The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)

by Margaret Atwood

“but I don’t want a husband. I think they’re disgusting.”

Aunt Vidala said that best friends led to whispering and plotting and keeping secrets, and plotting and secrets led to disobedience to God, and disobedience led to rebellion, and girls who were rebellious became women who were rebellious, and a rebellious woman was even worse than a rebellious man because rebellious men became traitors, but rebellious women became adulteresses.

I was the age at which parents suddenly transform from people who know everything into people who know nothing.

“No one wants to die,” said Becka. “But some people don’t want to live in any of the ways that are allowed.”

She who cannot control herself cannot control the path to duty.