92 Historical Fiction Quotes

If you have ever been captivated by stories that blend the rich tapestry of history with the allure of fiction, then you'll appreciate the magic that historical fiction offers. These narratives deftly transport readers through time, allowing us to experience eras long past through the eyes of compelling characters and vivid settings. Our curated collection of the top 92 historical fiction quotes celebrates this enchanting genre, capturing moments of profound wisdom, emotion, and storytelling mastery. Whether you're a longtime aficionado or new to this captivating realm, let these quotes serve as both a portal to the past and an inspiration for your imagination.

1. “Harsh words live in the dungeon of the heart” - Norman Mailer

2. “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

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. “Think ere you speak” - Valerie Tripp

5. “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

6. “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

7. “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

8. “To see the years touch ye gives me joy", he whispered, "for it means that ye live.” - Diana Gabaldon (Jamie Fraser)

9. “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

10. “Son of a beast tried to bite me when I turned my back to the billets!"...Nostrils flaring and ears pinned, the grey repeated the offense. "He wants another go at it. Be a sport ol' man!" Robert chortled. The indignant Scotsman threw the reins in his face, tromping off to collect the major's horse."I wonder was it reward or punishment Winthrop had in mind in allowing you to keep that brute?" Drake innocently inquired."He only eats Scotsman," Robert quipped.” - Emery Lee

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

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. “No life form on this planet undergoes such a slow and graceful death as the tobacco leaf.” - Mark McGinty

15. “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

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. “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

20. “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

21. “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

22. “Selene’s life is a lesson to us that the trajectory of women’s equality hasn’t always been a forward march. In some ways the ancients were more advanced than we are today; there have been setbacks before and may be more in the future.” - Stephanie Dray

23. “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

24. “lightning thief was good but the sea of monsters is better and has more action!” - Rick Riordan

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

26. “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

27. “Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.” - Philippa Gregory

28. “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

29. “Why else do we write and write except to move our readers?” - Jerome Charyn

30. “I am fond of history and am very well contented to take the false with the true. In the principal facts they have sources of intelligence in former histories and records, which may be as much depended on, I conclude, as anything that does not actually pass under ones own observation; and as for the little embellishments you speak of, they are embellishments, and I like them as such.” - Jane Austen

31. “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

32. “Good men are often more practical than pretty " said Mother. "Andrius just happens to be both.” - Ruta Sepetys

33. “How did I get here How did I end up in the arms of a boy I barely knew but knew I didn't want to lose I wondered what I would have thought of Andrius in Lithuania. Would I have liked him Would he have liked me” - Ruta Sepetys

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

35. “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

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

37. “Fairy tales only happen in movies." -George Meliesfrom The Invention of Hugo Cabret” - Brian Selznick

38. “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

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

40. “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

41. “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

42. “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

43. “— 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

44. “{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

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

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

47. “Ain’t nothing too serious. Even death is a joke on the old devil, if we are living for the Lord.” - Nancy B. Brewer

48. “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

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

50. “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

51. “According to Robert, his friend Moses was a soldier in the first war, as he described it. He fought Indians and soldiers in red coats.” - Nancy B. Brewer

52. “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

53. “Listen, my child, to the voices of your ancestors. Take pride in our accomplishments; find your strength in our suffering. For WE are not just voices in the wind, WE are a living part of YOU” - Nancy B. Brewer

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

55. “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

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

57. “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

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

59. “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

60. “Messages continued to arrive from the Earl of Warwick, urging Londoners to hold firm for King Harry. Marguerite d'Anjou and her son were expected to land at any time, while from St Albans, Edward sent word that Harry of Lancaster was to be considered a prisoner of state. At that, John Stockton, the Mayor of London, contracted a diplomatic virus and took to his bed.” - Sharon Kay Penman

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

62. “The curtains were not yet drawn and with the moonlight spreading across the room, I could see clearly. I undressed and slipped a soft cotton gown over my naked body. I pulled the blanket off the foot of my bed, covered my shoulders and wa...lked out on the balcony. The cool night air blowing through my hair served as a reminder that only a hint of summer remained in this year of 1860.” - Nancy B. Brewer

63. “She turned her painted blue eyes toward the assistant and said something in French before she left.” - Nancy B. Brewer

64. “You can only chase a butterfly for so long.” - Jane Yolen

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

66. “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

67. “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

68. “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

69. “But you see, Crumb, it is hard to give up what you have worked at since you were a boy. There were some Italian visitors once, they were cheering us on, Brandon and myself, and they thought that Achilles and Hector had come back to life. So they said.'But which is which? One dragged through the dust by the other ...The king says, 'You turn your boy out beautifully. No nobleman could do more.''I don't want him to be Achilles,' he says, 'I only want him not to be flattened.” - Hilary Mantel

70. “How many men can say, as I must, 'I am a man whose only friend is the King of England'? I have everything, you would think. And yet take Henry away, and I have nothing.” - Hilary Mantel

71. “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

72. “You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him. But as Thomas More used to say, it's like sporting with a tamed lion. You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you're thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.” - Hilary Mantel

73. “No man as godly as George, the only fault he finds with God is that he made folk with too few orifices. If George could meet a woman with a quinny under her armpit, he would call out 'Glory be' and set her up in a house and visit her every day, until the novelty wore off. Nothing is forbidden to George, you see. He'd go to it with a terrier bitch if she wagged her tail at him and said bow-wow.'For once he is struck silent. He knows he will never get it out of his mind, the picture of George in a hairy grapple with a little ratting dog.” - Hilary Mantel

74. “I could faintly smell the ocean. I imagined being one of the old oak trees standing there swaying in the wind and braving all sorts of weather. I pondered what they had seen in the past and what they might see in the future” - Nancy B. Brewer

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

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

77. “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

78. “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

79. “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

80. “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

81. “I understand, gentlemen,” John Kennedy said. “If you find that life it’s not easy, let me tell you, death is worse.” - Pierre Marshesso

82. “The lines in the corners of her eyes spoke of years of wisdom, as a tree with the number of rings increasing with each passing year. She was a small frame of a woman with piercing eyes that suggested that they knew you, understood you even.” - F.C. Malby

83. “The others moved in like a wake of vultures, ready to devour their prey. she had seen it on television once. 'Scavengers,' Tatinek called them. They swoop in and feed off the carcasses of animals that are too weak to escape - lots of them on battlefields. This looked the same, only the victim wasn't there, just his writing, his typewriter, and bits of dark paper.” - F.C. Malby

84. “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

85. “He nodded, looking across the room at the sea of photographers and journalists. The microphones spread around him like birds waiting to be fed.” - F.C. Malby

86. “Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya.” - Ron Swan

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

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

89. “Everyone is a criminal! We are beset on all sides by antirevolutionary forces. Naturally, then, humans fall into three categories: the criminal, the not-yet-criminal, and the not-yet-caught.” - Catherynne M. Valente

90. “Ann Boleyn...a Renaissance Audrey Hepburn in a little black dress.” - JoAnn Spears

91. “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

92. “All that I was and the world that was mine are gone forever.” - Jenny Lloyd