A Breath of Snow and Ashes Quotes

“Time is a lot of the things people say that God is. There's always preexisting, and having no end. There's the notion of being all powerful-because nothing can stand against time, can it? Not mountains, not armies. And time is, of course, all-healing. Give anything enough time, and everything is taken care of: all pain encompassed, all hardship erased, all loss subsumed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Remember, man, that thou art dust; and unto dust thou shalt return.

And if time is anything akin to God, I suppose that memory must be the devil.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“If I die," he whispered in the dark, "dinna follow me. The bairns will need ye. Stay for them. I can wait.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“All I want, is for you to love me. Not because of what I can do or what I look like, or because I love you - just because I am.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“The dog would run a few steps toward the house, circle once or twice as though unable to decide what to do next, then run back into the wood, turn, and run again toward the house, all the while whining with agitation, tail low and wavering.
"Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ," I said. "Bloody Timmy's in the well!”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“This wife you have, Bird said at last, deeply contemplative, did you pay a great deal for her?

She cost me almost everything I had, he said, with a wry tone that made the others laugh. But worth it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“There is an oath upon her," he said to Arch, and I realized dimly that he was still speaking in Gaelic, though I understood him clearly. "She may not kill, save it is for mercy or her life. It is myself who kills for her.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“But we are here, all of us. And we're here because I love you, more than the life that was mine. Because I believed you loved me the same way...will you tell me that's not true?

No, he said after a moment, so softly I could barely hear him. His hand tightened harder on mine. No, I willna tell ye that. Not ever, Claire.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Why d'ye talk to yourself?'
'It assures me of a good listener.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Highlanders make the truest friends-if only because they make the worst enemies.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Ye’re mine, Sassenach. And I would do anything I thought I must to make that clear.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“If one day, a bhailach...ye should meet a verra large mouse named Michael-ye'll tell him your grandsire sends his regards.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Yes. Just now, I was actually trying to rank 'I love you, I like you, I worship you, I have to have my cock inside you,' in terms of relative sincerity.

Did I day that? he said sounding slightly startled.

Yes. Weren't you listening?

No, he admitted. I meant every word of it though. His hand cupped one buttock, weighing it appreciatively. Still do come to that.

What, even that last one? I laughed and rubbed my forehead gently against his chest, feeling his jaw rest snugly on top of my head.

Oh, aye, he said gathering me firmly against him with a sigh. I will say the flesh requires a bit of supper and a wee rest before I think of doin' it again, but the spirit is always willing. God, ye have the sweetest fat wee bum. Only seeing it makes me want to give it yea again directly. It's lucky ye're wed to a decrepit auld man, Sessenach, or ye'd be on your knees with your arse in the air this minute.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“I canna look at ye asleep without wanting to wake ye, Sassenach.” His hand cupped my breast, gently now. “I suppose I find myself lonely without ye.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“If she was broken, she would slash him with her jagged edges, reckless as a drunkard with a shattered bottle.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Ye’ve no idea how lovely ye look, stark naked, wi’ the sun behind you. All gold, like ye were dipped in it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“If ye were no longer there—or somewhere—” he said very softly, “then the sun would no longer come up or go down.” He lifted my hand and kissed it, very gently. He laid it, closed around my ring, upon my chest, rose, and left.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“We've ghosts enough between us, Sassenach. If the evils of the past canna hinder us-neither then shall any fears of the future. We must just must put things behind us and get on. Aye?”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“A cold supper, were you thinking? I asked dubiously.

I was not, he said firmly, I mean to light a roaring fire in the kitchen hearth, fry up a dozen eggs in butter, and eat them all, then lay ye down on the hearth rug and roger ye 'till you - is that all right? he inquired, noticing my look.

'Til I what? I asked fascinated by his description of the evening's program.

'Til ye burst into flame and take me with ye, I suppose, he said, and stooping, swooped me up into his arms and carried me across the darkened threshold.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“This was nonsense, he thought. The need of her was a physical thing, like the thirsty of a sailor becalmed for weeks on the sea. He'd felt the need before, often, often, in their years apart. But why now? She was safe; he knew where she was - was it only the exhaustion of the past weeks and days, or perhaps the weakness of creeping age that made his bones ache, as though she had in fact been torn from his body, as God had made Eve from Adam's rib?”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“He reached forward then took me in his arms, held me close for a moment, the breath of snow and ashes cold around us. Then he kissed me, released me, and I took a deep breath of cold air, harsh with the scent of burning.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“He wanted to ask whether she were insane, but he had been married long enough to know the price of injudicious rhetorical questions.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“You aren't doing it for the sake of ideals, are you? Not for the sake of...liberty. Freedom, self determination, all that.'
He shook his head. 'No,' he said softly.
'Why, then? I asked, more gently.
'For you,' he said without hesitation.
'...For my family. For the future. And if that is not an ideal, I've never heard of one.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“I do not understand men.” That made him chuckle, deep in his chest. “Yes, ye do, Sassenach. Ye only wish ye didn’t.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“I was crying and laughing, snuffing tears and blood, bumping at him with my bound hands, trying awkwardly to thrust them at him so that he could cut the rope. He quit grappling, and clutched me so hard against him that I yelped in pain as my face was pressed against his plaid. He was saying something else, urgently, but I couldn’t manage to translate it. Energy pulsed through him, hot and violent, like the current in a live wire, and I vaguely realized that he was still almost berserk; he had no English.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“Roger, listening intently, couldn't keep from asking a question at this point.

Is it true Colonel Stark said 'Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes?'

Lee coughed discreetly.

Well sir. I couldn't say for sure as no one said that, but I didn't hear it myself. Mind, I DID hear one colonel call out, 'Any whoreson fool wastes his powder afore the bastards are close enough to kill is gonna get his musket shoved up his arse butt-first!”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“All I want,” she said softly to the dark, “is for you to love me. Not because of what I can do or what I look like, or because I love you—just because I am.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“As the world turns toward winter and the nights grow long, people begin to wake in the dark. Lying in bed too long cramps the limbs, and dreams dreamt too long turn inward on themselves, grotesque as a Mandarin’s fingernails. By and large, the human body isn’t adapted for more than seven or eight hours’ sleep—but what happens when the nights are longer than that? What happens is the second sleep. You fall asleep from tiredness, soon after dark—but then wake again, rising toward the surface of your dreams like a trout coming up to feed. And should your sleeping partner also wake then—and people who have slept together for a good many years know at once when each other wakes—you have a small, private place to share, deep in the night. A place in which to rise, to stretch, to bring a juicy apple back to bed, to share slice by slice, fingers brushing lips. To have the luxury of conversation, uninterrupted by the business of the day. To make love slowly in the light of an autumn moon. And then, to lie close, and let a lover’s dreams caress your skin as you begin to sink once more beneath the waves of consciousness, blissful in the knowledge that dawn is far off—that’s second sleep.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“You may have it,” he said. His voice was very low, but he met my eyes straight on. “All of it. Anything that was ever done to me. If ye wish it, if it helps ye, I will live it through again.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“I regarded him gently over my own bowl of stew. He was very large, solid, and beautifully formed. And if he was a bit battered by circumstance, that merely added to his charm.

"You're a very hard person to kill, I think," I said. "That's a great comfort to me.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“In war, government and their armies were a threat, but it was so often the neighbors who damned or saved you”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes