Top 35 Lesley Livingston Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “There is only forward. Only tomorrow. No yesterday, no going back. And nothing of value is left behind, so nothing is truly lost.”

— Lesley Livingston

2. “I would be the master of my own fate. Me and the goddess Morrigan. No one else- and certainly no man. Mael and Aeddan could fight over me until they were both bloody. My father could deny me my blade. But they couldn’t force me from my warrior’s path unless I let them.”

— Lesley Livingston

3. “I would be the master of my own fate. Me and the goddess Morrigan. No one else – and certainly no man.”

— Lesley Livingston

4. “I guess we’re stuck with each other then,” she said. “For the time being.” “There are worse fates,” I said. She rolled an eye at me. “Not many, but some.” A grin flickered across Elka’s face as Charon’s men barked at us to get moving. The slave chain hissed sullenly along the ground, but I realized that I really was grateful that the tall, fierce Varini girl was tethered to the other end.”

— Lesley Livingston

5. “This is Rome. Treachery and opportunism and backstabbing run in her veins like lifeblood, and if you’ve never had to live your life constantly looking over your shoulder, then you have no idea how dangerous it can be.”

— Lesley Livingston

6. “The trader had told me that Mare Nostrum meant “Our Sea” in Latin, and I had marveled at the arrogance of Rome, which would dare to lay claim to the very elements of the earth. The goddess must have laughed at them, I’d thought. I certainly had.”

— Lesley Livingston

7. “Maybe honor wasn’t always something won by a blade. I thought. And maybe it couldn’t be so easily stripped away, even in servitude.”

— Lesley Livingston

8. “There is no thing called dishonor. No thing called honor. There is only winning. Only losing. And if you lose, you don’t leave a freshly made bed for your enemy to sleep in.”

— Lesley Livingston

9. “It’s war. Don’t leave anything behind for your enemy to use. Scorch the earth, kill the cattle, foul the water.”

— Lesley Livingston

10. “Temper passion with control, conviction with cunning.”

— Lesley Livingston

11. “Rome only exists because of slaves. That’s how it functions. We are its muscles, its brains, and most of all its secrets. You are now a part of that world. You are what you are, no matter what you once were. But there is power in such a position. Understand that. And learn to use it.”

— Lesley Livingston

12. “Are you a weapon or a target? Choose!”

— Lesley Livingston

13. “I knew there had to be more to honor than just one’s station in life. That’s what Sorcha had taught me: that actions meant more than accolades. That honor was something worth fighting for- and dying for- no matter what house you were born into.”

— Lesley Livingston

14. “If you slow me down,” she growled, “I’ll hack your foot off with a sharp stone.” “I won’t slow you down,” I said. “So long as you keep your big, flat feet out of my way.” Pale blue eyes blinked at me for a moment. Then the Varini grinned – an expression utterly devoid of mirth – and said, “Run.”

— Lesley Livingston

15. “Some things you just have to take on faith and believe in at the risk of getting hurt. It’s one of the things that the Fair Folk will never understand, and it’s something that sets us apart from them. The fact that each and every time we believe in each other we take a risk. Because we know that it might NOT be the truth. But we also know that it MIGHT be.”

— Lesley Livingston

16. “With that kill, the watching crowd realized this wasn’t just a show designed to inflate auction prices, and they howled for more blood. The brigand’s, Elka’s, mine, it didn’t matter. It made my stomach turn. This was what the Romans thought of as entertainment? And they called us barbarians.”

— Lesley Livingston

17. “You can’t choose someone else’s destiny for them, Kelley. And you shouldn’t let anyone choose yours.”

— Lesley Livingston

18. “We were castoffs and slaves, orphans and unwanteds and used-to-be princesses... and we were mighty.”

— Lesley Livingston

19. “When people have so much money that they can do anything, buy anything, be anything, then they start to look around for the things money can’t buy. Strength, courage, nobility... they see it in others. And they want it.”

— Lesley Livingston

20. “These were stone-cold men trained to kill – not with heart and fire and fury, not with the joy of glorious battle, but as a single, unthinking whole, like drones in a beehive.”

— Lesley Livingston

21. “Once inside, I stirred the banked coals of the brazier to sullen life. It did nothing to ease the chill that gripped my bones. Not only had my father as good as severed the sword-hand from my arm, he’d cut the heart out of my body. And then given it to the brother of the boy I loved. My father had betrayed me not once but twice.”

— Lesley Livingston

22. “Sonny pulled Lucky up short and swung around to face Fennrys. “I’m not afraid to die. I just don’t want to die surprised. And I swear to all the gods, if the last thought that goes through my mind is ‘What the hell was that?’ I will hunt you down in the afterlife and punch you in the face throughout eternity.”

— Lesley Livingston

23. “In the arena, he continued, it won’t be enough just to fight your best. It’s never enough to simply win the battle. What you have to win is their hearts. Caesar’s heart. Charm them, beguile them, seduce the mob. That will make him fall in love with you. Because unless Caesar loves you, you cannot truly claim Victory.”

— Lesley Livingston

24. “Time monkeys. Angry, angry time monkeys.”

— Lesley Livingston

25. “I stumbled blindly on, deep into the forest, with one singular purpose: vengeance.”

— Lesley Livingston

26. “But I also know that even a weed, cultivated with care, might eventually yield a wildflower.”

— Lesley Livingston

27. “A conversation with Mabh was like playing tag with a grizzly bear.”

— Lesley Livingston

28. “Through the shimmering air, I looked on the face of the girl who had been called Ismene. She looked like she was sleeping. I searched my heart for a prayer to offer, but I did not know the gods the Lanista had spoken of. I only knew my own. So I formed a silent prayer for the dead girl I’d never known but in that moment felt a strange kinship with. “May the Morrigan keep your soul,” I whispered in my mind.”

— Lesley Livingston

29. “You are what you are, no matter what you once were.”

— Lesley Livingston

30. “Elka let out her breath in a low whistle. I had to grudgingly admit to myself that I was glad the Varini girl was still with me. In a way, she almost reminded me of my sister. Sharp-tongued and haughty, but good in a fight, at least.”

— Lesley Livingston

31. “There’s one thing I’ve learned about mortals. They’re a lot more resilient and a whole bunch more resourceful than they usually give themselves credit for. Why else do you think the Fae have always had such a fascination with them? Why d’you think Auberon uses changelings to guard the Gate? Trolls are stronger, cheaper, more plentiful, and nobody cares if they get exploded or ripped to pieces. But he uses mortals. Because they’re full of hidden strengths.”

— Lesley Livingston

32. “I’m not sure if you just screwed with history or if history just screwed with you.”

— Lesley Livingston

33. “They thought they could frighten me with pictures painted in tar upon my walls? The pictures I drew would be in the sands of the arena, rendered in my rivals’ blood. And the letters I carved with my sword? They would spell out Victory.”

— Lesley Livingston

34. “I’ve never known anyone like you,” he whispered. “Ever. Since that moment on the ship.” “The moment when I tried to kill you?” “No. The one when you put yourself at risk to help Charon, the man who’d put you in slave irons, in the middle of all that chaos and death. You are uncommon in your bravery, Fallon. You are stronger than any woman I’ve ever known.” He smiled ruefully. “And you seem determined to haunt my dreams.”

— Lesley Livingston

35. “Rome only exists because of slaves. That’s how it functions. We are its muscles, its brains, and most of all its secrets.”

— Lesley Livingston

36. “Be brave, gladiatrix, he said, And be wary. Bright things beget treachery. Beautiful things breed envy. Once you win Caesar’s love, you’ll earn his enemies’ hate.”

— Lesley Livingston

37. “But I suspect real bravery is knowing fear intimately–I mean feeling it in the very center of your bones–and then going ahead and fighting anyway.”

— Lesley Livingston

38. “I would wait for you until the stars went dim and the sun and moon drowned themselves in the ocean never to rise again, Fallon ferch Virico.”

— Lesley Livingston