- "I do not wish to be a butter churn and a broomstick for the rest of my life." - Kit Tyler - "I am conscious within myself that neither wealth or honours would content me, unless I were daily doing something for my God." - Matthew Wood - "It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself." - Hannah Tupper - "Man must learn to rely on himself." - Nat Eaton - "Appearances can be deceptive." - Prudence Cruff - "I am not an evil-wisher, child, but I cannot stop you from going straight to destruction with your pride.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond Quotes

“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth. The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her. In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“All the way up the river she's been holding back somehow, waiting. Now you'll both have to wait. I'm not going to disappoint her, Kit. When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“She snatched at the dream that had comforted her for so long. It was faded and thin, like a letter too often read.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“There is no escape if love is not there," Hannah had said. Had Hannah known when she herself had not even suspected? It was not escape that she had dreamed about, it was love.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Tis a strange thing, that the only friends I have I found in the same way, lying flat in the meadows, crying as if their hearts would break.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Who would guess," he teased, "that I'd ever see you on a rooftop with straw in your hair?"

Kit giggled. "Are you saying I've turned into a crow?"

"Not exactly." His eyes were intensely blue with merriment. "I can still see the green feathers if I look hard enough. But they've done their best to make you into a sparrow, haven't they?”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Hannah's magic cure for every ill," he teased. "Blueberry cake and a kitten.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“How right- how incredibly, utterly right- and how impossible!”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“There was something irresistible about popcorn.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her. The dried brown leaves crackled beneath her feet and gave off a delicious smoky fragrance. No one had ever told her about autumn in New England. The excitement of it beat in her blood. Every morning she woke with a new confidence and buoyancy she could not explain. In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Have you noticed her name?"
Kit leaned sideways to see the letters painted jauntily on the transom. "The WITCH! How did you dare? Does Hannah know?"
"Oh, she's not named after Hannah. I hadn't gone ten miles down the river that day before I knew I'd left the real witch behind.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“She rolled over and stretched, blinking up at the blue sky. The tips of the long grasses swished gently in the breeze. The hot sun pressed down on her so that she felt hot and empty. Slowly, the meadow began to fulfill its promise.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“If you ask me, it's all that schooling. It takes the fun out of life, being cooped up like that day after day. Books, now that's different. There's nothing like a book to keep you company of a long voyage.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“A man's first loyalty is to the soil he stands on.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“She saw now that she could not tell him about the books she had loved any more than she could make him see the palm trees swaying under a brilliant blue sky.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“If only I could be here alone, without Judith or anyone, she thought with longing. Someday I am going to come back to this place, when there is time just to stand still and look at it. How often she would come back she had no way of foreseeing, nor could she know that never, in the months to come, would the Meadows break the promise they held for her at this moment, a promise of peace and quietness and of comfort for a troubled heart.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Outside the house, against a sheltered wall to the south, a single stalk of green thrust upwards, with slender rapierlike leaves and one huge scarlet blossom. Kit went down on her knees. “It looks just like the flowers at home,” she marveled. “I didn’t know you had such flowers here.” “It came all the way from Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope,” Hannah told her. “My friend brought the bulb to me, a little brown thing like an onion. I doubted it would grow here, but it just seemed determined to keep on trying and look what has happened.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Because they have never tried to get to know her. People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Hannah’s magic cure for every ill,” Nat had said. “Blueberry cake and a kitten.” Kit smiled to see it working its charm on Prudence. But there was an invisible ingredient that made the cure unfailing. The Bible name for it was love.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“The girl looked about her. “’ Tis a pretty room,” she said without thinking, and then wondered how that could be, when it was so plain and bare. Perhaps it was only the sunlight on boards that were scrubbed smooth and white, or perhaps it was the feeling of peace that lay across the room as tangibly as the bar of sunshine.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“The one small room the house contained was scoured as a seashell. There was a table, a chest, a bedstead with a faded quilt, a spinning wheel, and a small loom. A few ancient kettles hung about the clean-swept hearth. From a square of sunlight on the floor an enormous yellow cat opened one eye to look at them.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

The Witch of Blackbird Pond Quotes

“In the wintertime it is, when we sail to the West Indies. But I was born in Saybrook, and in the spring I get to hankering for my house and garden. Besides, I’d never let on to my husband, but the summer trips are tedious, just back and forth up and down the river. I stay at home and tend my vegetables and my spinning like a proper housewife. Then, come November, when he sails for Barbados again, I’m ready enough to go with him. ‘Tis a good life, and one of the best things about it is coming home in the springtime.”

“How did you think they got there? Did you fancy they traveled from Africa in private cabins like yours?”

She had never thought about it at all. “But don’t you have slaves in America?”

“Yes, to our shame! Mostly down Virginia way. But there are plenty of fine folk like you here in New England who’ll pay a fat price for black flesh without asking any questions how it got here. If my father would consent to bring back just one load of slaves we would have had our new ketch by this summer. But we Eatons, we’re almighty proud that our ship has a good honest stink of horses!”

Related Characters: Katherine “Kit” Tyler (speaker), Nathaniel “Nat” Eaton (speaker), Grandfather (Sir Francis Tyler)

“You mean that, just on an impulse, you left your rightful home and sailed halfway across the world?”

“No, it was not an impulse exactly. You see, I really had no home to leave.”

Related Characters: Katherine “Kit” Tyler (speaker), Matthew Wood (speaker), Grandfather (Sir Francis Tyler)

“Why, girls! What on earth—?” Rachel Wood had come back unnoticed, and she stood now staring at her daughter in the peacock blue gown with something, half fear and half hunger in her eyes.”

Related Characters: Rachel Wood (speaker), Katherine “Kit” Tyler , Matthew Wood , Mercy Wood , Judith Wood

An hour ago [Kit] had declined to go to Meeting, saying airily that she and her grandfather had seldom attended divine service, except for the Christmas Mass. What an uproar she had caused! There was no Church of England in Wethersfield, her uncle had informed her, and furthermore, since she was now a member of his household she would forget her popish ideas and attend Meeting like a God-fearing woman.

“You certainly made an impression on William Ashby,” Judith ventured presently.

There was no point in denying it. “Perhaps because I was someone new,” said Kit.

“Perhaps. You aren’t exactly pretty, you know. But naturally William would be impressed by a dress like that.”

“I am mistaken,” Matthew Wood challenged him, “because I do not favor knuckling under to this new King’s governor?”

“Governor Andros was appointed by King James. Massachusetts has recognized that.”

“Well, we here in Connecticut will never recognize it—never! Do you think we have labored and sacrificed all these years to build up a free government only to hand it over now without a murmur?”

Related Characters: Matthew Wood (speaker), Reverend Bulkeley (speaker), King James , Governor Andros

William seemed to find nothing lacking those evenings. For him it was enough simply to sit across the room and look at her. It was flattering, she had to admit. The most eligible bachelor in Wethersfield and handsome, actually, in his substantial way. Sometimes, as she sat knitting, aware that William’s eyes were on her face, she felt her breath tightening in a way that was strange and unpleasant. Then, just as suddenly, rebellion would rise in her. He was so sure! Without even asking, he was reckoning on her as deliberately as he calculated his growing pile of lumber.

As they came out from the shelter of the trees and the Great Meadows stretched before them, Kit caught her breath. She had not expected anything like this. From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own. As far as she could see they stretched on either side, a great level sea of green, broken here and there by a solitary graceful elm. Was it the fields of sugar cane they brought to mind, or the endless reach of the ocean to meet the sky? Or was it simply the sense of freedom and space and light that spoke to her of home?

“[…] She’s been there as long as I can remember.”

“With her cats. There’s always a cat or so around. People say she’s a witch.”

“Do you believe in witches, Judith?”

“Maybe not,” said Judith doubtfully. “All the same, it gives me a creepy feeling to look at her. She’s queer, that’s certain, and she never comes to Meeting. I’d just rather not get any closer.”

Kit looked back at the gray figure bent over a kettle, stirring something with a long stick. Her spine prickled. It might be only soap, of course […] But that lonely figure in the ragged flapping shawl—it was easy enough to imagine any sort of mysterious brew in that pot!

[Kit] looked about her. “‘Tis a pretty room,” she said without thinking, and then wondered how that could be, when it was so plain and bare. Perhaps it was only the sunlight on boards that were scrubbed smooth and white, or perhaps it was the feeling of peace that lay across the room as tangibly as the bar of sunshine.

“[…] But no one in Wethersfield has anything to do with Hannah Tupper.”

“Why on earth not?”

“Why is that so dreadful?”

Rachel hesitated. “I can’t tell you exactly. The Quakers are queer stubborn people. They don’t believe in the Sacraments.”

“What difference does that make? She is as kind and good as—as you are, Aunt Rachel. I could swear to it.”

Related Characters: Katherine “Kit” Tyler (speaker), Rachel Wood (speaker), Hannah Tupper , Mercy Wood

Sometimes Kit wanted to stop her ears. Would she have to hear the price of every nail that went into those board, and every single nail the finest that money could buy? […]

Judith, however took a lively interest in such details. She had a flair for line and form and a definite mind of her own, and it was plain, to Kit at least, that as William planned his house Judith was comparing it, timber for timber, with the house she dreamed for herself. Her purpose was only too apparent as she made adroit attempts to draw John Holbrook into the discussion.

“I think you should have one of those new roofs, William,” she said now. […] “I think they look so distinguished, don’t you, John?”

Mercy laughed at John’s bewilderment. “I don’t believe John even notices there’s a roof over his head,” she teased gently.

Related Characters: Mercy Wood (speaker), Judith Wood (speaker), Katherine “Kit” Tyler , William Ashby , John Holbrook

30 Best The Witch Of Blackbird Pond Quotes With Image

The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a captivating historical fiction novel written by Elizabeth George Speare. Published in 1958, it has become a beloved classic that has captured the hearts of readers for generations. Set in the late 17th century, the story transports us to the small, Puritan town of Wethersfield, Connecticut. It follows the journey of sixteen-year-old Katherine "Kit" Tyler, who finds herself uprooted from her beloved home in Barbados after the death of her grandfather. She arrives in Connecticut to live with her aunt and uncle, the Wood family, in their simple and strict Puritan community. From the moment Kit steps foot on American soil, she realizes that life in Wethersfield is vastly different from the vibrant and free-spirited life she led in Barbados. The Puritans are deeply religious and adhere strictly to their laws and principles, leaving no room for individuality or fun. Kit struggles to conform, finding the rules suffocating and the devotion to prayer and scripture tedious. Soon, Kit's lively and unconventional personality draws the attention of her peers, but unfortunately not in a positive way. She becomes the target of gossip and suspicion, as her independent thinking and unwillingness to conform to societal norms earn her the label of a "witch" in the eyes of the townspeople. Feeling isolated and longing for companionship, Kit befriends Hannah Tupper, the notorious "Witch of Blackbird Pond." Hannah is an elderly Quaker woman who lives alone on a secluded island, rumored to possess mystical powers. Despite the risks and the danger of association, Kit forges a deep friendship with Hannah, finding solace and understanding in her presence. As Kit continues to fight against the oppressive society she resides in, she becomes increasingly entangled in a web of secrets and lies. The arrival of a handsome young sailor, Nat Eaton, further complicates matters as a forbidden romance begins to blossom between them. Caught between her growing feelings for Nat and the expectations of her family and community, Kit is forced to make difficult choices that will shape her future. The Witch of Blackbird Pond does not only explore the themes of intolerance, prejudice, and the dangers of blind conformity, but it also delves into the power of love, friendship, and the importance of staying true to oneself. Through vivid descriptions, intricate character development, and rich historical details, Elizabeth George Speare weaves a poignant story that explores the complexities of life in colonial America. The book beautifully captures the struggles and triumphs of individuals seeking acceptance, love, and freedom in a society that clings tightly to tradition and suspicion. With its themes of self-discovery, resilience, and the pursuit of justice, The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a timeless tale that continues to resonate with readers of all ages, reminding us of the enduring power of compassion, understanding, and our shared humanity.

1. The Importance of Individuality: One of the key lessons in "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" is the importance of embracing one's individuality and not conforming to societal expectations. The main character, Kit Tyler, is a young woman who is accustomed to a more liberal and independent lifestyle in Barbados. However, when she moves to the Puritan society of Connecticut, she is faced with strict rules and expectations. Throughout the book, Kit learns to stay true to herself and not let others dictate her choices.

2. The Dangers of Prejudice: Another lesson from the book is the dangers of prejudice and the consequences it can have on individuals and communities. Kit faces discrimination and mistrust from the Puritan community simply because she is different. The prejudice against her ultimately leads to false accusations and puts her life in danger. "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" highlights the need for acceptance and understanding, rather than making assumptions based on appearances.

3. The Power of Friendship: The book also emphasizes the power of friendship and the support it can bring during difficult times. Kit forms a close bond with Hannah Tupper, a Quaker woman who is also an outcast in the community. Their friendship provides strength, comfort, and a sense of belonging. The story shows how genuine connections with others can make a significant difference in one's life.

4. The Importance of Standing up for Justice: "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" teaches the lesson of standing up for justice, even in the face of adversity. Kit becomes involved in the trial of an innocent woman accused of witchcraft, and despite the risks, she takes a stand to defend her friend. The book emphasizes the importance of fighting for what is right, regardless of the consequences.

5. The Value of Acceptance and Tolerance: Lastly, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" teaches the value of acceptance and tolerance. The Puritan society in the book is rigid and unwelcoming towards those who do not conform to their beliefs. However, as the story unfolds, some characters learn to be more accepting and understanding of others' differences. The book encourages readers to embrace diversity and appreciate the unique qualities that each individual brings.

" - Prudence Cruff - "I am not an evil-wisher, child, but I cannot stop you from going straight to destruction with your pride." - Mercy Wood - "There is no shame in discovering what you need to know while you're still young - assuming you face up to it." - John Holbrook - "You must try to forgive [.

..] God sees the truth of men's hearts and time is His oilskin cloak." - Goodwife Cruff - "He's too awful good looking, Prudence. You'd be better off with a plain man with good character." - Judith Wood - "There be no magic used here. Only a small knowledge of herbs, 'tis plain." - Hannah Tupper.

Reviews for "The Choices and Consequences in 'The Witch of Blackbird Pond"

1. Emma - 2/5 stars - I really didn't enjoy "Witch of Blackbird Pond" and found the quotes to be quite underwhelming. The characters seemed two-dimensional and lacked depth, and the dialogue often felt forced and unnatural. The supposedly suspenseful moments fell flat, leaving me feeling disconnected from the story. Overall, I didn't find any memorable or thought-provoking quotes that were worth noting. It failed to capture my interest, and I struggled to finish it.

2. John - 1/5 stars - "Witch of Blackbird Pond" was a major disappointment for me, and the quotes were no exception. The writing style was dry and lacked any real emotion or engaging language. The characters were unlikable and boring, making it difficult to invest in their stories. The supposed plot twists were predictable, and the quotes did nothing to enhance the overall reading experience. I found the book to be a tedious and forgettable read, and I wouldn't recommend it.

3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I just didn't connect with "Witch of Blackbird Pond" and found the quotes to be lackluster. The story felt slow and dragged on, and the quotes didn't offer any real insight or profoundness. The characters were forgettable, and their actions and motivations often felt cliché. Overall, the book failed to leave a lasting impression, and I wouldn't consider it a must-read.

The Social Hierarchies in 'The Witch of Blackbird Pond' Quotes