Diana Gabaldon Quotes & Sayings

I gave you justice, it said, as I was taught it. And I gave you mercy , too, so far as I could. While I could not spare you pain and humiliation, I make you a gift of my own pains and humiliations, that yours might be easier to bear. — Diana Gabaldon

May God make safe to me each step,
May God make open to me each pass,
May God make clear to me each road,
and may He take me in the clasp of His own two hands — Diana Gabaldon

He went on loving her," she whispered, as much to herself as to anyone else. "He didn't forget her." "Of course he didna forget her." She opened her eyes to see Ian's long face and kind brown eyes six inches away. A broad work-worn hand rested on hers, warm and hard, a hand even larger than her own. "Neither did we," he said. — Diana Gabaldon

With vivid memories of the last IRS form I had signed, I agreed sympathetically that a two percent tax rate was a positive outrage, wondering to myself just what had become of the fiery spirit of American taxpayers over the intervening two hundred years. — Diana Gabaldon

I swear by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the holy iron that I hold, to give ye my fealty and pledge ye my loyalty to the name of the clan MacKenzie. If ever my hand shall be raised against ye in rebellion, I ask that this holy iron shall pierce my heart. He lowered the dirk, kissed it at the juncture of haft and tang, and thrust it home in its sheath. Still kneeling, he offered both hands clasped to Colum, who took them between his own and lifted them to his lips in acceptance of the oath so offered. Then he raised Dougal to his feet. — Diana Gabaldon

If you find him," she whispered, "when you find my father - give him this." She bent and kissed me, fiercely, gently, then straightened and turned me toward the stone. "Go, Mama," she said, breathless. "I love you. Go! — Diana Gabaldon

Still, as the Mass went on, things seemed more normal; there were Bible readings, quite familiar, and then the accustomed descent into the vaguely pleasant boredom of a sermon, in which the inevitable Christmas annunciations of "peace," "goodwill," and "love" rose to the surface of his mind, tranquil as white lilies floating on a pond of words. — Diana Gabaldon

It is strange," Mr. Willoughby said, and the air of reflection in his voice was echoed exactly by Jamie's, "but it was my joy of women that Second Wife saw and loved in my words. Yet by desiring to possess me - and my poems - she would have forever destroyed what she admired." Mr. — Diana Gabaldon

Uncomfortable, but safe, — Diana Gabaldon

What possessed ye, woman, to hit me in the heid wi' a fish whilst I was fighting for my life? — Diana Gabaldon

I've seen women-and men too, sometimes-as canna bear the sound of their own thoughts, and they maybe dinna make such good matches with those who can. — Diana Gabaldon

For a moment, half blinded by dirt, I couldn't see Jamie at all. Then I spotted him. He was under the bear, one arm locked around its neck, his head tucked into the joint of the shoulder just under the drooling jaws. — Diana Gabaldon

Is that you, Geordie?" he asked, not turning around. He was dressed in shirt and breeches, and had a small tool of some kind in his hand, with which he was doing something to the innards of the press. "Took ye long enough. Did ye get the - " "It isn't Geordie," I said. My voice was higher than usual. "It's me," I said. — Diana Gabaldon

OUTLANDER A Delta Book PUBLISHING HISTORY Delacorte Press hardcover edition published 1991 Delta trade paperback edition/July 2001 Published by Bantam Dell A Division of Random House, Inc. — Diana Gabaldon

Ian did, with a blackened eye, skinned knuckles, and the terse report that Manfred had declared a set intention of going off and hanging himself, and good riddance to the fornicating son of a bitch, and might his rotten bowels gush forth like Judas Iscariot's, the traitorous, stinking wee turd. — Diana Gabaldon

intended to repel Evil, which are the constant Accompaniment to their Conversations with myself. — Diana Gabaldon

There are things that I canna tell you, at least not yet. And I'll ask nothing of ye that ye canna give me. But what I would ask of ye
when you do tell me something, let it be the truth. And I'll promise ye the same. We have nothing now between us, save
respect, perhaps. And I think that respect has maybe room for secrets, but not for lies. Do ye agree? — Diana Gabaldon

I wept bitterly, surrendering momentarily to my fear and heartbroken confusion, but slowly I began to quiet a bit, as Jamie stroked my neck and back, offering me the comfort of his broad, warm chest. My sobs lessened and I began to calm myself, leaning tiredly into the curve of his shoulder. No wonder he was so good with horses, I thought blearily, feeling his fingers rubbing gently behind my ears, listening to the soothing, incomprehensible speech. If I were a horse, I'd let him ride me anywhere. — Diana Gabaldon

Did ye not mean to go to Confession yourself?" Jamie asked, stopping near the church's main door. There was a priest in the confessional; two or three people stood a discreet distance away from the carved wooden stall, out of earshot, waiting. "It'll bide," Ian said, with a shrug. "If ye're goin' to hell, I might as well go, too. God knows, ye'll never manage alone." Jamie — Diana Gabaldon

She saw it, and an extraordinary change came over her. She seemed scarcely to move, and yet all at once, her whole person was focused on Myers. No white showed around her eyes; they were black and fathomless, shining in the firelight. She was still short and heavy, but with only the slightest change of posture, depth of bosom and width of hip were emphasized, suddenly curved in a promise of lewd abundance. Myers swallowed, audibly. — Diana Gabaldon

I want to hold you like a kitten in my shirt, and still I want to spread your thighs and plow ye like a rotting bull. I dinna understand myself. — Diana Gabaldon

That's simple. You reason with them, and when you're through, I'll take them out and thrash them. — Diana Gabaldon

Well, legends are many-legged beasties, aye? But they generally have at least one foot on the truth. — Diana Gabaldon

It ... wasna a scream of fear, or even anger. It ... ehm ... well, it was the way a woman will scream, sometimes, if she's ... pleased." "In bed, you mean." It wasn't a question. "So do men. Sometimes." You idiot! Of all the things you might have said ... — Diana Gabaldon

This is the thin time, when the beloved dead draw near. The world turns inward, and the chilling air grows thick with dreams and mystery. — Diana Gabaldon

his weight pinning me to the bed. — Diana Gabaldon

Up, no?" said Ian soothingly. "Come now, mi dhu, ye shouldna worrit yourself, it's bad for the babe. And the shouting troubles wee Jamie too." He reached out for his son, who was whimpering, not — Diana Gabaldon

How shall I tell ye what it is, to feel the need of a place?" he said softly. "The need of snow beneath my shoon. The breath of the mountains, breathing their own breath in my nostrils as God gave breath to Adam. The scrape of rock under my hand, climbing, and the sight of the lichens on it, enduring in the sun and the wind."

His breath was gone and he breathed again, taking mine. His hands were linked behind mv head, holding me, face-to-face.
"If I am to live as a man, I must have a mountain," he said simply. — Diana Gabaldon

My love," he whispered. "Oh, my love. I do want ye so. — Diana Gabaldon

You know historians - can't leave a puzzle alone — Diana Gabaldon

Jamie ... I only want to be where you are. Nothing else. — Diana Gabaldon

Yeah, he'd been lonely. Knew bloody well what it felt like to have no one in the world who belonged to you, or you to them. But surely that was one reason why they had reached out to each other - — Diana Gabaldon

We camped for the night in a hollow near a good-sized creek - one big enough for trout. Jamie and Ian waded into this with enthusiasm, harrying the finny denizens with whippy rods cut from black willow. — Diana Gabaldon

I had worn that gold ring for nearly thirty years; token of vows taken, forsaken, renewed, and at last absolved. A token of marriage, of family; of a large part of my life. And the last trace of Frank - whom, in spite of everything, I had loved. Jamie — Diana Gabaldon

There's nothing here for ye! Nothing save danger." "Is there really nothing here for me?" I had asked. Too honorable to speak, he had answered nonetheless, and I had made my choice. — Diana Gabaldon

I'm afraid that my wife picked up a number of colorful expressions from the Yanks and such, Frank offered, with a nervous smile.
True, I said, gritting my teeth as I wrapped a water-soaked napkin about my hand. Men tend to be very colorful when you're picking shrapnel out of them. — Diana Gabaldon

... but Sassenach - I am the true home of your heart, and I know that."
He lifted my hands to his mouth and kissed my upturned palms, one and then the other, his breath warm and his beard-stubble soft on my fingers.
"I have loved others, and I do love many, Sassenach - but you alone hold all my heart, whole in your hands," he said softly. "And you know that. — Diana Gabaldon

Unspecified." I was amused. "So you have the proverbial horse thief in your — Diana Gabaldon

he looked up at once when — Diana Gabaldon

Roger lay in the dust of the road, bruised, filthy, and starving, with a woman trembling and weeping against his chest, now and then giving him a small thump with her fist. He had never felt happier in his life. — Diana Gabaldon

It isn't necessarily easier if you know what it is you're meant to do
but at least you don't waste time in questioning or doubting. If you're honest
well, that isn't necessarily easier, either. Though I suppose if you're honest with yourself and know what you are, at least you're less likely to feel that you've wasted your life, doing the wrong thing. — Diana Gabaldon

He had learned early on the trick of living separately in a crowd, private in his mind when his body could not be. But he was born a mountain-dweller, and had learned early, too, the enchantment of solitude, and the healing of quiet places. — Diana Gabaldon

I was in the heart of chaos, and no power of mind or body was of use against it. — Diana Gabaldon

I am a coward, damn you! I couldna tell ye, for fear ye would leave me, and unmanly thing that I am, I thought I couldna bear that! — Diana Gabaldon

Do ye not understand?"he said, in near desparation. "I would lay the world at your feet, Claire-and I have nothing to give ye!"
He honestly thought it mattered. — Diana Gabaldon

Flies round a honeypot would be nothin' to it, lad! Penniless and nameless as ye are now, the lasses still sigh after ye - I've seen 'em!" More snorting. "Even this Sassenach wench can no keep away from ye, and her a new widow! — Diana Gabaldon

I haven't," I said shortly. "But I've the sense I was born with, and two ears in good working order. And whatever 'King George's health' may be in Gaelic, I doubt very much that it sounds like 'Bragh Stuart.' " He tossed back his head and laughed. "That it doesna," he agreed. "I'd tell ye the proper Gaelic for your liege lord and ruler, but it isna a word suitable for the lips of a lady, Sassenach or no. — Diana Gabaldon

He has cat blood, I reflected sourly, no doubt that was how he managed to sneak up on me in the darkness. — Diana Gabaldon

Torn between the impulse to stroke his head, and the urge to cave it in with a rock, I did neither. — Diana Gabaldon

It's not too late, you know," she said. She smiled, teasing a little tremulously. "You could still back out." "It's been too late for me since the day I saw you," he said gruffly. — Diana Gabaldon

Come to bed, a nighean. Nothing hurts when ye love me. He was right; nothing did. — Diana Gabaldon

He had them now, everyone warmed by the glow of good humor, attention attracted by the small flashes of gilt and glitter. Now they would follow him without flagging or complaint, along the path of logic and into the thickets of discussion. A certain tenseness left his neck as he felt the students' attention settle and fix on him. — Diana Gabaldon

I mean to take my time about it, aye? — Diana Gabaldon

But from the very start, there is that small streak of steel within each child. That thing that says "I am," and forms the core of personality. — Diana Gabaldon

people so often seemed not only willing but eager to believe the worst - and the worse, the better. — Diana Gabaldon

Lord, he'd said. Let me be enough. That prayer had lodged in my heart like an arrow when I'd heard it and thought he asked for help in doing what had to be done. But that wasn't what he'd meant at all - and the realization of what he had meant split my heart in two. I took his face between my hands, and wished so much that I had his own gift, the ability to say what lay in my heart, in such a way that he would know. But I hadn't. — Diana Gabaldon

That to sleep, actually sleep with someone did give this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing. A — Diana Gabaldon

On Roger's jacket. Claire sat in the stern, blinking, but still — Diana Gabaldon

she became aware that — Diana Gabaldon

How many 'inventions' are really memories, of the things we once knew? — Diana Gabaldon

Some people can leave their bodies and travel miles away," she said, staring meditatively at the page. "Other people see them out wandering, and recognize them, and ye can bloody prove they were really tucked up safe in bed at the time. I've seen the records, all the eyewitness testimony. Some people have stigmata ye can see and touch - I've seen one. But not everybody. Only certain people." She — Diana Gabaldon

I am a warrior, that my son may be a merchant - and his son may be a poet. — Diana Gabaldon

He was dead. However, his nose throbbed painfully, which he thought odd in the circumstances. — Diana Gabaldon

We got half the doggone MIT college of engineering here, and nobody who can fix a doggone /television/?" Dr. Joseph Abernathy glared accusingly at the clusters of young people scattered around his living room.
That's /electrical/ engineering, Pop," his son told him loftily. "We're all mechanical engineers. Ask a mechanical engineer to fix your color TV, that's like asking an Ob-Gyn to look at the sore on your di-ow!"
Oh, sorry," said his father, peering blandly over gold-rimmed glasses. "That your foot, Lenny? — Diana Gabaldon

If I die before I say 'I love you' it's because I didn't have the time. — Diana Gabaldon

I understood very well just then, why it is that men measure time. They wish to fix a moment, in the vain hope that doing so will keep it from departing. — Diana Gabaldon

I felt simultaneously wonderful and wretched, and didn't know from moment to moment which feeling was uppermost. — Diana Gabaldon

Love for a child cannot be free; from the first signs of movement in the womb, a devotion springs up as powerful as it is mindless, irresistible as the process of birth itself. But powerful as it is, it is a love always of control; one is in charge, the protector, the watcher, the guardian - there is great passion in it, to be sure, but never abandon. — Diana Gabaldon

Brownsville, having missed their road and wandered in the — Diana Gabaldon

Are ye all right, man? Ian asked, in the same tone of mild concern he'd heard his da use now and then on his mam or Uncle Jamie. Evidently it was in fact the right tone to take with a Fraser about to go berserk, for William breathed like a grampus for a moment or two, then got himself under control. — Diana Gabaldon

It's a good country for myths. Things seem to take root here. — Diana Gabaldon

I only said I felt like God, Sassenach," he murmured. "I never said I was. — Diana Gabaldon

Is it true - that I won't forget?" He paused for a moment, hand on her hair. "Aye, that's true," he said softly. "But it's true, too, that it willna matter after a time. — Diana Gabaldon

The body is amazingly plastic. The spirit, even more so. But there are some things you don't come back from. Say ye so, a nighean? True, the body's easily maimed, and the spirit can be crippled - yet there's that in a man that is never destroyed. — Diana Gabaldon

He realized suddenly that every fragment of Fraser's being was focused on the scene outside. Of
course; he had not seen Willie since the boy was twelve. And to see the two together - his daughter and
the son he could never speak to or acknowledge. He would have touched Fraser, put a hand on his arm
in sympathy, but knowing the probable effect of his touch, forbore to do it. — Diana Gabaldon

He laughed. "Yeah, all right, I see," she said. "Mmm. Why did you have to mention tomatoes? I used the last of the dried ones last week, and — Diana Gabaldon

He was generally aware that he had been blessed in her beauty; even in her usual homespun, knee-deep in mud from her garden, or stained and fierce with the blood of her calling, the curve of her bones spoke to his own marrow, and those whisky eyes could make him drunk with a glance. Besides, the mad collieshangie of her hair made him laugh. — Diana Gabaldon

Shall I bring you some beer, while you take care of the horse?" "A good wife is prized above rubies," he said, smiling. "Come to me, mo nighean donn." He reached out a long arm and drew me in, holding me close against him. I put my arms around him and felt the quiver of his muscles, exhausted, and the sheer hard strength still in him, that would hold him up, no matter how tired he might be. We stood quite still for some time, my cheek against his chest and his face against my hair, drawing strength from each other for whatever might come. Being married. — Diana Gabaldon

When you hold a child to your breast to nurse, the curve of the little head echoes exactly the curve of the breast it suckles, as though this new person truly mirrors the flesh from which it sprang. — Diana Gabaldon

I don't plot the books out ahead of time, I don't plan them. I don't begin at the beginning and end at the end. I don't work with an outline and I don't work in a straight line. — Diana Gabaldon

I felt deeply betrayed that the man I depended on as friend, protector, and lover intended to do such a thing to me. And my sense of self-preservation was quietly terrified at the thought of submitting myself to the mercies of someone who handled a fifteen-pound claymore as though it were a flywhisk. — Diana Gabaldon

Frenchman wouldn't seem so dangerous to them. Perhaps. He blinked hard to clear his vision, and was opening his mouth — Diana Gabaldon

The colors of living things begin to fade with the last breath, and the soft, springy skin and supple muscle rot within weeks. But the bones sometimes remain, faithful echoes of the shape, to bear some last faint witness to the glory of what was. — Diana Gabaldon

It was a blur," people say. What they really mean is the impossibility of anyone truly entering such an experience from outside, the futility of explanation. — Diana Gabaldon

I prayed for guidance, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament," he went on, "and as I sat in the silence of the chapel, I seemed to see you as a shipwrecked traveler. And it seems to me that that is a good parallel to your present situation, is it not? Imagine such a soul, Madame, suddenly cast away in a strange land, bereft of friends and familiarity, without resources save what the new land can provide. Such a happening is disaster, truly, and yet may be the opening for great opportunity and blessings. What if the new land shall be rich? New friends may be made, and a new life begun. — Diana Gabaldon

Marie came with the brandy and poured a glass for Rebekah - then one for Ian, at Rebekah's gesture, and when Jamie made a small polite noise in his throat, half-filled his cup, pouring in more tea on top of it. The taste was peculiar, but he didn't really mind. The pain had gone off to the far side of the room; he could see it sitting over there, a wee glowering sort of purple thing with a bad-tempered expression on its face. He laughed at it, and Ian frowned at him. "What are ye giggling at?" Jamie couldn't think how to describe the pain beastie, so he just shook his head, which proved a mistake - the pain looked suddenly gleeful and shot back into his head with a noise like tearing cloth. The room spun and he clutched the table with both hands. — Diana Gabaldon

I loved Frank ... I loved him alot. But by that time, Jamie was my heart and the breath of my body. I couldn't leave him. I couldn't. — Diana Gabaldon

Ye werena the first lass I kissed," he said softly. "But I swear you'll be the last. — Diana Gabaldon

How old was Jem when he finally learned to tell jokes? You remember how he got the form of jokes but didn't really understand the idea of content?" "What's the difference between a ... a ... a button and a sock?" she mimicked, catching Jem's breathless excitement to a T. "A ... BUFFALO! HAHAHAHAHA! — Diana Gabaldon

Quite without warning, I began to cry. No sobbing, no throat-gripping spasms. Water simply welled in my eyes and flowed down my cheeks, slow as cold honey. A quiet acknowledgment of despair as things spiraled slowly out of control. — Diana Gabaldon

A trained surgeon is also a potential killer, and an important bit of the training lies in accepting the fact. Your intent is entirely benign - or at least you hope so - but your are laying violent hands on someone, and you must be ruthless in order to do it effectively. And sometimes the person under your hands will die, and knowing that ... you do it anyway. — Diana Gabaldon

Roger, listening intently, couldn't keep from asking a question at this point.
Is it true Colonel Stark said 'Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes?'
Lee coughed discreetly.
Well sir. I couldn't say for sure as no one said that, but I didn't hear it myself. Mind, I DID hear one colonel call out, 'Any whoreson fool wastes his powder afore the bastards are close enough to kill is gonna get his musket shoved up his arse butt-first! — Diana Gabaldon

I do know it, my own. Let me tell ye in your sleep how much I love you. For there's no so much I can be saying to ye while ye wake, but the same poor words, again and again. While ye sleep in my arms, I can say things to ye that would be daft and silly waking, and your dreams will know the truth of them. Go back to sleep, mo duinne. — Diana Gabaldon

I sat down quietly in a corner with my glass of port, and kept quiet while Simon questioned Jamie once again about Charles Stuart's situation and prospects. — Diana Gabaldon

Well, what does Dr. Spock know? Come here, little beauty; give Daddy a kiss for being so precocious." He lifted the soft little body, encased in its snug pink sleep-suit, and kissed her button of a nose. Brianna sneezed, and we both laughed. — Diana Gabaldon

The Crown doesna always pick the wrong man to hang, Sassenach," he said. "More often than not, the man on the end of a rope deserves to be there. And I shouldna like to think I've helped a villain to go free. — Diana Gabaldon

You want to anchor the scene with physical details, but by and large it's better to use sensual details rather than overtly sexual ones. — Diana Gabaldon

He could feel the shape of his eyeballs beneath his lids, round and hot, tasty bits of jelly rolling restless to and fro, looking vainly for oblivion, while the rising sun turned his lids a dark and bloody red. — Diana Gabaldon

Real danger had its own taste, vivid as lemon juice, by contrast with the weak lemonade of imagination. — Diana Gabaldon

The ancient savagery that men call motherhood, who mistake its tenderness for weakness. — Diana Gabaldon