Historical Fiction Quotes

You’re a lady. It’s written all over you, but the West doesn’t forgive any woman-unless she’s got a man.

~ Liliana Shelbrook

Our fathers fought bravely. But do you know the biggest weapon unleashed by the enemy against them? It was not the Maxim gun. It was division among them. Why? Because a people united in faith are stronger than the bomb

~ Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o

The reader may ask how to tell fact from fiction. A rough guide: anything that seems particularly unlikely is probably true.

~ Hilary Mantel

There are some things you never say good-bye to

~ Elizabeth Berg

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

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

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 D. Miller

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

(The golden goose has died, my prince turned into a frog, the Kingdom is lost, everyone has turned into stone and I am locked in the tower)

~ Nancy B. Brewer

I have come to think that's where Heaven is, a place in the memories of other where our best selves live

~ Christina Baker Kline

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

Through enjoyment we endure.

~ Florence Ditlow

Like billiard balls colliding our courses were altered.

~ Linda Collison

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

Catch on fire with enthusiasm, and people will come for miles to watch you burn

~ Jo Ann Butler

No, It's not fair. But I was thinking more along the lines of the Pentagon and Washington itself. Sometimes I suspect that those who are running things might grow addicted to power. Secrecy's essential in wartime, but once in place, will it ever be removed?

~ Marge Piercy

He could never be anything more than what he was: the inheritor of weakness and unbridled emotion, a creature possessed by the past, and carrying its curse forever into the future--

~ John Jakes

No life form on this planet undergoes such a slow and graceful death as the tobacco leaf.

~ Mark Mcginty

Next time -- we will roll out the red carpet for you in the United States of Arabia, my brethren!

~ Leonard Leventon

Both slaves had been oiled until their flesh shined like polished ebony, outlining every detail of their muscles.

~ Myra Hargrave Mcilvain

And unbidden, floating into consciousness came the truth of his utter wretchedness. Even the very earth seemed to cry out in pain. Hodburn Wood

~ J. Tyson-Capper

All malice, real and imagined, Ralegh's and the KIng's, will die upon the instant stroke of an axe. Be buried with him. His faith, then? Whatever remains will be parted. Some will go with the head and some with the headless body. Let them look for each other on Judgment Day. Perhaps on that day, in the haste of it, the bodies of traitors will have to settle for heads other than their own. Some inevitable mismatching of villians and rogues will take place. And one fine bony fellow will spy his skull upon another's body. Then another. And then maybe we shall be witness to the brawl and battle of the bones...

~ George Garrett

Exile might satisfy the anger of the living, but it did not appease the dead.

~ Madeline Miller

The never-ending ache of love and sorrow.

~ Madeline Miller

Most of these people are not going anywhere, and have nothing meaningful to do. They are zombies seeking purpose in an environment that cannot provide it. This is why, at the slightest public commotion, they quickly form their mobs, like a swarm of flies seeking shit on which to settle. But I did not come here to give a lecture. I came here to look for you.

~ Ben Hinson

Christ's father let him die on that cross. I understand why he done it. But Christ never had no granny like me.

~ Taylor Brown

Readers will be swept up by the drama and fast pace of this powerful debut novel.” Reading Today Online, International Reading Association

~ Sharon Lovejoy

I’m all alone against the darkness. Dark winds rising against me.

~ Mark Noce

If the sky falls, we shall catch larks./Když nebe padá , zjímáme skřivani.

~ Czech Proverb

Sometimes I wonder which is worse: To have to kill because it is your job, or to have no remorse for all the murderous things you have done?

~ Jason E. Royle

Sometimes I wonder which is worse: To have to kill because it is your job, or to have no remorse for all the murderous things you have done?

~ Jason E. Royle

Now the day has ended, its brief excitements already an imperfect memory.

~ Barnaby Allen

I cannot tell you how exciting it is when you first see your book in paperback, then when the good reviews roll in it is just the red bow on the present under the tree.

~ Sue Stokes

Lush, detailed, total-immersion storytelling.–Kirkus Review

~ Sharon Lovejoy

(Running out of Night) ...is a story that respects this pivotal era of American history, a story that reveals the pain, the courage, and the hope that eventually changed the world.–Middle Shelf : Cool Reads for Kids magazine

~ Sharon Lovejoy

Rarely do page-turners written for middle-school kids also ignite excitement in adults. (A notable exception is the series of Harry Potter books.) Fewer still explore the secret sorrows of children's lives in the mid-1800s, whether enslaved or free. Running Out of Night, a debut novel from Californian Sharon Lovejoy, a veteran author-illustrator known nationally for her prizewinning nonfiction books on gardening and nature, gives you both.–OpEd News

~ Sharon Lovejoy

An Underground Railroad story with a distinctive flavor. –Booklist

~ Sharon Lovejoy

A gripping historical novel . . . heart-stopping, heart-racing and eventually heart-easing.–Library Voice

~ Sharon Lovejoy

This book would be a great addition to a classroom library, especially considering its emphases on timeless and critical topics like discrimination and prejudice. –examiner.com, National Book Examiner

~ Sharon Lovejoy

Very different from other middle grade of YA stories I've read about slaves running during the 1800s. – Wandering Librarian

~ Sharon Lovejoy