The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.

Meaning of the quote

The Eskimos needed many words to describe snow because it was very important to them. Similarly, there should be just as many words to describe love, because love is just as important to us as snow was to the Eskimos.

About Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is a renowned Canadian author who has published a wide range of works, from novels and poetry to nonfiction and children’s books. She is best known for her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale and has won numerous prestigious awards, including two Booker Prizes. Atwood’s works explore themes such as gender, identity, religion, and the power of language.

More about the author

More quotes from Margaret Atwood

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Canada was built on dead beavers.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

The story as told in The Odyssey doesn’t hold water. There are too many inconsistencies.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

War is what happens when language fails.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

A word after a word after a word is power.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Gardening is not a rational act.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there’s less of you.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Their mothers had finally caught up to them and been proven right. There were consequences after all but they were the consequences to things you didn’t even know you’d done.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least has female saints and the Virgin Mary.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‘race’ – the human race – and that we are all members of it.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

Myths can’t be translated as they did in their ancient soil. We can only find our own meaning in our own time.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

The beginning of Canadian cultural nationalism was not ‘Am I really that oppressed?’ but ‘Am I really that boring?’

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor

The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pepinieriste and inventor