Deborah Harkness quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Deborah Harkness

Deborah Harkness Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Deborah Harkness on Wise Famous Quotes.

English vampires may not be as well behaved around witches as the American ones are.

Sometimes my pagan background was a serious professional liability.

We don't lock up books in this house," Philippe said, "only food, ale, and wine. Reading Herodotus or Aquinas seldom leads to bad behavior.

Everyone who has ever been in pain knows that morphine and magic are the same.

Elizabeth Kostova's 2005 blockbuster, The Historian,

Some promises matter more than others.

Goddess does not want us to imitate some ideal of perfection, but to be our true selves.

You know that I'm not going to let the Holy Roman Emperor - or anybody else, for that matter - seduce me.

Why do today's women think it's important to open a door themselves?" he said sharply. "Do you believe it's a testament to your physical power?

I have a weakness for smart men.

Sorry, we've got ghosts.

A wave of undergraduates arrived to disrupt the city's tranquillity.

But it's too soon for me to imagine losing you.

A willingness to change was the secret of survival.

Daemons are brilliant, but we're not vicious - not like the vampires.

I want a simple, ordinary life ... like humans enjoy.

It begins with absence and desire.
It begins with blood and fear.
It begins with a discovery of witches.

And happiness is always louder than sadness.

I know. You were nervous before you opened your eyes.

My ideas about vampires may be romantic, but your attitudes toward women need a major overhaul.

Magic is desire made real.

One should find wholeness in marriage, Gabriel, but it should not be a prison for either party, said Rabbi Loew.

I could still feel the chain that anchored me to Matthew, witch to vampire.

I promise not to draw blood, if you promise not to weep.

I was planning on starting a new file on my computer with the title Phrases That Sound One Way to Witches but Mean Something Else to Vampires.

Memories were short and history unkind. It was the way of the world.

I'm a storyteller, and I have really good material to work with: I've been studying magic and the occult since about 1983.

It smells like the past. But not the dead past. It's so alive.

Opportunity is fleeting, experiment dangerous, and judgement difficult.

Whoever can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead.

I had been in 1590 for less than twenty-four hours, but I was already heartily sick of Christopher Marlowe.

Do not fear me because I am dark and shadowed

And if we all did what we should, we would wake to find ourselves in paradise

Take care, Gallowglass," Matthew murmured. It was no casual farewell, but an order. His nephew nodded. "As if your wife were my own.

The king just sits there, moving one square at a time. The queen can move so freely. I suppose I'd rather lose the game than forfeit her freedom.

There's nothing more powerful than human fear - not magic, not vampire strength. Nothing.

For us to be together, we needed to decide which secrets to share and then let the others go.

Matthew had been accumulating secrets ... My life might be too brief to hear them all, never mind understand them.

You persist in this romantic vision of what it is to be a vampire, but despite my best efforts to curb it I have a taste for blood.

Could I have some water?" "I'll get it." Marcus hopped up from his stool. "There's some in the specimen fridge.

They'll figure it out if we're not careful. Humans like power - secrets, too.

All that children need is love, a grown-up to take responsibility for them, and a soft place to land.

It is a blessing as well as a burden to love so much that you can hurt so badly when love is gone.

Secrets are unreliable allies. they allow us to believe we are safr, yet all the while they are destroying us.

Decide what to do to survive, and do it.

It pained Emily to her librarian's soul to see books mistreated like this.

Yes, I see that you are behaving like a prince but that doesn't mean you won't behave like a devil at the first opportunity.

Witches have their share of nasty legends to contend with, I said, thinking of the witch-hunts and the executions that followed.

I see you, even when you hide from the rest of the world. I hear you, even when you're silent.

Men don't have it. Our resolve is born out of fear. It's merely bravado." His glance

To pleasant songs my work was once given, and bright were all my labors then; / But now in tears to sad refrains I must return.

Be still," he said, voice harsh. "I might not be able to control myself if you step away.

Now most in the room accept we're more similar than different and treat one another with courtesy.

Like a siren who sings to the sailor, asking him to steer his ship into the rocks, the call of your blood could be my undoing - and yours.

We face a dark future if children stop asking questions, Susanna, Goody Alsop remarked.

I would rather have had this moment with you - just this one night - than centuries with someone else ...

rashers of bacon.

Magic was nothing more than desire made real,

Wordlessly I looked back at him, astonished that a kiss on the palm could be so intimate.

She was like a camera that had been chronically out of focus until someone came by and twisted the lenses into alignment.

Don't consider painful what's good for you.

My experiences thus far had me planning to throttle the first Tudor historian I met upon my return for gross dereliction of duty.

Like all parents, they were just doing their best from moment to moment.

All men are fools, Your Majesty," Matthew said swiftly.

Witches see the truth plainly - even if their husbands are full of nonsense.

As fast as I can tell there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning year after year ... One is fear. The other is desire.

Matthew feels deeply. It is a blessing as well as a burden to love to love so much that you can hurt badly when love is gone.

Cheap wine is defined by its price, and it depends on personal spending limits. So for me, any wine under $10 is cheap.

Giving a woman your whole life is meaningless without giving her your whole heart as well.

I sighed. "What can I do to convince you that I'm all right?" "Pick up the phone more often, for starters," she said grimly.

are you always like this, all dressed up in adrenaline, and no place to go?

My wife had learned to give in to what someone older, stronger, and meaner wanted.

We're witches - of course the house is haunted. But

Now I have you. One day you will be gone, and my life will be over.

Stop trying to be perfect. Try being real for a change.

The world of scholarship is much more measured in its appreciation and also its criticism than the world of popular literature.

We kissed each other, long and deep, while my legs opened like the covers of a book.

The plain truth is that the period I study is the 16th century, and they were absolutely obsessed with witches and spiritual beings.

Children needed love, a reliable source of comfort, and an adult willing to take responsibility for them.

This is why you have to stop keeping secrets, Matt. They're going to destroy you from the inside.

Much of what qualified as magic was simply desire in action ... Magic is desire made real.

It's doubtful we're the first creatures to love those we should not, and we surely won't be the last.

Change is the only reliable thing in the world.

Be careful, daughter ... You are a creature of the crossroads, neither here nor there. 'Tis a dangerous place to be.

You do angry. I just saw it. And you left at least one hole in my carpet to prove it.

Do not refuse me because I am dark and shadowed,' I whispered, remembering

The strongest distinguishing characteristic of humans is their power of denial.

I don't expect you to have no regrets about who you've lost along the way. How could you not have been loved before, when I love you so much?

It's one thing to wander in the darkness because you know no different, but it's quite another to enjoy the light only to have it taken from you,

Mature? Widow? I had just turned thirty-three.

I know,I can smell it, too,

Your father says a wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountaintop.

If you truly love someone, you will cherish what they despise most about themselves.

I want what I shouldn't want, and I crave someone I can never have.

monsters always look just like ordinary men.

In every moment, for the rest of my life, I will be choosing you.

And then you weave a forspell that called forth a rowan tree simply to tame a firedrake. Had

You're impossible. Stop worrying about what other women do. Be your own extraordinary self.

I trust my wife's judgement ... That's what Philippe says about Granny, just before all hell breaks loose.

His eyes sent coldness deep under my skin, where it spread like a stain. "Domenico,