night and bited my breast.

• John Proctor : Are the accusers always holy now? Were they born this morning as pure as God's fingers? I'll tell you what's walking Salem - vengeance. The little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom and common vengeance writes the law!

• John Proctor : Here's a whore, Mr. Danforth!

  Abigail : He lies!

  John Proctor : She'll stab me with a scream, but she is a whore!

• Judge Danforth : Your wife, Mr. Proctor, you say is an honest woman.

  John Proctor : In her life, sir, she have never lied.

  Judge Danforth : And when she put this girl out of your house, she put her out for a harlot and knew her for a harlot?

  John Proctor : Aye, sir, she knew her for a harlot.

  Judge Danforth : If she tell me, child, it were for harlotry may God spread His mercy on you.

• [last lines] 

  John Proctor : Forever and ever.

• John Proctor : I would have your forgiveness, Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth : It is not for me to give, John, if you will not pardon yourself. It is not my soul, John. It is yours. Only be sure that whatever you will do it is a good man does it. I have sins of my own to count.