I’ve heard it said that a man’s reach must exceed his grasp – or what’s a heaven for?
It’s only when ye ken ye can say no that it takes courage.
You’re the world I have,” she murmured, and then her breathing changed, and she took him down with her into safety.
My Da says you’re never drunk, so long as ye can hold on to the floor.
They do say that God protects fools – but I think even the Almighty will lose patience now and then.
The body is amazingly plastic. The spirit, even more so. But there are some things you don’t come back from. Say ye so, a nighean? True, the body’s easily maimed, and the spirit can be crippled – yet there’s that in a man that is never destroyed.
James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser,” I said, spacing the words, formally, the way Jamie had spoken them to me when he first told me his full name on the day of our wedding.
Faith is as powerful a force as science – but far more dangerous.
Don’t be afraid,” he whispered into my hair. “There’s the two of us now.
What is it about ye, Sassenach, I wonder?” he said conversationally, eyes still fixed on Myers. “What is what about me?” He turned then, and gave me a narrow eye. “What it is that makes every man ye meet want to take off his breeks within five minutes of meetin’ ye.
The night was cold, and very quiet, as though we were the only two souls in the world.
The truth is always of use, madonna,” he answered, eyes fixed on the slender stream. “It has the value of rarity, you know.
Because, Sassenach,” he said, very dryly indeed, “when ye’re a man, a good bit of what ye have to do is to draw up lines and fight other folk who come over them. Your enemies, your tenants, your children – your wife. Ye canna always just strike them or take a strap to them, but when ye can, at least it’s clear to everyone who’s in charge.
You’re real,” he whispered. I had thought him pale already. Now all vestiges of color drained from his face.
Well, I suppose men can make all the laws they like,” he said, “but God made hope.
Never,” he said, more softly. “For you are mine. My wife, my heart, my soul.
Men are made in God’s image, or so I am told. Likewise that we differ from the animals in having reason. Reason, therefore, must plainly be a characteristic of the Almighty, quod erat demonstrandum. Is it reasonable, then, to create men whose very nature – clearly constructed and defined by yourself – is inimical to your own laws and must lead inevitably to destruction? Whatever would be the point of that? Does it not strike you as a most capricious notion – to say nothing of being wasteful?
He hadn’t worn the kilt since Culloden, but his body had not forgotten the way of it.
When you kissed me like that well maybe you weren’t so sorry to be marrying me after all.
No, my Sassenach”, he said softly. “Open your eyes. Look at me. For that is your punishment, as it is mine. See what you have done to me, as I have done to you. Look at me.