Top 250 Deborah Harkness Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Giving a woman your whole life is meaningless without giving her your whole heart as well.”

— Deborah Harkness

152. “She could not imagine why these companies all chose shades of blue for their logos. Blue had always struck her as such a serene, soothing color, yet all social media offered was endless agitation and posturing. It was worse than the court of Versailles. Come.”

— Deborah Harkness

153. “To be a vampire you must choose life – your life, not someone else’s – over and over again, day after day,” Ysabeau said. “You must choose it over sleep, over peace, over grief, over death. In the end, it is our relentless drive to live that defines us. Without that, we are nothing but a nightmare or a ghost: a shadow of the humans we once were.”

— Deborah Harkness

154. “But it wasn’t all right. The whole world felt discordant and wrong, with colors that were too bright and sounds so loud they made me jump. My body felt hollow, and no matter what I tried to read, the words failed to keep my attention.”

— Deborah Harkness

155. “Men don’t have it. Our resolve is born out of fear. It’s merely bravado.”

— Deborah Harkness

156. “We spend our time striving and straining to be something that we’re not. Let those desires go. Honor who you are.”

— Deborah Harkness

157. “It smells like the past. But not the dead past. It’s so alive.”

— Deborah Harkness

158. “Take care, Gallowglass,” Matthew murmured. It was no casual farewell, but an order. His nephew nodded. “As if your wife were my own.”

— Deborah Harkness

159. “Empathy is the secret to most things in life.”

— Deborah Harkness

160. “Witches aren’t the only creatures sharing the world with humans, however. There are also daemons – creative, artistic creatures who walk a tightrope between madness and genius.”

— Deborah Harkness

161. “The secret is that I may be the head of the Bishop-Clairmont family, but you are its heart,” he whispered. “And the three of us are in perfect agreement: The heart is more important.”

— Deborah Harkness

162. “A note in Sarah’s dark, decisive handwriting was taped to the staircase’s newel post. “Out. Thought the house needed some time alone with you first. Move slowly. Matthew can stay in Em’s old room. Your room is ready.” There was a postscript, in Em’s rounder scrawl. “Both of you use your parents’ room.”

— Deborah Harkness

163. “Still, you need him as much as you need the air you breathe, and he wants you as he’s wanted nothing and no one since I made him. So it is done, and we will make the best of it.”

— Deborah Harkness

164. “Give me knowledge of my end and the measure of my days, so I may know my fraility. My lifetime is no longer than the width of my hand. It is only a moment, compared to yours.”

— Deborah Harkness

165. “The strongest distinguishing characteristic of humans is their power of denial. I have strength and long life, you have supernatural abilities, daemons have awe-inspiring creativity. Humans can convince themselves up is down and black is white. It’s their special gift.”

— Deborah Harkness

166. “And his stillness made me realize how much I moved, constantly blinking, breathing, and rearranging myself.”

— Deborah Harkness

167. “Baldwin had never grasped the concept of atonement. His view of Matthew’s faith was purely transactional – you went to church, confessed, and walked out a clean man. But salvation was more complicated. Philippe had come to understand that in the end, although he had long found Matthew’s constant search for forgiveness irritating and irrational.”

— Deborah Harkness

168. “Nightmares are like Master Harriot’s star glass. They are a trick of the light, one that makes something distant seem closer and larger than it really is.” “Oh.” Jack considered Matthew’s response. “So even if I see a monster in my dreams, it cannot reach me?” Matthew nodded. “But I will tell you a secret. A dream is a nightmare in reverse. If you dream of someone you love, that person will seem closer, even if far away.”

— Deborah Harkness

169. “Wordlessly I looked back at him, astonished that a kiss on the palm could be so intimate.”

— Deborah Harkness

170. “Why do today’s women think it’s important to open a door themselves?” he said sharply. “Do you believe it’s a testament to your physical power?”

— Deborah Harkness

171. “This family was more fun when we had fewer medical degrees.”

— Deborah Harkness

172. “She will have reason in future to thank you for it,” said Mary. Her face was serious. “We women own nothing absolutely, save what lies between our ears. Our virtue belongs first to our father and then to our husband. We dedicate our duty to our family. As soon as we share our thoughts with another, put pen to paper or thread a needle, all that we do and make belongs to someone else. So long as she has words and ideas, Annie will always possess something that is hers alone.” “If.”

— Deborah Harkness

173. “I’ve seen courage like yours before – from women, mostly.” Matthew continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Men don’t have it. Our resolve is born out of fear. It’s merely bravado.”

— Deborah Harkness

174. “The family never puts ‘surely’ and ‘Philippe’ in the same sentence. It always ends badly.”

— Deborah Harkness

175. “When the door swung open, Marcus’s blue eyes met mine with a twinkle. ‘Hi, Mom, we’re home!”

— Deborah Harkness

176. “Come Jack. On the way to Sept-Tours, I will tell you the story about the time Baldwin attempted to banish me from Jerusalem. Many men died.”

— Deborah Harkness

177. “Now most in the room accept we’re more similar than different and treat one another with courtesy.”

— Deborah Harkness

178. “Se souvenir du passe, et qu’il ya un avenir.”

— Deborah Harkness

179. “Imagine how Nathaniel might drive if he actually was an old lady – a centuries-old old lady, like me. That’s how I will drive for the rest of my days, so long as you are in the car.”

— Deborah Harkness

180. “It pained Emily to her librarian’s soul to see books mistreated like this.”

— Deborah Harkness

181. “In the interests of originality – not to mention verisimilitude – we’re skipping dinner and moving right on to the date.’ ‘Readers would love a vampire who said that!’ I said.”

— Deborah Harkness

182. “I sighed. “What can I do to convince you that I’m all right?” “Pick up the phone more often, for starters,” she said grimly.”

— Deborah Harkness

183. “And the only true fence against the world and all its dangers is a thorough knowledge of it,” Matthew said as we rocked in silence, together.”

— Deborah Harkness

184. “Witches have their share of nasty legends to contend with,” I said, thinking of the witch-hunts and the executions that followed.”

— Deborah Harkness

185. “All men are fools, Your Majesty,” Matthew said swiftly.”

— Deborah Harkness

186. “Vote?” Matthew said, incredulous. “Since when did we vote in this family?” “Since Marcus took over the Knights of Lazarus,” Gallowglass replied, drawing a silver lighter from his pocket. “We’ve been choking on democracy since the day you left.”

— Deborah Harkness

187. “Oh, yes. I know all about vampires and their crazy ways.” Apparently, Fernando didn’t have the same reluctance as Matthew and Ysabeau did to tell vampire tales.”

— Deborah Harkness

188. “Witchcraft and spells may not be your weapons of choice,’ he said softly, brushing my tense jaw with the back of his hand, ‘but you will learn to use them.’ The note of command was slight, but it was there. ‘Let’s find you something to eat. That always makes you more agreeable.’ ‘Are you managing me?’ I asked darkly. ‘You’ve just now noticed?’ He chuckled. ‘It’s been my full-time job for weeks.”

— Deborah Harkness

189. “The fact that everyone else seemed to find it relaxing only added to my anxiety.”

— Deborah Harkness

190. “Like all parents, they were just doing their best from moment to moment.”

— Deborah Harkness

191. “Decide what to do to survive, and do it.”

— Deborah Harkness

192. “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. – THOMAS PAINE.”

— Deborah Harkness

193. “Think and stay alive. – Phillipe de Clermont.”

— Deborah Harkness

194. “Henry seemed puzzled by my reaction to an ordinary dish of fruit but was too well bred to comment.”

— Deborah Harkness

195. “No wonder Philippe always looked so exhausted,” he said ruefully when he was through. “It’s very fatiguing pretending you’re in charge when your wife actually rules the roost.”

— Deborah Harkness

196. “A man like Matthew never frees himself of the shadows completely. But perhaps it is necessary to embrace the darkness in order to love him,” Philippe continued.”

— Deborah Harkness

197. “I can tell you as a scientist Diana, that there’s no such thing as ‘normal’.” His voice was losing its careful softness. “‘Normal’ is a bedtime story-a fable- that humans tell themselves to feel better when faced with overwhelming evidence that most of what’s happening around them is not ‘normal’ at all.”

— Deborah Harkness

198. “Before you I was nothing but dust and shadows. You brought me to life. And I cannot survive without you.”

— Deborah Harkness

199. “Here’s Fernando,” Sarah said in a tone suggesting that deliverance had come at last.”

— Deborah Harkness

200. “The house was winning, thanks to its chief weapon: Fleetwood Mac.”

— Deborah Harkness