Inspriational Historical Fiction Quotes

He is a loving Father, Johanna. God metes out justice and mercy. Even miracles." He paused. "Never anger. ~ Kate Breslin

A man did what was right even when the odds were stacked against him. ~ Karen Witemeyer

Have you forgiven yourself?" The quiet question slipped between his ribs to stagger his breath. "Abby squeezed his hand. "That's the hardest part, I've found." A thickness crept up Zach's throat. "How do you manage it?" "Little by little. I take comfort in the scriptures that talk about how God removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west, how He will remember our sins no more, how He urges us to cast our cares on Him. ~ Karen Witemeyer

He didn't see women as lesser beings. He respected their abilities and would defend them like a hero of old. ~ Karen Witemeyer

Will always wanted to live his own life, not have others live it for him. Looking back at it now, it was foolish to think so ~ Rehan Khan

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

Life's temptations have the purpose of putting our spiritual integrity to the test. To yield to them, however, gives one a precarious and tormented satisfaction. But the worst temptations are those we give in to without getting anything in return except for the brutal discovery of our weakness. ~ Paolo Maurensig

Anything by Kipling ~ Rudyard Kipling

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

Home isn't a safe place where everything stays the same; it's a place where you are safe and loved despite nothing staying the same. ~ Susan Meissner

It takes courage to stand for what you believe in. ~ James Jones

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

I have a story to tell. It is a tale for those who can still see, can still question.

A story of where you are and how you got here. A tale foretold by your poets and prophets through the ages. Read their words, their thoughts, so that you may understand. ~ W.H. Wisecarver

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

As their figures recede, it strikes Filsan as ironic that they had delayed fleeing so they could take as many of their possessions as possible, but now those very possessions prevent their flight. ~ Nadifa Mohamed

I have always regarded historical fiction and fantasy as sisters under the skin, two genres separated at birth. ~ Maurice Druon

Never bet your money on another man's game. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

[A]ll these years, I had been telling myself that my feelings for you were a juvenile infatuation; a dream inspired by my secret hope that somewhere there could be a creature who could love me. ~ Kellyn Roth

Rooks have clustered on either side of the long road. It is as if they line a grand parade route for our passage. Their black feathers are stark as soot against the white road and the snow. They stab at the ground with their strange bare bills and gray unfeathered faces. The birds are like rough-edged black stones on a string around this stripped cold neck of road. The old books tell us rooks bring the virtuous dead to heaven's gate. ~ Ned Hayes

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

Life is volatile. ~ Robert J. Pajer

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

How may times can you lose the one you love? ~ Lauren James

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

You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you possibly can. So because I had already written historical fiction before I was really good at the spilling beans section, but the new skill I had to learn when I was writing Brighton Belle was difficult. I had to avoid the equivalent of shouting, this character's a murderer! Look who did it!. ~ Sara Sheridan

I never sat down and said, 'I'm going to write historical fiction with strong romantic elements.' It was just the way the stories went. ~ Lauren Willig

I understand, gentlemen," John Kennedy said. "If you find that life it's not easy, let me tell you, death is worse. ~ Pierre Marshesso

Getting shot wasn't an issue of skill; it was an issue of chance. And Justice had a bullet-sized issue of chance lodged in her shoulder. ~ Ashley Nikole

Scientific practice is above all a story-telling practice ... Biology is inherently historical, and its form of discourse is inherently narrative ... Biology as a way of knowing the world is kin to Romantic literature, with its discourse about organic form and function. Biology is the fiction appropriate to objects called organisms; biology fashions the facts "discovered" about organic beings. ~ Donna J. Haraway

People often seem surprised that I choose to write science fiction and fantasy - I think they expect a history professor to write historical fiction, or literary fiction, associating academia with the kinds of novels that academic lit critics prefer. But I feel that speculative fiction, especially science fiction and fantasy, is a lot more like the pre-modern literature I spend most of my time studying than most modern literature is. Ursula Le Guin has described speculative fiction authors as "realists of a larger reality" because we imagine other ways of being, alternatives to how people live now, different worlds, and raise questions about hope and change and possibilities that different worlds contain.

....

Writing for a more distant audience, authors tended to be speculative, using exotic perspectives, fantastic creatures, imaginary lands, allegories, prophecies, stories within stories, techniques which, like science fiction and fantasy, use alternatives rather than one reality in order to ask questions, not about the way things are, but about plural ways things have been and could be. Such works have an empathy across time, expecting and welcoming an audience as alien as the other worlds that they describe. When I read Voltaire responding to Francis Bacon, responding to Petrarch, responding to Boethius, responding to Seneca, responding to Plutarch, I want to respond to them too, to pass it on. So it makes sense to me to answer in the genre people ha ~ Ada Palmer

For me, the historical and genealogical library is the one I use. I'm working on, I'll say, it's a time travel novel. I haven't written very much of it. That's the dirty secret of the Cullman center: The writers don't write their fiction there, they just do their research. ~ Andrew Sean Greer

The homily that day was on asking God for
guidance and wisdom when making decisions.
What if she prayed about her questions? Could
she still trust God if his answers were different
from what she wanted? ~ Dawn Klinge

I've been told that I cannot change shit, so I might as well stop torturing myself. My emotions are ridiculed and branded as childish. I have been told that the world has given up on my people. I have been told, and realise that on many occasions, I myself am viewed as an outcast by some of those suffering. I've been confronted and my answer is always the same: I care even in my most fucked-up moments. I care even when gates of shit pour open to drown me; I care because I am a citizen of the world. ~ Asaad Almohammad

Ridley nodded. 'She told me I couldn't ever tell General Harding or anybody else. Told me I wouldn't be safe.'
'Safe?' Uncle Bob stopped rocking and took the pipe from between his teeth. 'She started in talkin' 'bout you bein' safe, sir?'
Ridley nodded again, and that's when Uncle Bob grinned.
'Well, shoot ... you ain't lost her yet, sir. Not altogether, anyhow. Any female goes to talkin' 'bout you bein' safe ... hmmph. There still be somethin' left in her heart for ya. ~ Tamera Alexander

Death, it seems, has a mind of its own. ~ Ruta Sepetys

The end is but a new beginning for the eternal Ba. ~ Inge H. Borg

Bram stared into a pair of wide, dark eyes. Eyes that reflected a surprising glimmer of intelligence. This might be the rare female a man could reason with.
"Now, then," he said. "We can do this the easy way, or we can make things difficult."
With a soft snort, she turned her head. It was as if he'd ceased to exist.
Bram shifted his weight to his good leg, feeling the stab to his pride. He was a lieutenant colonel in the British army, and at over six feet tall, he was said to cut an imposing figure. Typically, a pointed glance from his quarter would quell the slightest hint of disobedience. He was not accustomed to being ignored.
"Listen sharp, now." He gave her ear a rough tweak and sank his voice to a low threat. "If you know what's good for you, you'll do as I say."
Though she spoke not a word, her reply was clear: You can kiss my great wolly arse.
Confounded sheep. ~ Tessa Dare

Hope is like a candle burning within my heart. It flickers and wanes, but please don't blow it out - Gurkan ~ Rehan Khan

Huzzah! Free Trade and Sailors' Rights! But instead American ships are captured and sailors impressed by the thousands into the British Navy, becoming slaves to the lash, while the United States has virtually no navy to back them up. Baltimore native, Nathan Jeffries, son of an American hero, Captain William Jeffries, and his Quaker wife, Amy, is haunted by the memories of his fiancee, his best friend, his enemy's woman and his betrayal. Chesapeake Bay is no refuge aboard his father's brig Bucephalus;facing his worst fears, he is chased and captured by armed privateer schooner Scourge. In a violent world at war, Nathan must break his most solemn promise to his mother. For Nathan and the young United States, 1812 would severely challenge rights of passage. ~ Bert J. Hubinger

Please do not mistake me for a twopenny villain. I do nothing without a purpose. ~ Donna Thorland