16 Memorable Quotes From 'Anne of Green Gables'

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Review memorable quotes from "Anne of Green Gables" to better understand its characters, themes, and plot devices. Whether you review them before you read the book, while you're reading it or afterward, you'll improve your comprehension of this work by Lucy Maud Montgomery and get better acquainted with protagonist Anne Shirley, a redheaded orphan with a wild imagination and a talent for getting into trouble. 

What Anne Says About Herself

  • "I'm not a bit changed--not really. I'm only just pruned down and branched out. The real ME--back here--is just the same."
  • "There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."
  • "And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?"
  • "When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla."

Trouble and Wickedness

  • "It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it?"
  • "It's all very well to read about sorrows and imagine yourself living through them heroically, but it's not so nice when you really come to have them, is it?"
  • "You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair... People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is."
  • "For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement."
  • "Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing."
  • "Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

Setting the Scene

  • "The night was clear and frosty, all ebony of shadow and silver of snowy slope; big stars were shining over the silent fields; here and there the dark pointed first stood up with snow powdering their branches and the wind whistling through them."
  • "Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds."
  • "Anne always remembered the silvery, peaceful beauty and fragrant calm of that night. It was the last night before sorrow touched her life; and no life is ever quite the same again when once that cold, sanctifying touch has been laid upon it."

Miscellaneous

  • "The goblins of her fancy lurked in every shadow about her, reaching out their cold, fleshless hands to grasp the terrified small girl who had called them into being."
  • "Mrs. Lynde says that sound doctrine in the man and good housekeeping in the woman make an ideal combination for a minister's family."
  • "Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?"

Wrapping Up

Now that you've reviewed some memorable quotes from this classic, explore the novel further by learning about some of the ways the novel has been adapted over the years. 

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Lombardi, Esther. "16 Memorable Quotes From 'Anne of Green Gables'." ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/anne-of-green-gables-quotes-738578. Lombardi, Esther. (2020, August 28). 16 Memorable Quotes From 'Anne of Green Gables'. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/anne-of-green-gables-quotes-738578 Lombardi, Esther. "16 Memorable Quotes From 'Anne of Green Gables'." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/anne-of-green-gables-quotes-738578 (accessed March 19, 2024).