74 Historical Fiction Book Quotes

Historical fiction transports us to different eras, allowing us to experience the lives, struggles, and triumphs of people from the past. Through the magic of storytelling, these books provide a unique lens into history, bringing to life the events and personalities that have shaped our world. In this blog post, we've curated a collection of the top 74 quotes from some of the most compelling historical fiction novels. Each quote offers a glimpse into the rich tapestry of history and the power of the human spirit. Whether you are a longtime fan of the genre or new to its charms, these quotes are sure to inspire, provoke thought, and perhaps even lead you to your next great read.

1. “What, did you think," she asked, laughing as he struggled up the bank, "that I, a Gaulish maiden, could not swim?" "I did not think anything about it," Malchus said; "I saw you pushed in and followed without thinking at all." Although they imperfectly understood each other's words the meaning was clear; the girl put her hand on his shoulder and looked frankly up in his face. "I thank you," she said, "just the same as if you had saved my life. You meant to do so, and it was very good of you, a great chief of this army, to hazard your life for a Gaulish maiden. Clotilde will never forget.” - G.A. Henty

2. “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

3. “I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defense I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915.” - Laurie R. King

4. “My love for you won't stop with my leaving. Come an evening over the years, when you step outside your door and hear the wind blowing through the cottonwoods, that'll be me, thinking of you, whispering your name, and loving you.” - Penelope Williamson

5. “True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring.” - Alexandre Dumas

6. “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

7. “Over time, this unspoken attration continued to blossom, refusing to dwindle or fade, though they had little opportunity to foster or nourish it. Slowly and patiently, Robert's sheer persistence in the chase had revealed his heart, and Charlotte came to realize the nameless thing between them was love.” - Emery Lee

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. “Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.” - Oscar Wilde

10. “He watched the newly arrived commuters as they stepped into the carriage, pushed their way down the tube, the odours from their damp clothes mingling, giving off varying degrees of mustiness: London grime, or smoke from airless offices. A woman wearing a blue swing coat glanced along the carriage, casting around for an empty seat. Her pale skin, the searching green eyes, reminded him of Emma. Briefly, he felt his breath catch; he stood, clambered back over his neighbour and indicated for her to take his seat. And so his mind stayed with Emma when he knew he should be working out a strategy for telling Dorothy of his news. But Emma was never far away; like the glitter balls in dance halls, she would slowly rotate in his memory, different facets reappearing, as the hues changed in her auburn hair.” - Amanda Sington-Williams

11. “Enjoy the ride!” - Emery Lee

12. “Midnight Omen Deja vu" - Because everyone should experience love in the Caribbean...at least once in a lifetime.” - Marti Melville

13. “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

14. “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

15. “Two are better than one,because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lif' up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.” - John Steinbeck

16. “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

17. “Kevin looks at me and I know he isn’t seeing the little girl I use to be, all pigtails and gangly limbs. He isn’t seeing my mother’s daughter or even my mother anymore. As his eyes linger over me, stopping here and there in the most uncomfortable places, I know he isn’t really even seeing me as I am. The bloodshot eyes staring out of the alcohol-flushed face are seeing a girl, nearly of age, who owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude.--Rocky Evans” - Gwenn Wright

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

19. “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

20. “If anyone or anything tries to curse or kill the Goodness at the Center of all things, it will just keep coming back to life. Forever Easter.” - David Housholder

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

22. “I want you forever. I will always be with you. I will always love you. I will love, honor, and cherish you for all eternity.” - Katrina "Adrian" Miller

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

24. “She had wanted more than she could have.She had wanted him, and more... she had wanted him to want her.In the name of something bigger than tradition, bolder than reputation, more important than a silly title.” - Sarah MacLean

25. “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

26. “She says it is a school for bluestockings which, according to her, is really only a fashionable way of saying it is a school for ugly girls who cannot find suitable husbands. To tease her, for I believe it is one of his greatest pleasures in this life, my father bought a pair of blue silk stockings for me the day we received my letter of acceptance. That evening and the next, father and I dined alone.” - Gwenn Wright

27. “How many times can a heart be shattered and still be pieced back together? How many times before the damage is irreparable?” - Gwenn Wright

28. “Like billiard balls colliding our courses were altered.” - Linda Collison

29. “The British could leave and half India wouldn't notice us leaving just as they didn't notice us arriving. All our reforms of administration might be reforms on the moon for all it has to do with them..” - J.G. Farrell

30. “All things in Fiji are paid for in blood.” - Lance Morcan & James Morcan

31. “A glance would not be enough to tell you this was the daughter of Katherine Raquel Demure. Even a lingering gaze would not suffice. No. Only careful study of the original and a comparative inspection of her only child would even hint at a relation between the two. Viktor could see it and knew, beyond doubt, that Henrietta not only saw it but was also vexed by it on a daily basis.” - Gwenn Wright

32. “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

33. “She raised her head and saw a squadron of fighter planes. She stretched her hand high as if she could grab hold and climb away from what she had done, from who she was.” - Sarah Sundin

34. “{Summertime she speaks of winter, she eats ham, but speaks of beef, got a good man but, flirts with another. She might as well go to hell, cause she ain't gonna be happy in heaven either!}” - Nancy B. Brewer

35. “You are both daring and unscrupulous, and you think fast. I have been looking for a person with those particular characteristics. Also I noticed you speak Babylonian.” - Eloise Jarvis McGraw

36. “Some ghosts are so quiet you would hardly know they were there.” - Bernie Mcgill

37. “Their eyes locked.They could see into each other's souls. This was why she had been bored.” - Marion Croslydon

38. “Riding a bull must be a bit like flying an ultralight. You get up there and have an exhilarating ride, but then you still have to get down.” - Susan Spence

39. “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

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

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

42. “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

43. “Are you a traveling man he asked?” - Nancy B. Brewer

44. “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

45. “Perhaps you have visited my grave and flowers left, but did you hear me cry out to you!” - Nancy B. Brewer

46. “There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,” Chiron said. “And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?” - Madeline Miller

47. “I been running up a bill with the devil ever since, and now he's come to collect on the debt.” - Steven B. Weissman

48. “Every great day has a story and a song!” - Faith Reese Martin

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

50. “Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones.” - Libba Bray

51. “A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.” - Jane Yolen

52. “The end is but a new beginning for the eternal "Ba.” - Inge H. Borg

53. “I knew why earlier generations once believed that the sun circled the earth. Because, in our limited imaginations, that is how we lived our lives. -Mrs. Tuesday's Departure” - Suzanne Anderson

54. “Forget the threat of Hell's infernal flames. The true torture would condemn a man to wait and wait and wait - for an eternity” - Sharon Kay Penman

55. “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

56. “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

57. “You know what it's like when a cart overturns in the street? Everybody you meet has witnessed it. They saw a man's leg sliced clean off. They saw a woman gasp her last. They saw the goods looted, thieves stealing from the back-end while the carter was crushed at the front. They heard a man roar out his last confession, while another whispered his last will and testament. And if all the people who say they were there had really been there, then the dregs of London would have drained to the one spot, the gaols emptied of thieves, the beds empty of whores, and all the lawyers standing on the shoulders of the butchers to get a better look.” - Hilary Mantel

58. “Rebel Number Four" is waiting patiently by the door. I named him "Rebel Number Four," for he is the fourth of his kind I have given the name "Rebel." To many he may be just a hound dog, but to me he is a champion and a friend to the end.” - Nancy B. Brewer

59. “He is not a man wedded to action, Boleyn, but rather a man who stands by, smirking and stroking his beard; he thinks he looks enigmatic, but instead he looks as if he's pleasuring himself.” - Hilary Mantel

60. “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

61. “LIPID (Last Idiot Person I Dated) syndrome: a largely undiagnosed but pervasive disease that afflicts single women.” - Lauren Willig

62. “Once more, I am watching the most powerful men in the kingdom bring their power to bear on a woman who has done nothing worse than live to the beat of her own heart, see with her own eyes; but this is not their tempo nor their vision and they cannot tolerate any other.” - Philippa Gregory

63. “Don't ever let anyone tell you that things can't be changed, that things can't be done. The can and they will, if we are united in what we believe.” - F.C. Malby

64. “To Jana's mind everybody seemed happy to see BAbichka and resisted returning her, like a misplaced package sent to the wrong address. It was as if the recipient opened it up, knowing it should be returned, but wondering who long they could legitimately keep it before being changed with theft.” - F.C. Malby

65. “I don't know, Benes. I'm not sure I've ever really understood women for that kind of commitment.' He flipped his beer mat up int the air with his index finger and caught it in his hand.” - F.C. Malby

66. “9 November 1989. A day nobody would forget. She had heard rumours about the wall.” - F.C. Malby

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

68. “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

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

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

71. “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

72. “How easy it is to do wrong when there is someone else to blame.” - Jenny Lloyd

73. “It seemed the heavens themselves conspired to cover up our crime.” - Jenny Lloyd

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