Top 500 Diana Gabaldon Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “He pressed me firmly to him, and I could feel that he was more than ready to get on with the business at hand. With some surprise, I realized that I was ready too. In fact, whether it was the result of the late hour, the wine, his own attractiveness, or simple deprivation, I wanted him quite badly.”

— Diana Gabaldon

402. “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

403. “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

404. “Does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?” He hesitated a moment before answering. “Well, no,” he said slowly, “so long as it doesna bother you that I am.” He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed toward the door.”

— Diana Gabaldon

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

— Diana Gabaldon

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

— Diana Gabaldon

407. “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

408. “Pleasure?” Her voice rose behind me, incredulous. “Ye mean some women like it?”

— Diana Gabaldon

409. “Just as my grandmother taught me, and her grandmother before her.”

— Diana Gabaldon

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

— Diana Gabaldon

411. “It’s not what’s happened or what’s about to happen; what’s important is the sense of emotional uncertainty between the characters and the delicacy of the mutual trust being established.”

— Diana Gabaldon

412. “I can hear. Hear them. It. Don’t you hear?” It was a struggle to speak, to form coherent thoughts. The call here was different; not the beehive sound of Craigh na Dun, but a hum like the vibration of the air following the striking of a great bell. I could feel it ringing in the long bones of my arms, echoing through pectoral girdle and spine. Jamie.”

— Diana Gabaldon

413. “The tooth had belonged to a gentleman named Murphy from Ellis Ward, the one we lived in. I say “had belonged” because I had the badly broken and infected bicuspid out of Mr. Murphy’s head before he could have said Jack Robinson, though he was in such pain that he could barely recall his own name, let alone Jack’s. Mr.”

— Diana Gabaldon

414. “And the light was gone, and the air failed them. And so they lay down in the dark to die.”

— Diana Gabaldon

415. “And I think that respect has maybe room for secrets, but not for lies.”

— Diana Gabaldon

416. “It doesna matter how many things ye do on a farm, there’s always more than ye can do. A wonder the place doesna rise up about my ears and swallow me, like Jonah and the whale.”

— Diana Gabaldon

417. “We come and go from mystery and, in between, we try to forget.”

— Diana Gabaldon

418. “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

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

— Diana Gabaldon

420. “Well, I say it is the place of science only to observe,” he said. “To seek cause where it may be found, but to realize that there are many things in the world for which no cause shall be found; not because it does not exist, but because we know too little to find it. It is not the place of science to insist on explanation – but only to observe, in hopes that explanation will manifest itself.”

— Diana Gabaldon

421. “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

422. “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

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

— Diana Gabaldon

424. “There was nothing frightening about the dead man; there never is. No matter how ugly the manner in which a man dies, it’s only the presence of a suffering human soul that is horrifying; once gone, what is left is only an object.”

— Diana Gabaldon

425. “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

426. “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. I shook the snow from the folds of my cloak, and turned to follow Maisri down the path, sharing her bitter knowledge that there was only me. And I was not enough.”

— Diana Gabaldon

427. “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

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

— Diana Gabaldon

429. “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

430. “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

431. “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

432. “Father to son. And with that thought, all the disconnected, fragmentary, scattered fancies in his brain dropped suddenly into a single, vivid image: Jamie Fraser, seen from the back, looking over the horses in the paddock at Helwater. And beside him, standing on a rail and clinging to a higher one, William, Earl of Ellesmere. The alert cock of their heads, the set of their shoulders, the wide stance – just the same.”

— Diana Gabaldon

433. “I mean to take my time about it, aye?”

— Diana Gabaldon

434. “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

435. “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

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

— Diana Gabaldon

437. “Because, Sassenach,” he said, very dryly indeed, “when ye’re a man, a good bit of what ye have to do is to draw up lines and fight other folk who come over them. Your enemies, your tenants, your children – your wife. Ye canna always just strike them or take a strap to them, but when ye can, at least it’s clear to everyone who’s in charge.”

— Diana Gabaldon

438. “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

439. “Black Jack. A common name for rogues and scoundrels in the eighteenth century. A staple of romantic fiction, the name conjured up charming highwaymen, dashing blades in plumed hats. The reality waled at my side.”

— Diana Gabaldon

440. “Christ, was he going to die in public, in a pleasure garden, in the company of a sodomite spy dressed like a rooster?”

— Diana Gabaldon

441. “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

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

— Diana Gabaldon

443. “The woman crosses the room, and it is only when she is directly in front of us that I am certain about who she is. She is dressed in a pelisse fashionable among women half her age, and the feather in her hat is an extraordinary shade of blue. Outside, a young man is waiting at her coach. Passersby will suspect that he is her son, but anyone who has ever been acquainted with her will know better.”

— Diana Gabaldon

444. “It’s only when the blood is bright red, and a terrible lot all at once, that ye worry.”

— Diana Gabaldon

445. “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

446. “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

447. “He looked like Bree, didn’t he? He was like her?” “Yes.” He breathed heavily, almost a snort. “I could see it in your face – when you’d look at her, I could see you thinking of him. Damn you, Claire Beauchamp,” he said, very softly.”

— Diana Gabaldon

448. “Its appearance was greeted with cries of rapture, and following a brief struggle over possesion of the volume, William rescued it before it should be torn to pieces, but allowed himself to be induced to read some of the passages aloud, his dramatic rendering being greeted by wolflike howls of enthusiasim and hails of live pits.”

— Diana Gabaldon

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

— Diana Gabaldon

450. “No,” I agreed dryly. “I don’t suppose he’d have been pleased, no matter what you said.” “He wasn’t. He backhanded me across the mouth, to shut me up.”

— Diana Gabaldon