Quotes from Diana Gabaldon

I am a sassenach, after all," I said, seeing it. He touched my face briefly with a rueful smile. "Aye, mo duinne. But you're my sassenach.

Perhaps it was only that the sense of reaching out to something larger than yourself gives you some feeling that there is something larger - and there really has to be, because plainly you aren't sufficient to the situation.

And I don't recommend murder as a way of settling difficult situations. It tends to lead to complications—but not nearly as many as marriage.

You aren't doing it for the sake of ideals, are you? Not for the sake of...liberty. Freedom, self determination, all that.' He shook his head. 'No,' he said softly. 'Why, then? I asked, more gently. 'For you,' he said without hesitation. '...For my family. For the future. And if that is not an ideal, I've never heard of one.

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

No. Ye loved him. I canna hold it against either of you that ye mourn him. And it gives me some comfort to know ... He hesitated, and I reached up to smooth the rumpled hair off his face. To know what? That should the need come, you might mourn for me that way, he said softly.

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. Reckon one of us should know what they're doing.

What is it about ye, Sassenach, I wonder?" he said conversationally, eyes still fixed on Myers. "What is what about me?" He turned then, and gave me a narrow eye. "What it is that makes every man ye meet want to take off his breeks within five minutes of meetin' ye." "Well, if you don't know, my dear," I said, "no one does.

As usual, the note occupied less than a page and included neither salutation nor closing, Uncle Hal's opinion being that since the letter had a direction upon it, the intended recipient was obvious, the seal indicated plainly who had written it, and he did not waste his time in writing to fools.

He wanted to ask whether she were insane, but he had been married long enough to know the price of injudicious rhetorical questions.

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.

Involuntarily, I reached out, as though I might heal him with a touch and erase the marks with my fingers.

Tell him I hate him to his guts and the marrow of his bones!

Jamie] shook his head, looking stunned. "I canna tell whether ye mean to compliment my virility, Sassenach, or insult my morals, but I dinna care much for either suggestion. Murtagh told me women were unreasonable, but Jesus God!

Healing comes from the healed; not from the physician.

Claire knew the flavor of solitude. It was cold as spring water, and not all could drink it; for some it was not refreshment, but mortal chill.

The overseer wouldna speak to me of Ian, but he told me other things that would curl your hair, if it wasna already curled up like sheep's wool. He glanced at me, and a half-smile lit his face, inspite of his obvious perturbation. Judging by the state of your hair, Sassenach, I should say that it's going to rain verra soon now.

As yet too hungry and too clumsy for tenderness, still he made love with a sort of unflagging joy that made me think that male virginity might be a highly underrated commodity.

Ye need not be scairt of me," he said softly. "Nor of anyone here, so long as I'm with ye.

Let me be enough

And once I got old enough for such a thing to be a possibility, he told me that a man must be responsible for any seed he sows, for it's his duty to take care of a woman and protect her. And if I wasna prepared to do that, then I'd no right to burden a woman with the consequences of my own actions.

Ian, man, I didna tell ye because I didna wish to lose you too. My brother was gone, and my father. I didna mean to lose my own heart's blood as well. For you are dearer to me even than home and family, love.'She cast a lopsided smile at Jamie. 'And that's saying quite a bit.

But even things that heal leave scars.

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.