*(britannica.com): Grace Abounding, spiritual autobiography of John Bunyan, written during the first years of his 12-year imprisonment for Nonconformist religious activities and published in 1666.
From: Alias Grace (1996), by Margaret Atwood:
“… ‘…I can say anything I like; or if I don’t wish to, I needn’t say anything at all.’
‘You don’t care about my good opinion of you, Grace?’ He could not resist asking.
She gave him a quick sharp look, then continued her stitching. ‘I have already been judged, Sir. Whatever you may think of me, it’s all the same.’
‘Judged rightly, Grace?’ He could not resist asking.
‘Rightly or wrongly does not matter,’ she said. ‘People want a guilty person. If there has been a crime, they want to know who did it. They don’t like not knowing.’
‘Then you have given up hope?’
‘Hope of what, Sir?’ she asked mildly.
Simon felt foolish, as if he’d committed a breach of etiquette. ‘Well – hope of being set free.’
‘Now why would they want to do that, Sir?’ she said. ‘A murderess is not an everyday thing. As for my hopes, I save that for smaller matters. I live in hopes of having a better breakfast tomorrow than I had today.’ She smiled a little…”
Julia Upton 