After the Plague Quotes

“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour”.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“They’re happy.’ ‘Yes, like animals . . . mindlessly!”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“You offered them physical violence, didn’t you? At an age when they were too young to defend themselves. At least in the past women had a chance to fight back, if they’d cared to take it—these poor fools don’t! You seem to have maimed their brains as well as their bodies!”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“So he’s condemned to a half life, for the sins of his fathers?’ ‘When the sins of his fathers had such hideous consequences, what would you suggest?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“A vendetta till the end of time?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Simply and plainly, April, because we need you. Is that not reason enough?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“What does a row matter? Anything’s better than deceiving each other. If a relationship can’t stand up to the truth, then what sort of relationship is it? Anyway—’ agitatedly, Meta twisted a length of scarf round her hand—‘it doesn’t matter any more.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“It was so hard to decide where loyalties should lie: with oneself or with one’s community?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Let me tell you that male aggression is something we cannot afford to have unleashed upon the world a second time! Men cannot control their baser instincts. They have to be controlled for us. The power of the male is a force for evil, bringing destruction on the world.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Power is a corruption, and any society which operates from a power base is a corrupt society.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“She didn’t want to be miserable; no one wanted to be miserable. There were times when you just couldn’t help it.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Don’t you ever read any of the books about women who enjoyed it?’ he said. ‘Enjoyed being raped?’ ‘Enjoyed the company of men.’ ‘Oh! Well, some of them say they did.’ ‘So why would they say it if it wasn’t true?’ For a moment that stumped her. ‘I just can’t imagine it,’ she said, ‘that’s all.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“you could well be right. But surely the answer is for women to become more assertive and not let themselves be subjected?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“If he had a particle of sense he would send her packing right here and now. His mother always had said that girls would be the death of him.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Almost as if—as if he regretted that they were civilised. As if he knew that they had to be, but wished it wasn’t necessary. Or that there was some other way.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Linden held that abortion was something that had been imposed upon women by men, Meta said that if it hadn’t been for men having no self-control and simply using women as receptacles, abortion would never have been necessary. Either way, they were agreed that it was the fault of men.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Men weren’t very humane.’ ‘All right, so sometimes maybe some of them weren’t! Does that make it acceptable for women to be inhumane in their turn?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“It was true that up until the end of the twentieth century it was men who wielded most of the power. This is undeniable. What cannot be readily ascertained is why this should have been so. Was it, as some have maintained, that from the dawn of history might was right and the physically stronger sex gained ascendancy over the weaker? Or was it, as others have claimed, that women’s horizons were narrower than men’s, thus by their very nature keeping them within the more limited confines of home and family?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“She made no comment, however—possibly on the principle that once the horse had bolted there was not very much to be gained from closing the stable door—merely placed the fresh bundle on top of his bedside cupboard.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Bloody right I feel I’m entitled to express an opinion! What’s going on here is a crime against humanity! What the hell do these women think they’re playing at? Trying to rewrite history? Make it into her-story?”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“He had never hit a woman in his life, but there were some women who asked for it.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Human beings stopped living in a state of nature as soon as they evolved into human beings. We’ve always tinkered and tampered.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“you’ve either got a brain or you haven’t. If you have, then you don’t need me to spell things out to you. If you haven’t, there’s no point in talking to you.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“I don’t want to be intelligent! I want to enjoy myself.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Old people needn’t think they deserved respect just because they were old.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Why else do you think the world destroyed itself?’ ‘It was an accident!’ ‘Yes, and who caused the accident? Men!”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“Dangerous enough to enter an unknown community when you were armed and strong; folly to do so from a position of weakness.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“To think that men and women had actually had sex together—had actually done things. Or, rather, men had done things. It was the men who did them, the women who had them done. Men who had the pleasure, women all the suffering.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April

“A people, Dr Alison had said, should be judged by the way they treated those weaker than themselves.”
― Jean Ure, Come Lucky April