Top 500 Diana Gabaldon Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “Oh, foisted, is it?” cried Mr. Ormiston in righteous indignation. “Such a word! And if it means what I think it does, young man, you should get down on your knees and thank God for such foistingness!”

— Diana Gabaldon

402. “It’s only a moment, but ye feel as though it will last forever. Strange, is it no?” he said thoughtfully. “Ye can almost see the light go as ye watch – and yet there’s no time ye can look and say ‘Now! Now it’s night.”

— Diana Gabaldon

403. “Open your eyes and tell me yourself, Sassenash,” said a deep urgent voice somewhere close.”

— Diana Gabaldon

404. “It wasn’t a very.”

— Diana Gabaldon

405. “You underestimate your own merits, John – as always. Of course, nothing becomes manly virtue more than simple modesty.”

— Diana Gabaldon

406. “I’ve spent more than twenty years looking for answers, Roger, and I can tell you only one thing: There aren’t any answers, only choices. I’ve made a number of them myself, and no one can tell me whether they were right or wrong.”

— Diana Gabaldon

407. “Cows?” he asked, “Was it really cows, or was I dreaming?”

— Diana Gabaldon

408. “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

409. “Gave me terrible cramps, and I had wind for days.”

— Diana Gabaldon

410. “It was a hot summer – there wasn’t any other kind in Boston.”

— Diana Gabaldon

411. “Mm, you’re nice to croodle wi’,” he murmured, doing what I assumed was croodling.”

— Diana Gabaldon

412. “There was a rustle near his ear, and he turned his head to see the crow. It stood on the grass a foot away, a blotch of wind-ruffled black feathers, regarding him with a bead-bright eye. Deciding that he posed no threat, it swiveled its neck with casual ease and jabbed its thick sharp bill into Jack Randall’s eye.”

— Diana Gabaldon

413. “His mouth tightened up and he says, ‘I thought this was the young man who only a week past was shouting that he wasn’t afraid to die. Surely a man who’s not afraid to die isn’t afraid of a few lashes?’ and he gives Jamie a poke in the belly wi’ the handle of the whip. “Jamie met Randall’s eye straight on then, and said, ‘No, but I’m afraid I’ll freeze stiff before ye’re done talking.”

— Diana Gabaldon

414. “Doom, or save. That I cannot do. For I have no power beyond that of knowledge, no ability to bend others to my will, no way to stop them doing what they will. There is only me.”

— Diana Gabaldon

415. “Knowing from experience how difficult it was to distract Frank’s attention from this sort of discussion, I simply picked up his hand, wrapped his fingers about the stem of the glass and left him to his own devices.”

— Diana Gabaldon

416. “It was what you did when someone died; turned toward God and at least acknowledge the fact.”

— Diana Gabaldon

417. “There are things ye maybe canna tell me, he had said. I willna ask ye, or force ye. But when ye do tell me something, let it be the truth. There is nothing between us now but respect, and respect has room for secrets, I think – but not for lies.”

— Diana Gabaldon

418. “He said the truth is the truth, and people should take responsibility for their own actions, which is right.”

— Diana Gabaldon

419. “My first coherent thought was, “It’s raining. This must be Scotland.”

— Diana Gabaldon

420. “Some were in Gaelic and some in English, used apparently according to which language best fitted the rhythm of the words, for all of them had a beauty to the speaking, beyond the content of the tale itself.”

— Diana Gabaldon

421. “Still, when had the right to live as one wished ever been considered trivial? Was a struggle to choose one’s own destiny less worthwhile than the necessity to stop a great evil?”

— Diana Gabaldon

422. “The Bible says, “Seek, and ye shall find,” he thought. And said aloud to the vibrant air, “But there’s no guarantee about what you’ll find, is there?”

— Diana Gabaldon

423. “Through eons of living in a land so poor there was little to eat but oats, they had as usual converted necessity into a virtue, and insisted that they liked the stuff.”

— Diana Gabaldon

424. “I felt at once horribly vulnerable and yet completely safe. But then – I had always felt that way with Jamie Fraser.”

— Diana Gabaldon

425. “A general cry of “What book? What book? Let us see this famous book!”

— Diana Gabaldon

426. “A party at which the guests are all of the beautiful persuasion tends to be dull indeed, as they have no conversation that does not pertain to themselves. A successful gathering requires a number of the ill-favored but clever. The beautiful are but ornaments – desirable, but dispensable.”

— Diana Gabaldon

427. “At least we were not set upon by highwaymen, we encountered no wild beasts, and it didn’t rain. By the standards I was becoming used to, it was quite dull.”

— Diana Gabaldon

428. “But just then, for that fraction of time, it seems as though all things are possible. You can look across the limitations of your own life, and see that they are really nothing. In that moment when time stops, it is as though you know you could undertake any venture, complete it and come back to yourself, to find the world unchanged, and everything just as you left it a moment before. And it’s as though knowing that everything is possible, suddenly nothing is necessary.”

— Diana Gabaldon

429. “Has he come armed, then?” she asked anxiously. “Has he brought a pistol or a sword?” Ian shook his head, his dark hair lifting wildly in the wind. “Oh, no, Mam!” he said. “It’s worse. He’s brought a lawyer!”

— Diana Gabaldon

430. “They’re girls,” she replied briefly. “They were born in danger and will live their lives in that condition, regardless of circumstance.”

— Diana Gabaldon

431. “I kept havin’ terrible lewd dreams about ye, all the night long,” he explained, twitching his breeks into better adjustment. “Every time I rolled over, I’d lie on my cock and wake up. It was awful.” I burst out laughing, and he affected to look injured, though I could see reluctant amusement behind it. “Well, you can laugh, Sassenach,” he said. “Ye havena got one to trouble ye.” “Yes, and a great relief it is, too,” I assured him.”

— Diana Gabaldon

432. “God kens well enough that boys need to be smacked, or he’d no fill them sae full o’ the de’il.”

— Diana Gabaldon

433. “Stephan’s hand left his breast, and reached out. Grey took it, and felt love flow between them. He thought that heart and body must be entirely melted – if only for that moment.”

— Diana Gabaldon

434. “Grey was modest about his own endowments, but also honest enough to admit that he possessed some and that his person was reasonably attractive to women.”

— Diana Gabaldon

435. “We dangled our feet in the water, moving from shade to sun and back to shade as we grew too warm, talking of this and that and not much of anything, both aware of each other’s smallest movement, both content to wait until chance should bring us to that moment when a glance should linger, and a touch should signal more.”

— Diana Gabaldon

436. “This wife you have, Bird said at last, deeply contemplative, did you pay a great deal for her? She cost me almost everything I had, he said, with a wry tone that made the others laugh. But worth it.”

— Diana Gabaldon

437. “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 next. Being married.”

— Diana Gabaldon

438. “Did the ancient Gaels not wear undergarments?” Frank leered. “You’ve never heard that old song about what a Scotsman wears beneath his kilts?”

— Diana Gabaldon

439. “I always wake when you do, Sassenach; I sleep ill without ye by my side.”

— Diana Gabaldon

440. “The universe had shifted, with a small, decisive click; he could still hear its echo in his bones.”

— Diana Gabaldon

441. “Ye ken how to pick a good lass, MacKenzie? Start at the bottom and work your way up!”

— Diana Gabaldon

442. “My father wasna always gentle, but he was usually fair,” Jamie said imperturbably. “He said the truth is the truth, and people should take responsibility for their own actions, which is right.”

— Diana Gabaldon

443. “A forced oath canna bind a man, though, or keep him from his knowledge of right.”

— Diana Gabaldon

444. “It’s strange,” he said, “when he was alive, I didna pay him much heed. But once he was dead, the things he’d told me had a good deal more influence.”

— Diana Gabaldon

445. “It wasn’t that Friends thought that the Lord spoke only to them; it was only that they weren’t sure other folk listened very often.”

— Diana Gabaldon

446. “All over the clearing, the same thing was happening; the women gave not an inch, but their men stepped out before them. Anyone coming into the clearing would think that the women had melted into invisibility, leaving an implacable phalanx of Scotsmen staring down the glen.”

— Diana Gabaldon

447. “He splayed a hand out over the photographs, trembling fingers not quite touching the shiny surface, and then he turned and leaned toward me, slowly, with the improbable grace of a tall tree falling. He buried his face in my shoulder and went very quietly and thoroughly to pieces.”

— Diana Gabaldon

448. “Be careful, Sassenach,” he said, still grinning. “Ye dinna want to knock off any more pieces; ye’ll only have to stick them back on, aye?”

— Diana Gabaldon

449. “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

450. “Feel my heart,” he said. His voice sounded thick to his own ears. “Tell me if it stops.”

— Diana Gabaldon