Quotations
A
"An eye like Mars, to threaten or command" - Claire thinks of this quotation when she first meets Auld Alec at Castle Leoch. It's from Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Act III, Scene IV. (Outlander, chapter 7)
B
"Battle, and the loves of men" - this is the title of part one of Voyager. It is a line from the poem, Hell's Gate, by A.E. Housman
"By the pricking of my thumbs" - this is the title of chapter 24 in Outlander. It is from MacBeth by William Shakespeare and is said by one of the three witches - "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes", MacBeth, Act IV, Scene I
"By the pricking of my thumbs" - this is the title of chapter 24 in Outlander. It is from MacBeth by William Shakespeare and is said by one of the three witches - "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes", MacBeth, Act IV, Scene I
F
"Freedom and whisky gang tegither" - Claire tells Jamie this line from Robbie Burn's poem The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer (DIA, chapter 24) Jamie later uses this quote in 1765 in one of his publications when working as a printer in Edinburgh. When Roger finds this, it helps confirm his belief that the printer Alexander Malcolm is actually Jamie, as Robbie Burns was only six years old in 1765 and had not yet written that poem (V, chapter 21)
H
"Halt by the headstone naming / The heart no longer stirred, / And say the lad that loved you / Was one that kept his word" - Claire remembers this verse when she is onboard the Artemis and thinks about Jamie's gravestone back in Scotland (V, chapter 42) It is the last verse from A.E. Housman's poem, Because I Liked You
"He created a desert and called it peace" - Roger tells Brianna that this was said about the Duke of Cumberland when he ravaged the Highlands after Culloden (DIA, chapter 3) The person who said it to describe the Duke of Cumberland's actions was borrowing the quote from the book Agricola by the Roman historian Tacitus. There are various translations of the original quote. The Oxford Revised Translation has this: "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace". Tacitus attributes this quote to a Caledonian chieftain called Calgacus who said it as part of speech he gave before a battle to rouse his people against the Romans.
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in" - Claire quotes this when she and Jamie return Young Ian home after he had run away to Edinburgh (V, chapter 32) It is from the poem, The Death of the Hired Man, by Robert Frost
"Home is the sailor, home from the sea, and the hunter home from the hill" - Claire quotes this when she spies Jamie with a pair of rabbits he has snared (DIA, chapter 31) These are the last two lines of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Requiem
"He created a desert and called it peace" - Roger tells Brianna that this was said about the Duke of Cumberland when he ravaged the Highlands after Culloden (DIA, chapter 3) The person who said it to describe the Duke of Cumberland's actions was borrowing the quote from the book Agricola by the Roman historian Tacitus. There are various translations of the original quote. The Oxford Revised Translation has this: "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace". Tacitus attributes this quote to a Caledonian chieftain called Calgacus who said it as part of speech he gave before a battle to rouse his people against the Romans.
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in" - Claire quotes this when she and Jamie return Young Ian home after he had run away to Edinburgh (V, chapter 32) It is from the poem, The Death of the Hired Man, by Robert Frost
"Home is the sailor, home from the sea, and the hunter home from the hill" - Claire quotes this when she spies Jamie with a pair of rabbits he has snared (DIA, chapter 31) These are the last two lines of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Requiem
I
"I am come home" - this is the title of Part Five of Dragonfly in Amber and is a quote from Charles Stuart, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. When Charles Stuart first landed in Eriskay in Scotland in 1744, he was told by the Jacobites there that his rebellion would not succeed and he should go home. He replied "Sir I am come home, and I will entertain no notion of returning to that place whence I came, for that I am persuaded that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me."
"I regret only that I have but one life to give to my country" - Claire says this ironically to Geillis after Geillis reveals that she is a Jacobite when they are in the thieves hole at Cranesmuir. These words are reported to be the last words of Nathan Hale, a Captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolution who was hanged as a spy (Outlander, chapter 25)
"I regret only that I have but one life to give to my country" - Claire says this ironically to Geillis after Geillis reveals that she is a Jacobite when they are in the thieves hole at Cranesmuir. These words are reported to be the last words of Nathan Hale, a Captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolution who was hanged as a spy (Outlander, chapter 25)
K
"Kind hearts are more than coronets" - Claire quotes this to Jamie when he goes off to do a good deed (DIA, chapter 24) It is from the poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
L
"Law is a bottomless pit" - Ned Gowan quotes this after concluding Jamie's settlement with Laoghaire (V, chapter 38) This is the title of a satirical pamphlet written by John Arbuthnot in 1712
"Lost, and by the wind grieved" - this is the chapter title of chapter 39 of Voyager. It is a line from Thomas Wolfe's novel, Look Homeward, Angel
"Lost, and by the wind grieved" - this is the chapter title of chapter 39 of Voyager. It is a line from Thomas Wolfe's novel, Look Homeward, Angel
O
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive" - Claire quotes this to Jamie when they are discussing the story they have concocted to explain where Claire had been for the twenty years they were apart (V, chapter 29) This is a line from Sir Walter Scott's epic poem, Marmion
S
"See'st thou this great gray head, with jaws that have no meat" - Roger tells Claire that after listening to his father's stories on Hallowe'en as a child, he could never sleep as he used to think he could hear ghosts talking outside his window, saying that line (V, chapter 22) This is from a Celtic folktale called The Sprightly Tailor, which was published in a book of Celtic fairytales collected by Joseph Jacobs and published in 1892
"She moves! She stirs! She seems to feel / the thrill of life along her keel" - Claire quotes this as the Artemis begins to leave the small port of Cape Wrath in Scotland (V, chapter 41) This is a quote from the poem, The Building of the Ship, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow but Claire is slightly misremembering the line. It should be, "And see! She stirs! She starts, - she moves, - she seems to feel / the thrill of life along her keel"
"She moves! She stirs! She seems to feel / the thrill of life along her keel" - Claire quotes this as the Artemis begins to leave the small port of Cape Wrath in Scotland (V, chapter 41) This is a quote from the poem, The Building of the Ship, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow but Claire is slightly misremembering the line. It should be, "And see! She stirs! She starts, - she moves, - she seems to feel / the thrill of life along her keel"
T
"The best laid plans of mice and men" - this is the chapter title of chapter 23 of Dragonfly in Amber. It is part of a line from the poem 'To a Mouse' by Robbie Burns. The full line with correct wording is "The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley"
"The first thing to do in a cardiac arrest is take your own pulse" - Claire remembers this piece of advice from a hospital colleague when she finds herself starting to panic as a storm approaches the mangrove forest she is lost in on Hispaniola (V, chapter 50). This comes from the satirical novel, Laws of the House of God, by Samuel Shem, which follows a year in the life of a group of medical interns in a US hospital. Law number 3 was, 'At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse.'
"The grave's a fine and private place / But none, I think, do there embrace" - Claire thinks of this quote when she and Jamie make love the night that Alex Randall dies. This is from the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell (DIA, chapter 45)
"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven ..." - Claire says this to Frank when she forgives him for implying that she had affairs during the war. It's from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Act IV, Scene I. (Outlander, chapter 1)
"The weeping Pleiads wester / and the moon is under seas" - Claire quotes this when she and Jamie watch the moon rise while onboard the Artemis (V, chapter 42) These are the first two lines from Poem X, The Weeping Pleiads Wester, in A.E. Housman's collection titled, More Poems.
"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" - Claire quotes this to Sister Angelique at L'Hopital des Anges when the sister says that she has never met a female who knew the science of urinoscopy (DIA, chapter 12) It is from Hamlet, Act I, Scene V, by William Shakespeare - "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
"The first thing to do in a cardiac arrest is take your own pulse" - Claire remembers this piece of advice from a hospital colleague when she finds herself starting to panic as a storm approaches the mangrove forest she is lost in on Hispaniola (V, chapter 50). This comes from the satirical novel, Laws of the House of God, by Samuel Shem, which follows a year in the life of a group of medical interns in a US hospital. Law number 3 was, 'At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse.'
"The grave's a fine and private place / But none, I think, do there embrace" - Claire thinks of this quote when she and Jamie make love the night that Alex Randall dies. This is from the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell (DIA, chapter 45)
"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven ..." - Claire says this to Frank when she forgives him for implying that she had affairs during the war. It's from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Act IV, Scene I. (Outlander, chapter 1)
"The weeping Pleiads wester / and the moon is under seas" - Claire quotes this when she and Jamie watch the moon rise while onboard the Artemis (V, chapter 42) These are the first two lines from Poem X, The Weeping Pleiads Wester, in A.E. Housman's collection titled, More Poems.
"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" - Claire quotes this to Sister Angelique at L'Hopital des Anges when the sister says that she has never met a female who knew the science of urinoscopy (DIA, chapter 12) It is from Hamlet, Act I, Scene V, by William Shakespeare - "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
W
"Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" - Claire says this ruefully to herself when she is trapped in the saltwater mangrove thicket on Hispaniola and desperate for a drink of fresh water (V, chapter 50). It is from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"What's in a name" - this is the title of chapter 37 of Voyager. It is the first sentence in the well known quotation from Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II, "What’s in a name? that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet"
"When I am thy captive" - this is the title of part three of Voyager. It is from Paradise Lost by John Milton, Book IV, The Argument, line 970 - "Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains"
"When pain and anguish wring the brow, a ministering angel thou!" - Claire taught Jamie this line from Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion and Jamie jokingly quotes it back to her when she is threatening him bodily harm if he doesn't stop teasing her (DIA, chapter 36) The poem Marmion is about the Battle of Flodden which was fought between the English and the Scots in 1513
"Why, Grandmother dear, what big teeth ye have!" - Jamie says this when watching the sharks attack the cask of spoiled horsemeat tossed overboard from the Artemis (V, chapter 44) It is from the folktale Little Red Riding Hood
"What's in a name" - this is the title of chapter 37 of Voyager. It is the first sentence in the well known quotation from Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II, "What’s in a name? that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet"
"When I am thy captive" - this is the title of part three of Voyager. It is from Paradise Lost by John Milton, Book IV, The Argument, line 970 - "Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains"
"When pain and anguish wring the brow, a ministering angel thou!" - Claire taught Jamie this line from Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion and Jamie jokingly quotes it back to her when she is threatening him bodily harm if he doesn't stop teasing her (DIA, chapter 36) The poem Marmion is about the Battle of Flodden which was fought between the English and the Scots in 1513
"Why, Grandmother dear, what big teeth ye have!" - Jamie says this when watching the sharks attack the cask of spoiled horsemeat tossed overboard from the Artemis (V, chapter 44) It is from the folktale Little Red Riding Hood