Diana Gabaldon

“For so many years, for so long, I have been so many things, so many different men. But here," he said, so softly I could barely hear him, "here in the dark, with you… I have no name.”

“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.”

“İnsan hayatın ve sonsuz varlığın getirdiği bitmez düşüncelere bazen ara vermek istiyordu, varlığının doğası nasıl planlanmış olursa olsun, oradan kaçmak istiyordu.”

“He shook his head and squeezed my hand tight. "You are my courage, as I am your conscience," he whispered, "You are my heart-- I am your compassion. We are neither of us whole, alone. Do ye not know that, Sassenach?" --Jamie”

“He turned his head to look full at me, his hair fire-struck with the setting sun, face dark in silhouette. "Twenty-four years ago today, I married ye, Sassenach," he said softly. "I hope ye willna have cause yet to regret it." -Jamie Fraser”

“El Tiempo es una de las muchas cosas que la gente atribuye a Dios. Siempreestá ahí, preexistente, y no tiene final. Existe la noción de que es todopoderoso,puesto que nada puede oponerse al tiempo, ¿no es cierto? Ni montañas, ni ejércitos.Y el Tiempo, desde luego, lo cura todo. Con tiempo suficiente, todo se resuelve:todos los dolores se engloban, todas las adversidades desaparecen, todas las pérdidasse clasifican.Polvo eres y en polvo te convertirás. Recuérdalo.Y si el Tiempo se parece en algo a Dios, supongo que la Memoria debe de ser elDiablo.”

“And, Sassenach," he whispered, "your face is my heart.”

“I had not slept with many men other than my husband, but I had noticed that before to sleep, actually sleep with someone did give this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing.”

“I've never been afraid of ghosts. I live with them daily, after all. When I look in a mirror, my mother's eyes look back at me; my mouth curls with the smile that lured my great-grandfather to the fate that was me. No, how should I fear the touch of those vanished hands, laid on me in love unknowing? How could I be afraid of those that molded my flesh, leaving their remnants to live long past the grave?...All the time the ghosts flit past and through us, hiding in the future. We look in the mirror and see shades of other faces looking back through the years; we see the shape of memory, standing solid in an empty doorway. By blood and by choice, we make our own ghosts; we haunt ourselves.”

“When I was small, I never wanted to step in puddles. Not because of any fear of drowned worms or wet stockings; I was by and large a grubby child, with a blissful disregard for filth of any kind.It was because I couldn't bring myself believe that that perfect smooth expanse was no more than I thin film of water over solid earth. I believed it was an opening into some fathomless space. Sometimes, seeing the tiny ripples caused by my approach, I thought the puddle impossibly deep, a bottomless sea in which the lazy coil of a tentacle and gleam of scale lay hidden, with the threat of huge bodies and sharp teeth adrift and silent in the far-down depths.And then, looking down into reflection, I would see my own round face and frizzled hair against a featureless blue sweep, and think instead that the puddle was the entrance to another sky. If I stepped in there, I would drop at once, and keep on falling, on and on, into blue space.The only time I would dare walk though a puddle was at twilight, when the evening stars came out. If I looked in the water and saw one lighted pinprick there, I could slash through unafraid--for if I should fall into the puddle and on into space, I could grab hold of the star as I passed, and be safe.Even now, when I see a puddle in my path, my mind half-halts--though my feet do not--then hurries on, with only the echo of the though left behind.What if, this time, you fall?”

“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!”

“Really love him, I mean," Geilie persisted. "Not just to bed him; I know you want that, and he does too. They all do. But do you love him?" Did I love him? Beyond the urges of the flesh? The hole had the dark anonymity of the confessional, and a soul on the verge of death had no time for lies. "Yes," I said, and laid my head back on my knees. It was silent in the hole for some time, and I hovered once more on the verge of sleep, when I heard her speak once more, as though to herself. "So it's possible," she said thoughtfully.”

“I love you, a nighean donn. I have loved ye from the moment I saw ye, I will love ye ’til time itself is done, and so long as you are by my side, I am well pleased wi’ the world.”

“I would not piss on him was he burning in the flames of hell," Grey said politely.One of Hal's brows flicked upward, but only momentarily."Just so," he said dryly. "The question, though, is whether Fraser might be inclined to perform a similar service for you."Grey placed his cup carefully in the center of the desk."Only if he thought I might drown," he said, and went out.”

“I tell you what. Pick it up, open it anywhere, and read three pages. If you can put it down again, I’ll pay you a dollar.”

“He bent and kissed me briefly, then headed for the door. Just short of it, though, he turned back. "The, um, sperms ..." he said, a little awkwardly. "Yes?" "Can ye not take them out and give them decent burial or something?" I hid my smile in my teacup. "I'll take good care of them," I promised. "I always do, don't I?”

“I'll leave it to you, Sassenach," he said dryly, "to imagine what it feels like to arrive unexpectedly in the midst of a brothel, in possession of a verra large sausage.”

“But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it.”

“«Nadie se muere por eso. Ni tu, ni yo»”

“Calmar el dolor y el miedo a la muerte servía para atenuar los propios temores.”

“-¿Cómo andan? -preguntó, pretendiendo demostrar cierta despreocupación.-¿Quiénes? ¿Te refieres a Brianna y Roger?.-¿A qué otros, si no? -dijo, dejando a un lado sus pretensiones-. ¿Vatodo bien entre ellos?.-Creo que sí. Se están acostumbrando de nuevo el uno al otro.-¿ Lo hacen?.-Sí -dije, mirando de reojo a la cabaña--Roger acaba de vomitar en la falda de Brianna.”

“-¿Es verdad.., que no lo olvidaré?Estaba arrodillado a su lado y esperó un momento antes deresponder.-Sí, es verdad -dijo suavemente-, Pero también es verdad que con eltiempo no te importará.-¿No? -Estaba demasiado cansada para seguir preguntándole. Sesentía extrañamente lejana-. ¿Aunque no sea lo bastante fuerte paramatarlo?-Eres una mujer muy fuerte.-No lo soy. Me lo acabas de demostrar, no soy...Una mano en el hombro la detuvo.-No es eso lo que quería decirte -dijo pensativo-, Jenny tenía diez añoscuando murió nuestra madre. -Y al día siguiente del funeral la encontrécon el delantal de mi madre.Había estado llorando como yo. Pero me dijo: «Ve a lavarte, Jamie, voya hacer la comida para ti y para papá».Cerró los ojos y tragó con fuerza.-Sé lo fuertes que pueden llegar a ser las mujeres. Y tú eres muyfuerte, créeme.”

“I know why the Jews and Muslims have nine hundred names for God; one small word is not enough for love.”

“Do ye want me?" he whispered. "Sassenach, will ye take me - and risk the man that I am, for the sake of the man ye knew?”

“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.”

“You have lost your mind,"Jamie said coldly, the shock receding slightly. "Or I should think you had, if ye had one to lose.”

“Ïf ye've ever the privelege of seeing a woman in her skin, gentlemen,"he said, looking over his shoulder toward the door and lowering his voice confidentially, ÿe'll observe that the hair there grows in the shape of an arrow - pointing the way, ye ken, so as a poor ignorant man can find his way safe home.”

“You know historians - can't leave a puzzle alone”

“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.”

“Go to bed, Tom," he managed to say. "Don't wake me in the morning. I plan to be dead.”

“Filial respect caused Grey to hesitate in passing ex post facto opinions on his mother's judgment, but after half an hour in the company of either Paul or Edgar, he could not escape a lurking suspicion that a just Providence, seeing the DeVanes so well endowed with physical beauty, had determined that there was no reason to spoil the work by adding intelligence to the mix.”

“You cannot compel love," he said finally, "nor summon it at will. Still less," he added ruefully, "can you dismiss it.”

“And was there love there? Beyond the limits of flesh and time, was all love possible? Was it necessary? The voice of my thoughts seemed to be Uncle Lamb's. My family, and all I knew of love as a child. A man who had never spoken love to me, who had never needed to, for I knew he loved me, as surely as I knew I loved. For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary. It is all. It is undying. And it is enough.”

“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.”

“I had kissed my share of men, particularly during the war years, when flirtation and instant romance were the light-minded companions of death and uncertainty. Jamie, thought, was something different. His extreme gentleness was in no way tentative; rather it was a promise of power known and held in leash; a challenge and a provocation the more remarkable for its lack of demand. I am yours, it said. And if you will have me, then...”

“You felt as though the book took as much interest in you as you did in it and was willing to help when you reached for it.”

“Yes. It doesn't matter what happens; no matter where a child goes - how far or how long. Even if it's forever. You never lose them. You can't.”

“And Finally I put down the last and the best advice I knew, on growing older. 'Stand up straight and try not to get fat.”

“You cannot save the world, but you might save the man in front of you, if you work fast enough.”

“There aren't any answers, only choices”

“Time makes very little difference to the basic realities of life”

“The colors of living things begin to fade with the last breath, and the soft, springy skin and supple muscle rot within weeks. But the bones sometimes remain, faithful echoes of the shape, to bear some last faint witness to the glory of what was.”

“I canna look at ye asleep without wanting to wake ye, Sassenach.” His hand cupped my breast, gently now. “I suppose I find myself lonely without ye.”

“Ye’re mine, Sassenach. And I would do anything I thought I must to make that clear.”

“Ye’ve no idea how lovely ye look, stark naked, wi’ the sun behind you. All gold, like ye were dipped in it.”

“If one day, a bhailach...ye should meet a verra large mouse named Michael-ye'll tell him your grandsire sends his regards.”

“I was sorry that I'd told him, but I had no defenses anymore. I could not lie, even for the best of reasons; there was simply no place to go, nowhere to hide. I felt beset by whispering ghosts, their loss, their need, their desperate love pulling me apart. Apart from Jamie, apart from myself.”

“More than most men, he valued his name-I only hoped that given time, it would once more have value.”

“Fighting was an exhausting business, and so was fear.”

“A friend once told me 'The body has nay conscience.' I dinna ken that that's entirely so-but it is true that the body doesna generally admit the possibility of nonexistence. And if ye exist-well, ye need food, that's all.”