72 Historical Fiction Quotes For Inspiration

Historical fiction transports readers to different eras, offering captivating narratives that blend real historical events with imaginative storytelling. Within these pages lie powerful quotes that not only illuminate the past but also inspire the present. Whether you're a devoted fan of the genre or a newcomer eager to explore, our curated collection of the top 72 historical fiction quotes promises to ignite your imagination and offer wisdom through the ages. Join us as we delve into words that echo across time, inviting reflection and inspiring the heart.

1. “If you can walk with the crowd and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run- Yours is the earth and everything that's in it, And-which is more-you'll be a man my son.” - Rudyard Kipling

2. “Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future.” - Hermann Rauschning

3. “I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower's stem.” - Diana Gabaldon

4. “I have never learned to hate. Don't let my first lesson come from you.” - Susan Carroll

5. “No, It's not fair. But I was thinking more along the lines of the Pentagon and Washington itself. Sometimes I suspect that those who are running things might grow addicted to power. Secrecy's essential in wartime, but once in place, will it ever be removed?” - Marge Piercy

6. “Nobody hates us as ourselves. In their minds we're not human... They don't hate us because we did something or said something. They make us stand for an evil they invent and then they want to kill it in us.” - Marge Piercy

7. “I thought the force of my wanting must wake ye, surely. And then ye did come. . ." He stopped, looking at me with eyes gone soft and dark. "Christ, Claire, ye were so beautiful, there on the stair, wi' your hair down and the shadow of your body with the light behind ye…." He shook his head slowly. "I did think I should die, if I didna have ye," he said softly. "Just then.” - Diana Gabaldon

8. “Yes, my boy, you are indeed much faster, bigger, and stronger than me and an altogether superior speciman of God's creation, but I have seen your like before. Only one of us can be master, and it won't be you.” - Emery Lee

9. “Life is volatile.” - Robert J. Pajer

10. “I'm learning not to hope for what I can't control...” - Leila Meacham

11. “They rode for a while in silence, a tiny island in the smoky stream of marching men. Then Lee said slowly, in a strange, soft, slow tone of voice, "Soldiering has one great trap." Longstreet turned to see his face. Lee was riding slowly ahead, without expression. He spoke in that same slow voice. "To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love. This is...a very hard thing to do. No other profession requires it. That is one reason why there are so very few good officers. Although there are many good men." Lee rarely lectured. Longstreet sensed a message beyond it. He waited. Lee said, "We don't fear our own deaths, you and I." He smiled slightly, then glanced away. "We protect ourselves out of military necessity, not do not protect yourself enough and must give thought to it. I need you. But the point is, we are afraid to die. We are prepared for our own deaths, and for the deaths of comrades. We learn that at the Point. But I have seen this happen: we are not prepared for as many deaths as we have to face, inevitably as the war goes on. There comes a time..." He paused. He had been gazing straight ahead, away from Longstreet. Now, black-eyed, he turned back, glanced once quickly into Longstreet's eyes, then looked away. "We are never prepared for so many to die. So you understand? No one is. We expect some chosen few. We expect an occasional empty chair, a toast to dear departed comrades. Victory celebrations for most of us, a hallowed death for a few. But the war goes on. And the men die. The price gets ever higher. Some officers...can pay no longer. We are prepared to lose some of us." He paused again. "But never ALL of us. Surely not all of us. But...that is the trap. You can hold nothing back when you attack. You must commit yourself totally. And yet ,if they all die, a man must ask himself, will it have been worth it?” - Michael Shaara

12. “French Revolution- all them fellas the figgered her out got their heads chopped off. Always that way, jus as natural as rain. You didn't do it for fun no way. Doin' it cause you have to. Cause it's you. Look a Washington; Fit the Revolution an' after, them sons-a-bitches turned on him. An' Lincoln the same. Same folks yellin' to kill 'em. Natural as rain.” - John Steinback

13. “I thought I was going to die. I wanted to die. And I thought if I was going to die I would die with you.Someone like you, young as I am, I saw so many dying near me in the last year. I didn’t feel scared. Icertainly wasn’t brave just now. I thought to myself, We have this villa this grass, we should have laindown together, you in my arms, before we died. I wanted to touch that bone at your neck, collarbone,it’s like a small hard wing under your skin. I wanted to place my fingers against it. I’ve always liked fleshthe colour of rivers and rocks or like the brown eye of a Susan, do you know what that flower is? Haveyou seen them? I am so tired, Kip, I want to sleep. I want to sleep under this tree, put my eye againstyour collarbone I just want to close my eyes without thinking of others, want to find the crook of a treeand climb into it and sleep. What a careful mind! To know which wire to cut. How did you know? Youkept saying I don’t know I don’t know, but you did. Right? Don’t shake, you have to be a still bed forme, let me curl up as if you were a good grandfather I could hug, I love the word ‘curl,’ such a slowword, you can’t rush it...” - Michael Ondaatje

14. “Beautiful people don't need coats. They've got their auras to keep them warm.” - Jennifer Donnelly

15. “She's got a big belt around her hips. It has a shiny buckle with PRADA on it, which is Italian for insecure.” - Jennifer Donnelly

16. “She smells of her cooking and the perfume Eau d'Hadrien. My mother wore it, too. She used to cook, like Lili. Our house smelled of garlic and thyme instead of sadness.” - Jennifer Donnelly

17. “Down in the cellar the Gestapo were licensed to practice was the Ministry of Justice called ‘heightened interrogation’. The rules had been drawn up by civilised men in warm offices and they stipulated the presence of a doctor.” - Robert Harris

18. “Roger speaking to Brianna: It's too important. You don't forget having a dad."You do remember your father?"No. I remember yours.” - Diana Gabaldon

19. “And once you've been to this Center, this Truth, you'll know your way everywhere. You are never lost again.” - David Housholder

20. “Katherine of Aragon was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another, for the women who walked the hard road between kitchen, bedroom, church and childbirth. For the women who deserved more than their husband's whim.” - Philippa Gregory

21. “I was born to be your rival,' she [Anne] said simply. 'And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we?” - Philippa Gregory

22. “I intend to marry Michael, and squander all his money and run his life, and make sure he never again consorts with wicked women or gambles with licentious men. I promise I will henpeck him until he has no life beyond what I allow him, and when we die, I will lie in his arms through all eternity.” - Christina Dodd

23. “It seemed to me that Mr. Forrester would approve of a woman who could follow him in conversation and not be baffled by ledgers and currency conversions. I had grossly overestimated him.” - Gwenn Wright

24. “There are some things you never say good-bye to” - Elizabeth Berg

25. “This is a story of Africa. A pioneer woman's journey north was merely the beginning.” - Jeffrey Whittam

26. “Bad luck doesn't have any chinks in it," he said with deep bitterness. "I was born a son of a bitch and I'm going to die a son of a bitch.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

27. “Sonetimes the hardest person to forgive is yourself.” - Sarah Sundin

28. “Long ago she'd clamped an iron shell around her heart and nothing and no one could pry it lose, but deep inside the tender flesh still beat.” - Sarah Sundin

29. “Brick walls towered over her. Decrepit staircases crowded about her. Nothing had changed. The line there, the lessons there, the rape there. Shouldn't the place be crimson with blood and black with shame?” - Sarah Sundin

30. “(The golden goose has died, my prince turned into a frog, the Kingdom is lost, everyone has turned into stone and I am locked in the tower)” - Nancy B. Brewer

31. “— Так, мальчик… — Графиня пошарила в кармане. — Ты доведешь нас еще за несколько пенсов до Солсбери-Корта?— До Солсбери-Корта? Этого логова грубых и жестоких дикарей? Поздно ночью? В туман? И без мужской защиты? — Мальчик скорчил гримасу и пустился наутек, крича на ходу: — Ни за что на свете!” - Fidelis Morgan

32. “Historical novels are, without question, the best way of teaching history, for they offer the human stories behind the events and leave the reader with a desire to know more.” - Louis L'Amour

33. “Catch on fire with enthusiasm, and people will come for miles to watch you burn” - Jo Ann Butler

34. “Just before he passed behind the hedge at the end of the drive, he turned to look back at Stoke Morrow and caught me spying on him. His shining eyes were so cruel, and before I could close the curtain, I saw the flash of an awful grin on his face. It was a grin that said he knew I'd come around. Sooner or later, I'd fall in line.” - Adam McOmber

35. “The sun had just slipped behind the trees and evening cast its dark, smoky shadow.” - Nancy B. Brewer

36. “Before I disappear behind the door, I stop and turn around to look at him.” - Nancy B. Brewer

37. “The Baptist Church rejects man with wooden leg: It appears the Baptist preacher refused to baptize a veteran of the late war in the holy water- saying they only baptize flesh and blood, not wood.” - Nancy B. Brewer

38. “I can hear my steps echo as I follow him to the end of the hall. The door to the small closet under the steps is standing ajar. He closes the door and latches it.” - Nancy B. Brewer

39. “He is dressed in a long, white robe and in his hand is a white cap. I draw up as he passes down the hall; he does not see me. Shortly I hear a horse leaving. There is much I do not know about him, but tonight I know one of his secrets. He is a midnight rider.” - Nancy B. Brewer

40. “It was a warm and natural feeling to be there. We were not black or white people. We were just people bound together by love and understanding. As I walked out of that church, I felt like I had rediscovered my inner peace.” - Nancy B. Brewer

41. “Papa was our strength and the very fiber that wove our family together. He was our foundation and our rock, but even rocks, break, given enough stress.” - Nancy B. Brewer

42. “Jennings is too tough and honest a writer to let anyone off her moral hook, even her hero.” - Maureen Jennings

43. “Through enjoyment we endure.” - Florence Ditlow

44. “Even a goat got to be a goat." Esperança's comments about slaves during the triangular slave trade.” - Tanja Kobasic

45. “Every time you go to see Hamlet you don't expect it to have a happy ending...you're still enthralled.(Interview BBC Radio 4 Today 17 October 2012.)” - Hilary Mantel

46. “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.--Ray Bradbury” - T.K. Thorne

47. “Where are these fucking guns coming from?” - Michael Manley former prime minister of Jamaica

48. “Our house has its back to the sea,' writes Hester in her journal. 'Below us, the ocean spreads to the sky, twitching wide and blue and hungry. One would think it to be infinite. But we, of course, know better.” - Tanya Moir

49. “He draws a line under his conclusions. Says, 'Gregory, what should I do about the great worm?' 'Send a commission against it, sir,' the boy says. 'It must be put down.' He gives his son a long look. 'You do know it's Arthur Cobbler's tales?' Gregory gives him a long look back. 'Yes, I do know.' He sounds regretful. 'But it makes people so happy when I believe them.” - Hilary Mantel

50. “Your love of glory must conquer your will to survive; or why fight at all? Why not be a smith, a brewer, a wool merchant? Why are you in the contest, if not to win, and if not to win, then to die?” - Hilary Mantel

51. “If Mary's blood is Spanish, at least it is royal. And at least she can walk straight and has control of her bowels.” - Hilary Mantel

52. “... every monarch needs a blow on the head, from time to time.” - Hilary Mantel

53. “Go back to bed, Cowan. I want no promises from you.” - Sandi Layne

54. “All good things originate with the Creator God, he'd been taught, and the Song of Life was no exception.” - Sandi Layne

55. “Cowan son of Branieucc, you're the only one of my people that I know for sure still lives.” - Sandi Layne

56. “Venne un giorno che alla svolta del sentiero della Palascia la strinsi tanto fra le braccia da toglierle il respiro: alzò gli occhi verso di me e per la prima volta mi guardò in modo diverso, come se avesse capito.” - Maria Corti

57. “The Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte had been banished to the island of Elba. However His Imperial Majesty had some doubts wheter a quiet island life would suit him - he was, after all, accustomed to governing a large proportion of the known world.” - Susanna Clarke

58. “It would be, like all of Pammy's parties, hot and crowded and filled with impossibly glamorous people with hip bones so sharp they could qualify as concealed weapons.” - Lauren Willig

59. “I am not a twenty-two-year-old boy; I am not a besotted fool. If you think to jilt me, think again. For I will not turn tail and run the other way as he did, oh no. I will find you, and I will drag you to the altar on your back if need be, no matter how you might be screaming. No matter how scandalous it might be.” - Brenda Joyce

60. “As the sun lowered into the city's skyline, casting an orange glow over the islands, Jana could feel people's hopes rising.” - F.C. Malby

61. “As people's hopes soared, Jana felt a tinge of fear.” - F.C. Malby

62. “Mr Martinek turned back to Jana. 'Thirty-eight per cent alcohol, sixty-two per cent fire - all the way from Karlovy Vary.” - F.C. Malby

63. “The sublime beauty was almost hidden withing the castle walls. She believed that the treasured things in life were often hard to find - a pearl in an oyster shell, a kind word in the heat of the moment.” - F.C. Malby

64. “I said to my mother, Henry VII is interesting. No he's not, my mother said.” - Hilary Mantel

65. “A Quote from Monty's journal in GOD MUST BE WEEPING. "I felt as anonymous as a grain of sand.” - J.D. Winston

66. “It wasn't my choice to write this story...it was my responsibility.” - Rhonda Fink-Whitman

67. “Everything changes except human behavior and its consequences.” - Stephanie M. Sellers

68. “All that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing.” - Philippa Gregory

69. “This building fool could only be Bess of Hardwicke, a woman whose name is seldom seen in print without the word “redoubtable” in front of it. I wondered if anyone ever called her redoubtable to her face. I redoubted it.” - JoAnn Spears

70. “Humans will never be in charge of this world, as long as dust and weeds do as they please.” - Nancy B. Brewer

71. “It is important for a woman to have the duplicity to make good use of whatever gifts she might have, however valueless they might seem... You have to have the inner strength to pursue your goal, and not care how many enemies you make along the road. It is not easy.” - Anne O'Brien

72. “Amy wondered if Bonaparte could declare war on Miss Gwen alone without breaking his peace with England” - Lauren Willig