Historical Fiction Quotes - Page 9

Conformity is deformity

Sharon Desruisseaux

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

Pierre Marshesso

You think I started out like this?Well, I didn't.I started out like anyone else - young and hopeful. I started out arrogant and in love, assuming the whole dizzy world was where it should be: at my feet. I started out - well, I started out a little like you.

Gail Levy

Mama says love is a sickness of the heart. Only the weak fall under its spell.

Katlyn Charlesworth

How can one fight for a love that acts as the enemy?

Katlyn Charlesworth

Our lover is the sun, and we the stars forever floating in their glow. We push and push, yearning for our sun's rays to reach out and touch us for just a moment in time… one second-glance to warm our spirits and soothe our aching hearts.

Katlyn Charlesworth

Vera had also hated lipstick, Marzipan and Lutherans - excluding her husband, but not her late mother-in-law. Most of all she hated being governed by anyone or anything.

Victoria Dougherty

On the black cotton was printed a white skull and crossbones - the skull head grinning as if he were mocking her. The nun struggled for her breath and wanted to drop the evil little banner, but her fingers wouldn't let go of it - making her stare into its horrid death face as if she were looking at her own end.

Victoria Dougherty

A brief whiff of her mother had come through a cracked window that opened to a weed-infested courtyard. It was a fragrance that almost spoke to her, saying, 'Yes, it was an unjust end to the life of a good man.' A man who had accepted gratitude in the place of love, and who knew Magdalena's heart would always remain with Ales's father.

Victoria Dougherty

Alana Marks had always known she was different. From her gypsy childhood, to the way she now made her living in the movies, she'd always lived on the edge. She'd been paid to leap from a sixteenth story window, roll a car to a cliff edge, get thrown off a speeding train and dragged into a river by a runaway horse. At the moment, she was about to set herself on fire and jump out of a burning barn.

Sir, you do understand that - officially - I'm not actually a centurion. I haven't even been assigned to a legion yet.'tThe general continued writing as he spoke. 'What was the name?'t'Corbulo, sir.'t'Corbulo, you have an officer's tunic and an officer's helmet; and you completed full officer training did you not?'tCassius nodded. He could easily recall every accursed test and drill. Though he'd excelled in the cerebral disciplines and somehow survived the endless marches and swims, he had rated poorly with sword in hand and had been repeatedly described as "lacking natural leadership ability." The academy's senior centurion had seemed quite relieved when the letter from the Service arrived. t 'I did, sir, but it was felt I would be more suited to intelligence work than the legions, I really would prefer -' t'And you did take an oath? To Rome, the Army and the Emperor?'t'I did, sir, and of course I am happy to serve but -'tThe General finished the orders. He rolled the sheet up roughly and handed it to Cassius. t'Dismissed.'t'Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. I just have one final question.'tThe General was on his way back to his chair. He turned around and fixed Cassius with an impatient stare. t'Sir - how should I present myself to the troops? In terms of rank I mean.' t'They will assume you are a centurion, and I can see no practical reason whatsoever to disabuse them of that view.

Men are not born equal in themselves, so I think it beneath a man to postulate that they are. If I thought myself as good as Sokrates I should be a fool; and if, not really believing it, I asked you to make me happy by assuring me of it, you would rightly despise me. So why should I insult my fellow-citizens by treating them as fools and cowards? A man who thinks himself as good as everyone else will be at no pains to grow better. On the other hand, I might think myself as good as Sokrates, and even persuade other fools to agree with me; but under a democracy, Sokrates is there in the Agora to prove me wrong. I want a city where I can find my equals and respect my betters, whoever they are; and where no one can tell me to swallow a lie because it is expedient, or some other man's will.

Peggy is a sovereign nation. She governs herself and those around her by her own laws.

Katlyn Charlesworth

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. - Eighth Amendment, United States Constitution

Yasmin Tirado-Chiodini

ANTONIO PONTÓN’S TRIAL made front page headlines across major newspapers. On April 17, 1915, the Schenectady Gazette headline read, “Trial of Ponton on the Charge of Committing one of Most Startling Murders in History of County.

Yasmin Tirado-Chiodini

That would be awkwarder--for her, at least--than expiring in his bedroom. And yes, she knew that wasn't a word.She reached his door without either fainting or falling, and counted it as a victory already. And then she raised her hand to knock, but the door whooshed open, and she was pulled inside."I was hoping," he began, before lowering his mouth onto hers.

When you live in my house, you learn to be fine with whatever you come across. It's the only way to stay sane in insanity.

Katlyn Charlesworth

By nature, it's impossible to describe enlightenment! How do you plan on sharing your enlightenment? Hahaha, that's impossible. Wake up! That'll be the end of the world if you ever succeed!

John had been a footman nearly all of his adult life. He knew decorum and appropriate behavior for his situation. But when he glanced from one twin to another, he nearly ruined his reputation and self-respect forever with...a smile.

War is a terrible, bloody thing.

Katlyn Charlesworth

A story is a wondrous invention.

Chris Womersley

One's child is always one's child no matter what age they might be. You worry when your child makes a noise, when he doesn't. It's a terrible kind of love. Terrible.

Chris Womersley

To survive one tragedy was to learn you cannot survive them all, and this knowledge was both a freedom and a great loss.

Chris Womersley

The giant beech next door intends to shiver off every hair of its pelt.

Barbara Kingsolver

A Quote from Monty's journal in GOD MUST BE WEEPING. "I felt as anonymous as a grain of sand.

We cannot save everyone, can we?’ I said to her as we continued walking on our way. I turned my head back only to find the spot the beggar had occupied empty. ‘Not everyone,’ she said. She took my hand once more in hers, kissed the back of it, and finished one of the sincerest axioms I had heard in sometime. ‘We must save,’ she said, ‘only the ones we can while we can.’Leila Bakr, in A TIME TO LOVE IN TEHRAN, and speaking to her love, John Lockwood

The spicy sweet fragrance of the large full blooms, which rambled over the side and top of an arched metal framework, welcomed them as they walked beneath them. Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy, dust motes floating languorously in the golden beams that spotlighted clumps of wayward snowdrops growing in the lawn.

Lady's mouth tasted like blood and iron all the time now. It tasted like defeat.

He speaks in that strange sports talk, telling me about the start of the new season and asks if I follow baseball.tNo. I really don’t.tHe assures me if I stay in town long enough I will become a baseball fan. It’s a requirement of living in St. Louis. Everyone is a Cardinal’s fan.t“Loyal,” he tells me. St. Louis is a loyal town.

In my end lies my beginning" Who said that? Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587).

The problem with living so long is that you see too many people pass before you.

Lisa See

The virtuous are among the the weakest and quickest to sin

when you walk the path of revenge, know that someone will always follow your trail

If the gods chose Sextus as King of Rome, the worst possible evil will befall it

Discourses, which are mostly wrapped in spurious religious and patriotic ideologies that ignite the enthusiasm of the ignorant masses

It was a hymn with the force of a march, a march with the majesty of a hymn. It was the song of soldiers bearing sacred banners and of priests carrying swords. It was an anthem to the sanctity of strength.

Ayn Rand

He found Granny on the porch, asleep. Her chin sat on her chest, rising and falling with her breath. He gathered her up in his arms, light as a girl, and carried her inside to her room. He covered her in her old handed-down quilt. The outer layers were burnished to a luster over decades of sleeping flesh, the inner batting composed of older blankets still. He tucked it under her feet, her elbows and shoulders, and went out into the den and opened the door of the wood stove. A mouth of red coals. He added two lengths of the seasoned white oak they kept stacked on the porch, hot-burning wood for cold nights, and stoked it to a fury before stepping outside.

Why else do we write and write except to move our readers?

History immortalises both the names of the greats and the tyrants without making a distinction between them.

Their eyes locked.They could see into each other's souls. This was why she had been born.

Marion Croslydon

Even a goat got to be a goat." Esperança's comments about slaves during the triangular slave trade.

Not having any drink about ain’t the same as not understanding the need for one. Times like these change a body’s perspective.

Samuel Snoek-Brown

A man should not glory in what he already knows but in what he has yet to learn.

Robert Stephen Parry

He spent the next hours watching her sleep, taking in every detail of her face, of her body. The way the soft glow of the bedside lamp cast shadows on her cheeks. The way her chest rose and fell with each breath. And when the first light of dawn finally showed through the gap in the curtains he quietly dressed and turned off the bedside lamp, and left the room, not daring to look back.

Dominique Wilson

He (her son) is just like his father, doesn't listen to a word I say!

Incredible. It is just incredible that you can notice something like that when your face is so cold you can't feel it anymore, and you know perfectly well you are surrounded by death, and the only way to stay alive is to endure the howling wind and hold your course. And still the sky is beautiful.

Mankind in the aggregate I have found to be brutish, ignorant and unkind, whether those qualities were covered by the coarse tunic of the peasant of the white and purple toga of a senator. And yet in the weakest of men, in moments when they are alone and themselves, I have found veins of strength like gold in decaying rock; in the cruelest of men, flashes of tenderness and compassion; and in the vainest of men, moments of simplicity and grace.

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

Was Jane now. All Jane. Come calamity or come calm, was myself and none else.

Some girls are sweeter… Others have a tinge of bitterness… It is as if I can smell their souls. Their experiences and relationships are painted in warm, sour crimson.

Katlyn Charlesworth

The wolf had begun hunting human prey. They were plentiful in the dark city streets and provided enough good meat to satiate his gnawing hunger. He was still very careful not to let any who saw him live. To do otherwise would displease the Master. He would only stalk those people that were foolish enough to walk alone in the night

Brian S. Ference

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.

Only a fool lies brooding over his problems. When the morning comes he's tired out and his problems are the same as before.

When you fear nothing, you have nothing to fear

Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.--Ray Bradbury

The typewriter is indeed my passport into a world otherwise barred to me and my kind.

Suzanne Rindell

Between the sands of time and tradition is a multitude of truths untold.

Their eyes locked.They could see into each other's souls. This was why she had been bored.

Marion Croslydon

Men may fight the battle, but women wage the war.

Katlyn Charlesworth

I remember the great feeling of sadness to have left many of our brothers behind in a foreign land, but as I sat on the rowing bench, alongside Hengist and Yffi, as the Famous Horse sailed over the gentle waves, I couldn't help but feel excited of what was to come. Yet none of us could have predicted that we were sailing towards a head -on-collision with the Roman General, Flavius Aëtius and his Hun allies, where Hengist and I would come face to face with the legendary Siegfried the Dragon Slayer and the one they call Attila the Hun!

S.A. Swaffington

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